Lake Tekapo!

We arrived in Lake Tekapo one day before we were to move in to our accommodation for the winter. We just stayed in a backpackers in town for the night so we would be able to move in bright and early the next morning. As we drove through Mackenzie country the day before, mostly flat with sporadic hills, we passed through several small towns. Lake Tekapo was no exception, though it has something else going for it that none of the others did. Tekapo sits right on the edge of Lake Tekapo, a beautiful aqua blue lake carved out by glaciers millions of years ago. The glaciers and rocks left a deposit of minerals in the lake that now give it it's beautiful hue.

Right on the waterfront sits a famous church called Church of the Good Shepherd.  It's a tiny chapel but the front window behind the alter perfectly frames Mount Cook (the tallest mountain in New Zealand) and Mount Tasman in the distance. The town itself has a beautiful view of the Southern Alps that stretch across on the other side of the lake. On the town side is the Richmond Range, a smaller but equally nice range that contains most of the ski fields. 

The town itself is rather small containing the bare necessities. There are a few restaurants: a Pizzeria, a bakery, a more fancy Stonegrill dining place, a Chinese, Japanese, and Thai place, a small takeaway, and another Pub down the street. There is an information center, two hotels that also have a restaurant and bar, one shell station, and a small supermarket called Four Square. It's not a proper grocery store, more like a convenience store, but it contains your basic food items. There is a big town called Timaru that is 1 hour 15 min away by car that contains all three major supermarkets in New Zealand and every other store you could want. Once a week the ski field will take everyone in their vans to do a weekly shop at the big grocery stores that are much better stocked and cheaper.

But, the nice thing about the town is that you are pretty much walking distance from everywhere. It's  a 5 minute walk from our little place to the center of town. The ski field, however, is a 45 minute drive up an unpaved road. 

Anywho, that morning we left the backpackers and called a contact number we were given to move into our accommodation. The director of the Ski School at Ski Roundhill, an Austrian guy named Wolfie who has worked at the hill for several seasons, met us in town and led us to our accommodation that was right down the road. It is difficult to find enough beds in a small town like Tekapo for the entirety of the winter. There are plenty of holiday homes, but many book up early and they possibly don't rent to the ski staff as I believe they have a reputation as big partiers. I imagine most ski staffs do. So, for the past couple years, Roundhill has rented out several self-contained cottages all clustered together called Lake Tekapo cottages. They are all owned by the same guy named Steve. 

Some of the cottages are newer than others, and thus contain some basic insulation to keep them warm in the winter. Ours, unfortunately, was not one of those. Our cottage was the oldest out of the bunch and while it had a proper living room and kitchen area, it was also the hardest to heat in the winter, requiring the most energy. It was also the largest in terms of size. 

We were told to use our heat pumps and our fireplace in order to keep the place warm, as at the end of the month the entire power bill for all the cottages is divided up equally among everyone. Thus, the guy said, let the other houses, that are warmer, subsidize our power. The first night though, we had the fire going and both heat pumps going and it was still hard to get the chill out--especially from John and my room, where we had a radiator but it didn't do much. Also, the fireplace is just that, no wood burning stove like we had seen in most backpackers, thus most of the heat went up the chimney and you had to wait a while for the heat to start going into  the actual house. 

Our kitchen was also very small, with a sink and drying rack, a small stove with one small and one large gas powered range, no oven,  and a mini fridge with no freezer. As there was 5 of us sharing the place, it would be impossible to fit all of our food into the fridge--especially if we stocked up a week at a time. 

Our roommates, though, are really nice. We have a Scottish girl, Jayne, who is working with me in the ticket office, a really laid-back Kiwi guy named David, whose cousins are the owners of the ski field, and a Spanish girl named Amelie, who is only here as a ski instructor for the busy school holidays. 

However, even from the first night in the place there was a common feeling among everyone (sans David who didn't arrive until the next day) that we weren't thrilled with the living situation. John and I had a room inside, with a double bed, but there were two sheds outside that served as sleep outs  with just a bed, TV, and a dresser. They truly were glorifies garden sheds. Jayne had one of these which meant she had to walk outside, walk about 5 meters across the porch, and into the house to use any facilities--the bathroom, shower, kitchen.  

The rent for each of us was $100 per week and that didn't include power, which we were told later would coast $15 per person per week. So really rent was $115 per week, or $230 for John and I. The owner also told us that firewood would cost extra--that he was thinking $100 per house to cover the winter, that it would cost a few dollars to use the washer and dryer each time, and $2 every time we wanted to change the sheets. Also, the internet was not included and the cottages used a service called Zenbu in which you had to pay for the Megabytes you used--$10 got you 50 MB, which might last you two or three days. Internet would get expensive.  In comparison to what we paid in Hawke's Bay and what we got there--full kitchen facilities, insulation, no extra cost for sheets, no charge for washing, unlimited internet included in rent, and a door to our room--it just didn't seem like a good deal.

