Hello everyone!
Sorry it has been awhile! Anyway here we go!
The next day we left Fairlie and headed to Mt Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. We stopped at the visitor information before heading up the 50km access road to the mountain. It had a beautiful view, it reminded me a bit of lake Louise as there was a hge lake at the base of really tall snowy mountains. We drove up to the small town on the little access road. Whrn we got there we looked around teh five star hotel there the went for a short walk up to a memorial that commemorates all of the people who died mountain climbing in the area. After some lunch in our camper van we drove around the little town then headed back down the road to continue our journey to Queenstown. We got half way down the access road only to be stopped by a farmer moving hundreds of sheep across one of the bridges! We were stuck behind them for abot 20 minutes but it was really funny to watch the sheep freaking out so we didnt mind. :o) We kept driving as far as we could to Queenstown, then stopped at a rest stop at the side of the road to avoid paying for a campsite. We cooked dinner which warmed up the camper a bit and then used blankets to prepare for the cold since we had to go through the night without a heater as there was no electric hook up to plug the van into! We played some cards and chess and it just kept getting colder. When we went to bed we kept waking up because it was so cold! When morning finally came we awoke to find ice on the windows!!! We decided that was the one and only night we would try staying in our camper with no heat! I would rather pay then freeze like that again! But at least we tried it! Anyway, we finished the last bit of highway between us and Queenstown and got into town before noon. We parked in a lot then decided to start job hunting as soon as possible since we knew the season would be kicking off soon and we wanted to get to the jobs before anyone else did! Everywhere we walked in told us to come back in few weeks when the town got busier. We must have handed out about 15 resumes each and everyone just said the same thing. Feeling discouraged, we found a place to stay for the night in a campground near town and went out to one of the hostel bars to play some bingo they had on there. Needless to say I won twice! A hat and some free drinks vouchers..no money cause it was free to play buy hey...I still won something! The next day we decided to head to Frankton, a small town about 6 km outside of Queesntown. We figured since it was out of town we might have a bit of luck. I had to top up my cell phone so we stopped in a video shop that sold pre pay cell phone cards and I topped up. On the off chance I decided to ask the manager if they were hiring and he said the same thing as everyone else but I gave him my resume anyway. Ten minutes later he called and told me to come in Friday!!! YAY! So yes, in a nutshell, I work at a video store :o) Jason has not had as much luck so far as everywhere seems to be full or not hiring for a little while but at least one of us has a job for now. After we heard about this we decided we needed to sort out a place to stay. Frankton had a small campground by the lake so we walked into reception there to ask if they had some kind of discount for a longer stay. They gave us a good price so we stayed in the campground for a week while we tried to find a room to rent. We figured if we could find a room for the same price or a little bit more it would be worth it as the campervan is nice but a bit small to live in for 8 weeks. For the whole week we job hunted for Jason, I started my training and we explored Queenstown as the weather was warm and all of the mountains were closed for skiing. On Wednesday night the casino had bingo as well and I won again but this time I won us dinner and some drinks at the resaurant there which was a nice change from cooking in the campervan! On Thursday it came time to pay our rent again at the campground so we went and got the local paper to look for a room in case there was anything good that week before we stayed in the campground again. We phoned a few and went to see one right across the street from the video store in Frankton. A guy named Ken owns the house and rents out the rooms to travellers. It has a fireplace, a huge tv and internet!!! So we took it as it was a great price and movedin Thursday!!! We love it so far! This past weekend I started my job at the video store after all of my training and it is alright even though it can be boring. I am getting lots of hours.
Now we are just waiting for the moutains to open so we can go skiing! Word is around town it should be early this week anyway!!!
Hope all is well, miss you guys!
Jenn
xoxo
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