Milford Sound and Brick Bread.

Hey all! Remember me? I'm Eoin, your favorite person in the world and this here is The Eoin Zone, your favorite blog. It's all coming back now, right? I apologize for the gap in time since my last post (I know you all look forward to my blog so much), but that's what happens with a full-time job. FreshChoice pretty much owns my life now. Still, if I complained about not getting enough hours in Wellington, I can't rightly complain about having too many now. Around the Christmas and New Year period my schedule was kind of flimsy, but I've had the same schedule for the past two weeks and the upcoming week, so I think they have me set into a fixed roster now. I work 4 hours (from 4-8 pm) Sundays, and 9 hours Monday-Thursday (12-9 Mon-Wed, 10-7 Thurs), coming to a grand total of 38 paid hours a week (they don't pay for breaks--what is this shit?!) Really, it isn't all that bad. Believe it or not, working checkout at a supermarket is not incredibly taxing work, mentally or physically. It can be very, very dull at times, but that's my only complaint. I am at least blessed with fun and interesting coworkers.

Still, all work and no play drives Eoin to drinking and hard drug use, so we have been having fun on my days off. Last weekend we went to Milford Sound. Milford Sound is perhaps New Zealand's most famous tourist attraction. If you've heard of anything in New Zealand (apart from Lord of the Rings), it's probably Milford Sound. A sound is a large body of water/valley carved out by rivers over thousands and thousands of years. Milford Sound is actually a fiord, though, which is a body of water/valley carved out by glacial melt over thousands and thousands of years. Apparently there was no (and still isn't) an equivilent english word for fiord, so explorers inadvertantly gave it the misnomer Milford Sound, and the title has stuck. Does it really matter? Probably not.

Anyway, Milford Sound is famous for its beauty. It's surrounded on all sides by rainforest-covered mountains. They aren't your typical tree-topped mountains, though. Since the valley was carved out by glaciers, the mountains are sheerly rock, no topsoil. The trees grow in a thin layer of lichen and moss. Somehow the lichen is able to hold up the weight of the massive trees. Unsurprisingly, though, this arrangement doesn't last indefinitely, and once a tree gets too heavy it falls down the side of the mountain, tearing down the trees below in its wake in a pyramid shape (think of how knocking down the front pin in bowling causes the others behind it to topple). Apart from pretty trees, there's also a wide array of wildlife including countless varieties of fish, dolphins, seabirds, penguins, and fur seals. Yes, once again we were lucky enough to bear witness to the stunningly majestic (or just fat and lazy) fur seal. We also saw a few seagull chicks. No dolphins or penguins this time around though, sadly.

Mitre Peak in Milford Sound:

Once again we bear witness to a colony of majestic fur seals:

The drive to Milford Sound was just as scenic as the boat ride itself. The drive from Te Anau to the Milford wharf is only a little over 100 km, and yet the brochure said the drive would take three hours. Thankfully this wasn't the fault of overly-windy and mountainous roads, but rather the never-ending display of beautiful mountains, glaciers, forests, rivers, and waterfalls. We literally pulled over every 5-10 minutes to get out and have a look. We easily passed 300-400 waterfalls, ranging in size from garden-hose trickles to massive cascades of water.

At a parking lot/lookout point along the way, we had an interesting encounter with a group of kea. Kea are a species of New Zealand parrot. Unlike the kaka we saw at the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington, the kea are not shy. They landed on cars, hopped around the parking lot, and swooped at tourists without care. One even graced us by landing on the roof of the Corona. Check it out!

As you can see, it's quite a large bird. So when the call of nature struck a few seconds after this picture was taken, it's no surprise the shit dripping down the roof of our car was equally collosal. Thanks, kea. Thanks a lot.

In summary, Milford Sound is great. Waterfalls, glaciers, huge mountains, lazy fur seals, and giant bird poops. If you're ever in New Zealand, don't miss it.

Also on the fun side of things, some group or other have been putting on outdoor movies in the Queenstown gardens. Tuesday we went to check it out and sprawled out on a sleeping bag in front of a large inflatable screen to watch Lars and the Real Girl. I was expecting it to be mostly a comedy, but I should have known better. Ryan Gosling. Duh, Eoin: it's a chick flick. Still, it wasn't all bad and it definitely had its funny moments. And the experience of watching a movie out under the stars was nothing to complain about.

Turning to the mundane aspects of life, we've experienced two recent failures. Yesterday we took the Corona to get its WOF (Warrant of Fitness) renewed. The WOF inspection basically determines if the car is road-fit, testing things like oil leaks, seat belts, windshield wipers, tire alignment, etc. Unfortunately, our car failed on two minor issues that alone would have been passable, but in conjunction warranted a failure. Some metal axel thingy or another on the back tire is bent out of shape, and there's a minor exhaust leak. That would explain the weird smell! Fortunately it's not going to cost us much to fix.

Yesterday I also attempted to bake a loaf of bread from scratch, as per my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. As Alexa so gently put it, I "made a brick." Thanks sweetheart. She's right, though. If it'd been more spherical in shape my bread could've passed for a bowling ball. Despite a hard exterior, though, the inside (what little there was) did taste like bread. I later discovered that I failed to proof the yeast properly so the dough didn't rise anywhere near what it was supposed to. My second attempt is in the oven as I'm writing, so let's keep those fingers crossed. Rise, rise, rise, damnit!

In closing, here's a few more pictures:

A waterfall in Milford Sound:

Water falling down the side of a tree-covered cliff along the road from Te Anau to Milford:


The Mirror Lakes, another sight along the way from Te Anau to Milford. The DOC (Department of Conservation) is so clever!



That's all for now. Hopefully my next entry will be more timely.