Hello again! I am sorry – again – for not writing for a month. But to be honest, there has been nothing happening and I haven’t started my adventures yet in this big country. I still live in the same place I was living a month ago and my life basically goes by one rule: same shit, different day.
One thing that has been happening here was my birthday. For the first time in my life, my birthday was smack in the middle of the winter. It has never happened to me before. I knew that my big 3 and 0 will arrive when I am in New Zealand, but I was still a bit afraid of my coming birthday (read: That is why I escaped Estonia and came to the furthest country in the world). But I never had a real interest to make a big spectacle around my birthday. I wanted to have a small thing, surrounded by my friends. And that is exactly what I got.
I had already planned to spend my birthday on the Whakapapa skifield several weeks ahead. I wanted to do something diffrent and something I had never done before. On my birthday day, the owner of NP Tavern, Teesh, gave me a ride to the mountain. I had loaned my ski gear from my work and a lovely mountain worker Leigh gave me her mountain pass to access the mountain for free. So it was a day of gifts for me since the beginning.
Since my birthday was just the pre-snow time for the mountain – there wasn’t much snow in there and the only place that was open was a beginners area named Happy Valley. This suited me the best since I haven’t really done skiing on the mountain before and I truly were a beginner. So, grab your skis and go!
Thank god I never fell on that little slope. It was truly a great day going up and down in the happy valley and every downhill stride I got more and more confidence in me that I could do it in a Rock Garden (upper mountain) one day. And it helped a lot too that the whole mountain was full of my friends – most of the people who are staying in the Tavern, work for Whakapapa ski field. It was awesome to see so many friends in their natural habitat, working and being happy.
By the end of the day I returned to home tired but happy. After cleaning up and resting, few of us headed to the Schnapps bar and had a some good shots and good food in there. After returning from the bar, we watched a movie and had a great time.
The real birthday took place few days after the skiing. I baked a cake and brought out my vodka that I had in my suitcase ever since I left Estonia. And let me just say, we had much fun and the end of my birthday ended with a bang. 🙂
After my birthday, the storm of the century reached North Island. Apparently people had not seen so much snow in 20 years. And it was just my luck (read: NOT) to live in exactly the right place for the snow. With one day, there was sooo much snow falling down. The streets were covered with knee deep snow and roads were closed for days. Those who work on the mountain, were the happiest persons alive. Snow means more work and more work means more money! I watched the mountain workers to enjoy the snow buy having snow fights, buliding snowmen and snow castles, surfing and sledding behind cars. It was fun to see them enjoying the cold and the snow so much. I was just happy that I didn’t HAVE to go outside and do stuff. It might sound ironic but I really do hate snow. And cold. And … well I chose a really wrong place to live for me.
It snowed here very much. But truth to be told, I had seen this kind of stuff happening before. After all – I live in Estonia – we have had these kinds of winters before. The only thing is that in Estonia, the snow stays for months but in here, the snow in all of its entirety, melted away in days and left only the photos to remember it by. The weather in New Zealand changes in fast pace and it only takes a day to change a season. I love it and this is what makes it fun to live in here.
The lot of people who live in the Tavern now – we have become like a small community now. Or more like a family. Lot of people have made friends with each other and we tend to cook together and watch movies together (well sometimes Game of Thrones as well) and just enjoy each other’s company. Good thing that the Tavern is not so crowded – we have a perfect amount of people to have fun and no fights.
Sometimes I do get a bit nostalgic here too. Specially when I am watching Song and Dance festival from back home and where I can see my little sister enjoying dancing in with the big crowd. And also when I realised that I had been in New Zealand for over six months already. Sometimes this feels like one big dram and I have to pinch myself to believe it. But I am still here, one of the most beautiful places in the world and I am enjoying my life as much as I can.
But this is good bye for now. I hope I write more often in the future but … don’t hold your breath. I have no idea what’s ahead of me and I believe that life is full of surprises.
Anyway, for now, see you guys!
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