Burning stuff

Well I guess it’s time to make another update. I’ve been enjoying myself here but have already been here two weeks, sleeping in and generally living the Christmas spirit to the fullest. I swear I’ve gained about five pounds, and that’s just the sheer amount of animal I’ve been eating. Aunt Judith and Uncle Snow have been keeping me busy, with chopping up wood and trimming hedges, and luckily there have only been a few scares with the machines.
Before Christmas things were quite uneventful, except for the chainsaw spontaneously burning into flames. Sadly we had just put a new tank of gas in it, so we wasted about 2 bucks worth of petrol, but as an added side-effect it burnt for a really long time! Quite an impressive site really, and out of everyone I’ve talked to it’s the first time anyone has ever heard of it happening! I think I should win a medal… We eventually managed to get it out, but the fire streams of burning gasoline waylaid the effort. We set up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, (all 3 feet of it!) and have been doing our best to keep the alcohol companies in business.
Christmas totally did not feel like Christmas. I got socks (which I think are the most under-rated present there is) and we had a huge lunch/dinner where I undertook a wee bit of gluttony. The next 3 hours were spent under intense stress trying to stuff more into my belly.
The last couple days I’ve been doing my best to earn my room and board (which I think is starting to get quite expensive). I think it is a help to Snow and Judith though, which is the least I can do. We met up with Haley a couple of days ago to suss out Fiji, and the 50 % off accommodation and airlines deals should let me go on a little bit of an extravaganza. We went into Nelson too, which is the site of one of the only Cathedrals in New Zealand and I was really quite impressed. I’ve a whole bunch of pictures of it, but a 56K modem doesn’t quite hack it with 1 MB pictures. The senery in the South Island really is like a different country. It’s quite rugged, with micro-climates everywhere. It’ll be raining one kilometre away while scorching down at 30 degrees where we are.
Oooo I almost forgot about the forest fire! Just across the valley on Friday, a huge fire struck up about 3 kilometres away. They totally ignored it for the first couple of hours, but then it engulfed a couple valleys so they had to send in a couple of helicopters. Pictures of those are coming to, once the aforementioned problem is solved. We managed to get down to the river to get a better look of it, and at one point it totally looked out of control. The entire mountainside is black now, and we almost got smoked out when the wind changed. So anyways it was pretty cool!
Ummm, and that’s life! New years will be a quiet affair, but I’ve saved a bunch of money now and am finally back in the black :p. Maggie’s been catching rabbits and playing with them, and then eating them in one big gulp. Sadly I can’t imagine Sandy doing that. Judith had to snap one’s neck because Maggie didn’t seem to be able to kill it, and I think it might have started screaming ( I was sleeping peacefully at the time). If you’ve ever been woken up in the middle of the night by what sounds like a 5 year old getting murdered you’ll know what I mean.
Oh and New Zealand Bureaucracy is just as bad as Canada. To extend my Visa for a measly two weeks I have to send off my passport (photocopies aren’t allowed) for two weeks, and then get a signed bank statement with all my details from my bank in Canada, that can’t be photocopied and probably not faxed. Oh for the days of the Commonwealth.
Alright I’m done! I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, and that an eventful New Year is in the future. Take care!