By 4:30 I was picked up in the "Remarkables Shopping Center" outside of Queenstown yesterday. Two ski clad young men arrived, telling me that they were future boss and employer. My interview included, "do you need more time drinking your tea?". We drove into Queenstown, found Adam(boss)'s girlfirend Jo (who shares my birthday, 5 years previous... have had good luck with shared birthdays... best friend Dominique when I was 4 and boss Megan in North Carolina). The plan was to drive to Te Anau, drop off Adam and Jo and drive into Milford to get settled with Richard. The problem? We are in NZ. Te Anau, closest town to Milford (by 2 hours) was out of petrol.
We stayed there and I drove into Milford this morning instead. I got to see the white frosted fields leading to enormous heights of mountains seen only by the tiniest percentage of human inhabitants.

the thing that has impressed me most about NZ is the lack of people, of commercial attractions, of fast food and of billboards. There is beauty here beyond any I have seen, and not miles of sign posts announcing its arrival.

I got put onto a Milford Cruise and saw the entire fiord via water. Imagine hundreds upon hundreds of feet of green cliffs rising out of waters 400 meters deep. This is Milford sound.

There are a few boat companies, my lodge, and my cafe, a bar and that is it. It is a community of 200 people in the summer and 80 in the winter. We are run by generator. It turns off at 11.

Different from cambridge luxury, but then there is a river in my backyard and more stars than I have ever seen above my head. I pinched myself a few times today.

Is this real? Is this real?