heavenly welcome to queenstown!

we just watched the opening night of queenstown's winter festival - amazing fireworks over the water while we sat on the beach. there were some real stunners including giant dandelion sparkleys and springtime tree blossom poweder puffs. and it gets better... I just fulfilled one of my life wishes by having real hot chocolate (with chillis - if only juliette binoche had served me...). well actually it was supposed to be real hot chocolate in vienna, but I'm not going to be fussy about the details! and to top that all off... we've found a place to live! after a week of trawling round an ever increasingly depressing number of units and shared houses, we've found as near to perfect as you can get the week before all the ski-fields open. actually, this place was on the list all week, but dreary pictures put us off. it's a 2 level unit right next to the lake up a little slope. the panorama of the surrounding mountains are stunning. it's 3kms from QT and there's a cycling track along the lake edge into town. it has a balcony & little terrace and comes fully furnished which is a big bonus cause there isn't much in the way of 2nd hand furniture to be found around here. we still have to have our application accepted by the landlord, but we should be sweet. we'll get pics and an address up as soon as it's confirmed. and the last spot of news, I've just gone ginger again after 4-inch highlights roots weren't really looking cool anymore. now I look classy for my job interviews. will get a pic up asap.
finally, its almost feeling like we'll be at home here...