Today Milford received over 12cm of rain in 8 hours. There are far worse places to be in the world when it is raining that hard. Y’see… Milfords valleys have been carved out of the hard granite by glaciers.

The rock that is left is well ‘ard. And not a lot grows in it or on it. So when it rains there’s not very much to actually soak the rain up – with the result that pretty much every surface turns into a waterfall. It was simply amazing. I’ve been to Milford twice – and it was far more spectacular in the downpour. Mind you, heading out in the boat in Force 10 winds was, perhaps, a little more excitement than I was reckoning on.

Stayed that night in a place called Gunns Camp which is midway between Te Anau and Milford. I’d definitely recommend it as a place to stay. The camp was created back when they were creating the Homer Tunnel. It has no electricity after 10pm, and none in the huts you stay in..

.. what it does have – is a fire to heat the hot water for the showers.. and each hut has it’s own stove for central heating. The whole place has been gifted to a charitable trust – to be kept running for as long as it can. So much of NZ has been packaged up and sold off to richer foreigners – and it’s a real shame.

It also has a really great museum with all sorts of local clippings from old newspapers. And a lamb castrating device – just in case anyone wants to see what it looks like.

This is actually true. And I have a picture to prove it with.

Sandflies are such lovely friendly creatures.. I’m sure their bites are just playful ones. The important thing is not to scratch when you get bitten. Also, and I dunno if this is truly true – but it certainly seems that the longer you are here the less they annoy you. Which is why it’s always good to travel with tourists.. they get munched :)

So today Laura and I had a trip on Doubtful Sound. It’s a beautiful place, and a lot less crowded than Milford. The weather was overcast and a little rainy. Not a particularly uncommon occurrence for a place that gets 6m or so of rain a year.

Back in 19somethingOrOther they wanted to build a power station on the lake. This meant they would have to raise the level of the lake by 30!m. There was political pressure brought – and they conceded to only a raise of 6m. More pressure came on – and it (very fortunately) became an election issue. The arrogant ;) government lost – and the hydro scheme was only permitted to go ahead if it would operate within the natural limits of the lake.

yay.

And it’s a pretty damn cool power plant – buried deep in the heart of a mountain. The water falls 170m or so down a hole they drilled in the mountain, powers the turbines, and then out a 10km long hole out to the sea.

Will be back that way again – I’d like to do the Dusky Walk at somepoint. 6-10 days (depending on weather) of hiking through mud. Sounds great eh?

This guy was pretty damn clever. There was some law which (they changed quickly) which disallowed building a structure which was built on the land. However, this guy built this structure on top of piles he drove into the lake bed. Quite Legal. DOC took him to court, lost, and has to leave the place here. Personally I think it’s quite nicely done – a nice quirky addition to the lake. He is not allowed to use it for accommodation, nor sell it – nor anything other than the stated purpose of crayfishing.

Incidentally – crayfish caught here are put on ice and wake up 12 hours later in Japan. Good for global warming.

In the middle of the left hand picture is a small white speck. It is in fact a Fiordland crested penguin which are now an endangered species.

Sometimes.. it’s things like this that make me feel like I need to get myself a digital SLR with a funky zoom.

So my friend Laura arrived in on the Sunday evening. Had a very nice (even if I do say so myself) dinner with Graham & Myra, Glynn & Jayne (who are now in Europe) and Mark and I. A good dinner chased down by a bottle of wine & whiskey aperitif – and Laura was quickly on her way to getting over jet lag!

Monday morning, locked the door and left the place under the constant protection of our Security Ducks. As other ppl in the house have been feeding the things they’ve taken to lurking outside hoping for a feed. I continually disappoint them in this – but it never stops them.

Anyway..started the long (9 hour) drive down to Te Anau. It really is a stunning drive. We didn’t have fantastic weather and so weren’t able to see Mt. Cook on the way past Lake Tekapo.

Arriving into the lake front backpackers down there at 9pm ish. Real shame the hot spa was closed – would have been most welcome.

I think the ducks must have got lonely without me – as there were more down in Te Anau..

… you suddenly find a blip. Doesn’t happen all the time.. but sometimes.

So Andrew.. my incredibly kind soon to be xish boss offered to have me come over today and look over the car – put a seat in the back etc. His seat didn’t fit so off we headed to see if we could get another…

On the way it seemed (ok, was) the clutch was slipping.. and most likely needs to be replaced. This is a shame

I really do not know what I have done to earn this.. but Andrew again offered me the use of his BMW for the upcoming road trip (starting Monday – my friend Laura from TCD days arrives tomorrow).. and he is also going to get the clutch fixed. Far too kind. Probably a blessing in disguise though – I was looking forward to campervanning around… but best to have it properly broken in first I suppose – and much better that it happened here rather than 1/2 way to Mt. Cook.

I am hoping that this is not going to be the start of a long list of issues. But I don’t think it will.

I am officially unemployed again. Happily so. And temporarily (I hope). I have applied for a new job within the Ministry. Hopefully doing similar tasks to what I have been doing for the last while – but for the wider ministry and not only the contact centre. It’s exciting.

It is also really quite scary. I have been unbelievably fortunate to have worked for the last 2 1/2 years with my boss Andrew. He’s a great guy. Quite maverick in a lot of things he does. Which I respect a lot. I suppose be bends rules a lot – but always delivers the results…

When I arrived in NZ 3 years (and 2 weeks) ago – it took me quite a few months to get this job. And it was luck – a lot of it. After laboring for a day.. and door to door sales followed by an admin job – I landed the job answering phones in the contact centre.

After a month or so of dropping hints – finally got to start work on their systems.. programming. I was lucky in that I got a lot of flexibility with my working life – and I like to think Andrew and the contact centre did well out of having their own helpful developer :)

Within reason I have been able to work very flexible working hours – as long as the work gets done. Sometimes I work late, sometimes early .. free to take off a little early for the weekends etc. Andrew has been really open to suggestions for improving the working environment. We have a pool table :) … stress relief massages.. fresh fruit around the office.

Actually the fresh fruit idea is a really good and easy one. I highly reccommend it. Twice (maybe three) times a week we send out for fruit – they even deliver. Keeps the workforce happy & heathier. If I move into a new work place I will definitely try to get that one going.

Andrew put me on the PRINCE2 project management course (still awaiting results).. and has always been keen to push me and expose me to different areas of the business – sitting on the management team for the contact centre. I dunno – physically I will just be moving about 30m further down the building.. but for all that I know it’s going to be different.

And.. for some still inexplicable reason to me, I decided to leave all that. What a frickin’ idiot I must be.

And, being honest, I am really pretty worried about my new position. Not because I don’t think I’ll be able to do it (though there will be stretch no doubt).. but because I think they’re going to try and make me wear a tie and be in the office 9-5. And.. truthfully.. I’ve become quite happy and accustomed to my relaxed flexible lifestyle.

I came here, and stay here for the lifestyle. If I wanted heaps of cash and career opportunities I’d move back to Dublin / London and go work in the city for some consultancy firm.

So… I’m not quite sure how this is all going to pan out. Especially the tie thing. I mean I just don’t get it?.. I’m going to be coding not meeting & greeting. While no doubt some ppl will think I’m being pathetic (and maybe I am a bit).. I just don’t see the point if I am not meeting customers. When I do – then I wear a suit .. no worries.

Maybe I’ll just have to get a doctors certificate explaining ties give me panic attacks if I wear them too often.

So, to ease myself into a more structured working life again.. (though I will fight that with everything I have) .. I am taking off 5 weeks holiday now.. then back working from Jan->March – and then off to Africa for a further 5 weeks.

I’ll be poor – but happy :)