Want fries with that?

This wee town is funny because lots of the people work at more than one place. You see the same faces at the bars, shops and restaurants (behind and in front of the counter). I decided to join em and am picking up a few hours at Cafe Franz. They don't provide accomodation so it's harder to get full time workers but then it's cool for me to work just some hours a week so I still have time for fun.

I get to learn to make coffees, plus drink all I can (and milkshakes). To top it off I get a wicked cool Cafe Franz t-shirt.

Happy holidays everyone! Hope your Christmas is merry!

Ramblings from a land forgotten

I was hoping to have a couple of photos to upload before I wrote again. I do have the photos, but since this is such a wee village, there is not a scanner in town. Hmmm, do I live in the boonies??

It totally does not feel like christmastime here. Actually I keep forgetting until someone mentions christmas lists (they're checking 'em twice). Since I'm eons away from everyone, my christmas shopping and card sending was done so long ago. Don't get me wrong, the weather is not completely opposite that of Connecticut. In fact, we even lit a fire in the fireplace at my accomodation tonight. That makes it feel a bit more like christmas.

I haven't had much to write lately and have been a bit neglective. Each day is same as. Working in the restaurant, working in the hotel, doing a bunch of hiking, dealing with constant cloud cover. I woke up at five am the other morning to go to Lake Matheson. You can see the reflection of Mount Cook (highest mountain in New Zealand) but that morning all I would have seen was the reflection of clouds - that was reason enough to go back to bed.

I did have the chance to see the famous mountain (Sir Edmond Hillary climbed it several times and considered it good preparation for climbing Everest) from the skies. Can you say helicopter flight? That's right and I've got the pictures to prove it, which I fully intend to post as soon as I get back to civilization.

Big Time, Small Town

I used to say Ledyard, Connecticut was small or "the boonies". These days I live in a town that boast a population of 321. All the residential and commercial phone listins all fit on a single side of an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper.

The village can be over flowing with tourists, who increase the population easily ten fold. It's fun to see the locals over and over, while watching the tourists blow in and out. Who wouldn't want to stay here awhile, time permiting? The view is astonishing, we've got the southern alps and glaciers. If we can just get a grip on the gas prices. Franz reportedly has the highest gas prices in the country. At $1.25 per liter thats about $5 per gallon. Given the current conversion rates, that equates to $3.22 U.S. dollars per gallon. ouch!

I made my first trip onto the glacier last week and it was amazing. Although the weather was less than perfect, it was so cool to see all the different ice formations and crevaces. Sometimes it looked like waves in mid-motion. I slid down a hole in one of the waves and it was pretty cool. It was actually a pretty bumpy ride so slid might not be the right word.