My New Home

Back Yard


Front Yard

These are pictures of my backyard and my front yard. I work and live in the Southern Alps of New Zealand close to Methven. I am a caretaker of Mt. Hutt and work in the mornings and evenings giving me all day to snowboard until the season is up. This isn't the actual work I have been looking for as far as Engineering goes so I will probably return to the states and hit up Colorado for a job....which also happens to be right in time for snowboarding season.....hmmmmm, that works out nicely :) Ive still got plenty of places to check out here in NZ and now that I have a a car and some flow, I am excited. I dont however have internet on the Mountain so my ranting and ravings might be fewer and farther in between.

I went over this kicker and tweaked my ankle pretty bad. I wasn't sure if I could walk or not afterwards but I could put some pressure on it shortly after. Then a few days later I took this VIDEO of my foot. I learned something new about my injuries and proceeded to ignore all signs of danger.






From the top of my mountain to the top of yours

Returning from Mt. Hutt to Christchurch Sam was driving with very few points left on his license and guess who was waiting for him as we rolled through a stop sign? That's right the PO PO'S. Apparently Sam didn't take to kindly to my recording the demise of his license.

Here is a video of me hiking up to a high point on My Mountain.

Rolling dirty on fif-teens!

So I picked up a sick whip rolling on fif-teens! HOLLA!!! I bought a Subaru (pronounced Su - BAR - u) Leone which are excellent old cars because they have a boxer engine in them that WONT DIE. People put over 350k on some of these bad boys. And the engine is so efficient you could probably leave a mud in the carburetor and it would turn it into efficient energy. The picture is of me flashing my gang sign.....which my gang happens to have a lot of people with carpel tunnel syndrome so our signature hand gesture just doesn't look that cool.

Driving on the left side is kinda fun and scary but since all of my speakers and stereo have been kindly ripped out of my car it helps to concentrate a little more. The only thing that is different is you can't turn left on a red and they give way to the RIGHT! It seems like a crazy and kinda dangerous rule.

Ok let me break it down for you. There is oncoming traffic waiting to turn right across your path(keep in mind we are driving on the left side of the road). If I come to that same intersection and am going straight then I just barrel on through, but if I am turning left to go the same direction that the other cars want to go I yield to them and wait for them to go. But it also depends if anyone is going straight that is behind you. Seems crazy to me so it makes driving interesting at times.



I start my job tomorrow, but if I can't find an Engineering job soon because no one wants to hire an American that might leave, I might have to start sending some job apps to the states and see what comes of that until I can get some "experience" under my belt.

In a few weeks time I should be able to have some better pics of the place since I can get around easier. Until then keep your scene tight.



Some guy making some money and wishing the All Blacks well, which is the Kiwi's Rugby team. this sand art is his 734 one that he has done.



The lights at the pier are tight. They can make them do almost any color so they are switching all the time and send one color down the line so it looks like some sort of beacon or a rail gun.

Al Caponer - pronounced (pone air)

Dana got her car stolen! and if I can find it she will sell it to me for $800....sick. What else have I seen of the criminal underbelly of New Zealand??? Oh ya, I saw this guy get pulled over for a DUI and resist arrest. It was pretty cool, him screaming and cops slaming him up against the car. While fighting them he kept on screaming, "Im not resisting arrest!". Which I thought was a good choice of words and perhaps if he screamed it enough they would believe him.......Saw a hooker get picked up....but I guess thats legal here......Oh and I can walk into pharmacies and get asparin with codeine in it OTC, which is uber easy to extract because of its high solubitily.....good to know.

I got a job working at the mountain while I am looking for a real job. The cool part about it is that I will actually live up at the field so I can board every single day...and if I want to Im going to hike up the hill in the middle of the night to the mini park and jib by the light of the moon.



HE.....has the power.

Caturday!

Hey Whats up? Here is a picture out of my bedroom window. On a clear day you can see the mountains ok...but I need to be a bit higher elevation.

I had my B-day which was a good day. We of course went snowboarding because that's the obvious thing to do to celebrate and then the peeps that run my small group bible study made me dinner and bought me some gifts and stuff and it was really awesome. They made me a cheesecake and feed me because they know I am a fat and loud American.

I've been hanging out with a lot of those peeps from group. Last night we played some poker and watched some footie (rugby). "The American was the last one in and the first one out" Tonight we went to a Belgium bar here in town because if you bought one pot of mussels and chips you get another pot for free. Good stuff.

I've been learning a lot about stereotypes of Americans, Maoris, Polynesians, Aussies, and Asians and the culture behind these stereotypes. It is really interesting to me and would be way to boring to talk about.

I live with an American and two dating kiwis Chris and Sera. Sera is moving out in a couple days, which is sad and makes Chris sad, so when Sera heads to Aussie everyone is bombing out of work and doing what? You guessed it.......going snowboarding to help get Chris's mind to not be sad.

Here is my kitty kat being GRACEFUL!. I will have some more flow here soon and actually be able to do some more stuff to keep myself, and perhaps consequentially you, entertained. K? Bai