Birthday Abroad

So the week before my birthday was very interesting.  Franz Josef ran out of water.  The town relies on rain water and we had a very dry February and March, so one night the taps just stopped flowing.  AND the filtration system broke, so when the water returned it wasn't drinkable.  Ironically it was pouring rain the whole week, so at work we had to tell customers that their flights were cancelled due to the rain, but the showers weren't working at the hot pools because we were experiencing water shortages.... yeah people didn't get it.  

Craig my friend from Crash Palace stayed at my house for a week.  His Ice Explorer trip got cancelled 4 days in a row.  Luckily he had a friend who rocked her reception skills and finally got him a trip on the ice ;)

On April Fools day my roommate and I added googly eyes to the mannequin we use to brief clients.  

No boot left behind.

Finally, the day before my birthday!  Luckily for me the company bus driver gave me a ride home so I didn't have to walk in the rain.

Turns out it's against the law to buy alcohol on Easter... which is really inconvenient when Easter is your birthday!

So we had some leftover googly eyes...

So having a birthday in NZ was super unique because it confused everyone back in the states.  No one knew when to say happy birthday to me.  I celebrated on April 5th in NZ, but then the next morning everyone in the states was congratulating me.  It turned into 2 wonderful days!  

Bren sent me this pic.  Love ya sister!!!

So my birthday was truly Franztastic!  I woke up to a surprise Easter egg hunt left for me by my roommate.  After finding all the eggs, I called my friends at the helicopter company in town to see if there were any free spots on scenic flights.  Sure enough there was one spot left on the "Big Daddy" of scenic flights.  It was 40 minutes of flying through the Southern Alps.  We circled Mt.Cook and then flew over the Tasman, Fox and of course the Franz Josef glacier, then landed on the neve of the Franz Josef glacier.  The whole trip cost me a 12 pack of beer.  My job perks are pretty freaking incredible!!!   Next I got a massage.  Never got a massage before but we offer them at work and I get a super discount so I treated myself.  Then a bunch of people came to our house for drinks, we hung out until midnight when the bars opened and then went to the bars in town to celebrate my big 2-4.  It was such a wonderful birthday!  Birthdays are hard and it's particularly difficult to celebrate away from all my friends and family back home, so I'm so happy to have the awesome Franz family that I do have.

Ally and I cook and watch New Girl every Monday.  This time she taught me how to make Chicken Picata!!

We also watched Game of Thrones because DUH!!!

Hike on my day off!  So nice to have the sun shining!!

Not typical signage you see on a hike

Love my porch!  And this is probably the last warm day for a long time!  Winter is coming!!

Flo's last night in Franz!  WAHHH!  So grateful for this wonderful human!  It's was so nice to have a friend in Franz that didn't work at Glacier Guides.  

This kid is about to leave us too!  Why must everyone leave?!!  :(