Some good, some bad...

What ho me hearties! (Having accidentally missed mentioning International Talk Like a Pirate day at the right time...)
It's the weekend, hurrah, huzzah!
It has been a mightily manic week with a few nights in Queenstown seeing my bro, sister-in-law, her best friend and the best friend's boyfriend. Was a great time with even a day of skiing thrown in! (I still can...and didn't fall at all, was mightiliy chuffed at that! Husbink did fall but none too bad and one extremely hysterical! It happened to be on a rather steep, rather icy section which meant although the fall was quite small, he was about 100m further down the slope before he was able to stand up! My brother was watching from the bottom and said it looked rather elegant and that he appeared to be swimming through the snow...Husbink did say he was thinking of Bananaman at the time!) However, getting to Queenstown was not such a bundle of laughs. The last section, from Christchurch to Queenstown, was on a propeller plane. On a day when several of the ski fields were closed due to high winds. To land in Queenstown, you have to come in over a ring of mountains (some of which were used for the Dimrill Dale in LotR, The Two Towers) and then get down pretty fast to be able to land. It was the most turbulence I've ever experienced (admittedly, I've been lucky) and the angle the plane was pointing was rather alarming! I know I'm sounding a bit of a wimp here - Husbink enjoyed it - but my main problem was the afore-mentioned issues with vomit...the number of people turning green and starting to hack was not so good for me! Fortunately we all made it down intact and the efficiency of the ground crew made up for everything - we were at our hotel in less than half an hour from landing!
The return journey was less eventful but sadly the flight from Christchurch to Wellington was delayed by an hour and a half. Not much in the grand scheme of things I know but when the flight is only 30 minutes... So we got home at 9.30 after a shuttle bus, two planes and two buses to find that the power company had made a bit of a gaff. Somehow, when I rang them and registered for gas AND electricity, they decided to only do the electricity bit so while we were off sunning ourselves in Queenstown, our gas was disconnected. As the power company shuts at 9pm, there was nothing I could do about it until the next morning. I was not happy. (A brief aside: Things are really not 24hr here, even most restaurants shut around 9.30. On the whole, I approve of not 24hr-ness, not being able to internet shop, generally having to be more chilled out and have more contact with real people etc etc etc...but now that I can't have these things, I'm finding it a little frustrating...help! Say soothing things!!!)
So at 7am the next morning I was straight on the phone to said power co, all ready to read the riot act...and they sorted it and gave us a credit of $25 and generally made things good. And we have heat and hot water again and everything is well. Without me having to shout. Though I was a little sarcastic...
And now the working week is over again and I can sit back, relax and enjoy the beautiful country.
My love of NZ has taken a little knock this week, mostly through the gas issue, but I'm sure it will be back again soon.
Got to go, time for Home and Away (has totally stolen my affection away from any other soap!)