Tea for Two

Greetings and Salutations from Lord Matthew and Lady Kelcy! In the tradition of the Commonwealth, and because the only coffee you can get around here has bewildering names like "Long Black","Short White" and "Capoocheeno", we have been consuming copious amounts of tea. Because we have begun participating in this traditional custom, we are now entitled to fancy monikers (we alternate between Duke & Dame, Baron & Baroness, and Lord & Lady). All this means is that the people we pass on the street are now required to return our curtsies, which up til now, no one has.

"The Lady and Lord approach! Put on the tea and prepare to curtsy!"

We apologize to all of our loyal followers for the delay between updates. While we are very much enjoying our time in the lovely village of Fox Glacier, we are leading a fairly domestic existence thus far, and will probably continue to do so for the remainder of our time here. One reason for this is that we work seven days a week, split between waiting tables for breakfast and dinner, making beds in the hotel where we live and work, and other various barista/waitress/kitchen work at a cafe up the road.

                                                     

Another reason for our this is that we live in a rain forest, and, well, it rains a lot. We've had rain roughly seventy percent of the time we've been here. And these aren't afternoon showers we've been getting; these are 5-day, knock-out-the-only-road-that-comes-from-the-north, take-out-the-phone, internet, and credit card machines, break-off-large-chunks-of-glacier downpours. This community is accustomed to rain, but even by the accounts of the locals, this year is a bit of an outlier, as are all El Niño years.

So, we get out and enjoy the sunshine as much as possible when the opportunity arises, but we're also learning to adapt to our new climate. One way we have adapted is by implementing one of our new favorite activities: story time! To pass away the rainy days, we've been reading, what else, but The Lord of the Rings. In the short time we've been here, we've already breezed through the first book, and are becoming quite fluent at reading all manner of songs and rhymes in both Elvish and Dwarfish, and of course, the language of Mordor, which we shall not utter here, in our blog.

But story time isn't the only hidden treasure of living in a rainy, remote locale. Fox Glacier has one convenience store with a pretty limited selection of groceries, so many of the town's residents order their groceries online. Three separate services are available: one for non-perishables, one for meats and one for produce. What this means for people who work seven days a week in a place where it rains five days a week is that some weeks, we have Christmas three days a week!

Most of us know the joy of ordering something online and excitedly awaiting its arrival. But we have never before known the thrill and elation of receiving 5 huge boxes of apricots, tortillas, wine, tomatoes, noodles, curry, chocolate, muesli, cereal!!!..... Maybe we should just stop there for now. As you can see, we're not able to get out a whole lot these days, but we're daily unearthing the simple pleasures of the great indoors.

2013: Year of the Sssssssssssnake

Two days from now, we will have been in New Zealand for 1 month. In that amount of time, we have opened a bank account, purchased a vehicle, traveled over 1200 kilometers (about 750 miles), cooked 2 stir-frys, nearly kidnapped 3 dogs and 2 cats, secured gainful employment and our own cozy, 3 bedroom cottage. On top of all that, our new boss owns an airbrushed hot rod and TWO boats (one named Desperado). So, by association, we're doing pretty darn good.

In all seriousness, we are doing really well, and during our New Year's Eve introspection, while the other 300 residents of Fox Glacier were out ringing in the New Year with black beer and merriment, we enjoyed a quiet evening in our cozy home, looking back on our time here so far, and being thankful to have each other and to have had such a smooth start to our new adventure. And out of this reflection sprang a valuable realization. Neither of us are professional travelers. Our lack of preparation could be described by some as "intrepid" or "cavalier", while others may use words like "idiotic" and "stupid." Both have their due place, and we knew we were walking blindly into a new land. We were well aware of the fact that we could fail miserably and fall squarely on our optimistic faces (as we are fully aware that the opportunity for that to happen is ever-present).

What we want to pass on to all of the loyal millions that are following this blog in the hopeful light of  the New Year is that opportunity is always one act away. So in the coming year, if you find yourself anxiously toeing the choppy waters of change, just go for the belly-flop. We promise you won't drown*.

In the words of our friend Christopher Igwe Blaze Werimegbe, "You will never achieve your dreams, so dream big." When you translate it back to Akan it sounds a lot more positive, but you get the idea. 

Now we'll leave you with some inspirational pictures of Professor Luna Snerpus, who never gave up on her dreams. We miss you and love you all, and wish you a Happy New Year!

*We can not guarantee that you will not drown after attempting the aforementioned belly-flop. The Emerald Smaug will not be held liable for any  redness, rashes or ruin resulting from any belly-flops, back-busters, can openers or cannonballs performed after reading the blog.