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Published: January 2nd 2008
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Hey Guys, I hope everyone had a great Christmas and Father Christmas brought you everything you wanted. We also had a great Christmas even if it was a bit different to the one im used to back in the UK. On Christmas Eve we met up with Sam, Chloe and Trevor, whom we had first met at the Nabua Lodge in Fiji. It was great meeting up with the guys, sharing stories and exploits of since we last met. We ate at Ferg-Burger possibly the best burgers i have ever tasted and a must if your ever out in this part of the world.
As we sat by the waterfront enjoying our burger and fries (wearing the obligatory santa hats) we were approached by a Korean tourist who was bemused by our festive hats and wanted a photo. A few photos later he was on his way but returned 30 seconds later with more friends who all wanted their pictures taken with us!! We retreated back to Glenorchy and saw in Christmas day playing cards, swapping stories and playing drinking games. We drank way into the early morning....
We started Christmas day quite late with raging hangovers and
decided the only way to combat this was to have a swim in the Glenorchy lake. The Glenorchy lake is a huge body of water that stretches all the way from Queenstown to Glenorchy and out to Milford Sound, The water was icy cold and as i jumped in and hit the water i almost jumped out just as fast.
For our Christmas meal we had planned a BBQ but of course being a Hitchin BBQ it rained all day! Never the less i was out there in my waterproof, tongs in one hand and a beer in the other (the only way to bbq!) We ended up with enough food and drink to sink a battleship and spent the next few days eating all the leftovers. On Boxing day, after sleeping off another killer hangover, we attempted a walk up Mt Alfred (the mountain that looks over Glenorchy)
On the 27th we decided it was time to get out of the house and drove the 2 hours to Puzzling World in Wanaka. Puzzling world has a series of different rooms that recreate all sorts of optical illusions. One room is built on a steep angle
and everything in the room appears to roll uphill. Another room is full of faces that, if you cover one eye) appear to follow you around the room. Outside, Puzzling world has one of the largest outdoor mazes. There were several different routes you could take and if you chose the hardest it could take the average person 1-2 hours to complete walking 3-5 kilometres!
However we didnt have time to spend all day walking in circles as we had tickets to the famous Wanaka Cinema Paradiso. The cinema is independantly owned and aims to make movie going more of an experiance. The auditorium was pretty crazy, gone were the rows and rows of uncomfortable, instead there were arm chairs, sofas, bean bags, in one corner a row of seats from a chinese passenger jet and at the front was an old morris minor in which four people could sit. During the intermission, oh yes.. there was an intermission, we were served with wraps, pizza's and drinks. Those who didnt finish there food before the end of the intermission were then allowed to take their food back inside and eat from their laps. The Golden Compass, i did'nt rate
too highly but the Wanaka Cinema Paradiso gets 10/10.
On New Years eve we got tickets to see the Black Caps (New Zealands International Cricket Team) play Bangladesh. The previous few days the weather had been awful raining almost continuously, but we had been assured it would be ok on the day. and sure enough the weather was fantastic with not a cloud in the sky. Since it was a one day cricket match there is a tendancy for fans to go in fancy dress. Never being ones to miss an opportunity we went with fake moustaches and crazys hats. We were slightly upstaged by the group of people wearing high-viz jackets, the group in forensic suits and the guy dressed up as scooby doo but we still got ourselves on the large screen tv and thats all that mattered. The match was a walk-over for New Zeland and it took only 1/2 hour for the black caps to beat the total Bangladeshi score.
New Years Eve in Queenstown was unforgetable. Thousands of people desended on the waterfront to drink and dance the evening away and at midnight a huge fireworks display marked the changing to
the new year. We ended up drinking in a bar until they kicked us all out at 5am. At that point we met up with a group of scots we had met the previous day and ended going back to their place for more drinks. On the way to their place Sam wrapped himself in builders netting and attempted to hitch a ride on a street sweeper but a couple of policemen put an end to that. Though they were very understanding and let him off with a warning.
At 7:30 Trev and I went out to get some breakfast whilst everyone else slept off their hangovers in the campervan. We eventually returned back to Glenorchy in the early evening after out hangovers had passed and I evenually got an hours sleep on the drive back, my first in over 28 hours. Queenstown was a great night out and we met so many people and drank far too much.
In the next couple of days we're all going to go our seperate ways again. Anne and I only have two more weeks to see the rest of the south island before our flights to the north. Trev
and I are thinking about attempting the Routeburn, a three day Trek along the Routeburn valley from Glenorchy to Te Anu/Milford.
I hope everyone at home had a great New Years!!!
Neil
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