So I arrived in Queenstown on Monday afternoon, and after a pretty scary hour-long interrogation by customs I was on my way. It appears I chose a pretty good time to arrive, 3 days of perfect weather in the middle of a fairly average patch of cloud and rain.
Had a very nice taxi driver who told me all about different things to do in Queenstown and where to find various amenities I'd need along the way. Settled in to my hostel (Lakefront YHA) that evening and got an early night so I could be up early the next morning.
11am called and my early wakeup was out the window but I made my way into the town centre to see a bit of what there was to do. It's only a small place which is nice after having lived in only big cities for the past 5 months (the town centre is about 3 blocks wide and 4 blocks long); much easier to find what you want to find. That day I took the skyline gondola up to the peak and admired the ridiculously good views over to the remarkables and the coronet peak ski area without a
single cloud in the sky to block my views!
Decided I needed to sample a little bit of this adrenaline culture they pride themselves on (I'm saving the bungees and skydives for when Pat, Charlote, Sean and Ben get here) so I did 3 runs on the luge tracks at the top of the peak... pretty wicked fun, hooning down the hillside with the same views as my backdrop. Can't complain.
Went out Friday and Saturday nights with a nice bunch of guys from the hostel. Lots of nice bars with wood burning fires and pretty darn cheap drinks ($3.50 a beer? don't mind if i do). Just really killing time the next few days until I fly to Blenheim on the 11th to meet up with Mum and Dad again, looking forward to a bit of wine-tasting, swimming with dolphins, whale watching etc etc. Then on the 16th I see Charlotte for the first time in 6 months which will be amazing. From then on people start arriving and people leave and my solo gap year goes into its second phase where I've got old friends from back home to experience the same stuff I do so
it's not just me explaining to them how good everything was!
Over and out. Time check 41 minutes left. Good work Steve.