We also only had one key for the house and our room had no door--just curtains. We were told by Wolfie that the previous year they had a few items stolen from people in the cottages--small electronics and some clothing. They were going to report it to the police but the owner intervened and told them to wait to days and that he would talk to his son, who was 17.  Nothing ever turned back up, and the son denied it, but Wolfie said they still think it was him. Apparently they knew that whoever had stolen stuff had a key, because they left it in the door. The owner has a master key. Thus, Wolfie said, since we can't lock our rooms and the owner has a master key, to keep our valuables hidden or in our cars. 

So after all these issues, John, Jayne, and I decided to head out the next day and see if there were any other accommodation options in town. We were told by Wolfie that everything was full, but that wasn't entirely true. The holiday homes were booked until the end of July for school holidays, but after that they were available--though we weren't sure what the weekly price would be.

We hit the jackpot though, from an ad we saw posted on the community bulletin board in the center of town. It was a flat in town that had double and single rooms available for rent. We called the woman and she told us that the double rooms went for $170 per week for the room (so $85 per person)--exactly what John and I paid in Hawke's Bay. That price also included power. Turns out the place was right across the street from the cottages. In fact, the previous year Ski Roundhill also had that place for the winter and 6 girls lived there. However, Wolfie told us that the girls liked to party and did some damage to the place like throwing up on the floor and breaking a window. This didn't go over well with the landlord who nickeled and dimmed them for each minor damage left at the end of the season, thus they didn't get the house again. Now, the woman just rents the rooms on an individual basis. 

We went to go look at the place and it was really nice. The double room was warm  without the radiator going (as it was a newer place and thus insulated), spacious enough for all our stuff, the place had two shower rooms and three toilets to share between six rooms, it has a full kitchen, 4-range stove top, an oven, a full size refrigerator with a freezer, a huge food storage cabinet, a nice TV in the living room, and a washing machine. Each tenant got a lock for the front door as well as their rooms--meaning we could lock our door each day without any worries about our property.  It was a much, much better option (and cheaper!) Since it was just a 2 minute walk across the street it meant we would be able to catch the vans no problem each morning to take us to work. We jumped on it.

The owners had no problem with us moving, as it meant Jayne would be able to move inside to our room and once the Spanish girl left after school holidays that David could move inside as well.

So, in the end, everyone was happy and we would save more money.  It would also be a more quiet sleep, since Wolfie told us that since the cottage was the only place with a proper living room that a lot of the parties took place there.

So yes, things turned out well. On Wednesday, we all hopped into the vans and headed up to the hill for our orientation and training day. We were able to meet everybody for the first time. John and I are the only Americans working on the ski field--most of the instructors are from Austria, a few from Switzerland, two from Scotland, and a few from Spain. There are also a few Kiwis, an Australian, an Argentinean guy, a few Czechs, an English couple, and another person from Scotland working on the hill.

We were able to meet the owners, a brother and sisters and the woman's husband, and the managers who are Kiwi and used to work at Coronet Peak. They were all super nice and really laid back. The ticketing office and cafe work together a lot, as if it's busy in the cafe but not in ticketing we can pop upstairs to help them. I picked the right year to start working here, because they just built an brand new ticket office that is really nice! It's heated with nice chairs and they use a very east to use computer system. It's still a very involved position, because there is a lot to it and there is a lot of responsibility because we handle all the cash and help the manager do the banking at the end of every day. I'm really excited about it, though--as all the ticket office people are nice and female!

We were supposed to open on Saturday, July 9th--but the weather made them push the opening back to Wednesday the 13th. Luckily, the snow started coming the next day and kept coming--allowing the hill to build their base for the opening.  On Wednesday night, though, the owners treated everyone to free pizza and a bar tab at the Pizzeria in town. They just pre-orderd really yummy pizzas for everyone and we had a selection of a few beers and wines from behind the bar. It was a really fun night and a great way to break the ice with a bunch of new people. We also got to talk more with the owners and mangers--who stayed at the bar later than everyone else!

One of the owners, Chris, is absolutely hilarious! He is Kiwi and his father was the original owner of the hill until they sold it. He was completely un-PC but super funny and nice. He kept making jokes about Americans and told us he was so relieved when he saw us that we weren't fat. It was definitely a good start to the season and a great way to start off an a friendly footing. Everyone on the staff also got free vouchers for ice skating and a dip in the natural hot pools at this place down the street called Alpine Springs. Chris' brother owns the place and thus gave the staff vouchers as a nice little gift, as the Alpine Springs staff gets a great discount on the ski field. 

The next day we learned that the start date would be pushed back from Saturday to the following Wednesday, so a lot of people took the opportunity to head out of town for the weekend, leaving John and myself alone in the cottage.

Here is a small preview of July in New Zealand:

We made a trip to the town of Timaru to stock up on some more groceries and get a few household items, and to get a cheaper form of internet (they use mobile broadband sticks here). 

Other than that it has just been a lot of relaxing and watching movies. One morning we woke up and the snow had finally made it down to the actual village, rather than just the mountains, so we were able to play outside a bit and make a little snowman.  

But, luckily, the snow indeed finally came after a mild start to the winter, and is supposed to keep coming, so we were looking forward to finally starting work!