Crazy Queenstown!

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We set off as usual 9am for the bus ride to Makorora, leaving the ice behind us and heading towards the sunshine. The 1st stop was Lake Matheson, the mirror lake, only problem being the wind was so bad that the ripples in the lake stopped the mirror affect, so we were gutted we missed that. Rob the driver then took us to a tiny fishing village nearby so we could all sample whitebait patties, which were absolutely amazing.

The next part of the road trip took us to the blue pools. We all got off and went for a walk, some of the guys including our stray driver all went cliff diving into one of them. I would in a normal situation but as Tim our friend who did dive said afterwards - it was a stupid idea as the water was glacier melted water and freezing haha.

We arrived in Makorora just before teatime, and settled in to our tee pee room, which was really cool (see pic). Once we had all checked in, we grabbed our torches and headed off to the bar for a nightcap. We had to take torches as the guy told us there is no lights on the patch around the village. There was only a few of us in the pub so me and Jen left early and then it happened… one of the funniest moments of our lives, but you may have had to be there. As we were walking out of the kitchen area, we turned off all the lights and only had Jens head torch for a light up the path. We started walking slowly up the patch in pitch black and silence, when all of a sudden there was a scuffle noise and something running towards us. Anyone in their right mind, would of just shined the torch towards the noise to see what it was, but not Jen. As soon as Jen heard the noise, she ran torch in hand 20 yards up the road, leaving me to be freaked out by the noise and running into nearby trees to try and get away. It was only when I finally caught up with Jen that I grabbed the torch and turned to find out it was just a dog walking around. Jen was in tears of laughter and I found the funny side eventually although her selfish theory of just running for her own life will never be forgotten.

Next morning we headed towards Queenstown and stopped off in ‘Wanaka’. We were given the option of a 2 hr picnic lunch or visit puzzle world, which was only $12 each and worth every penny. We had races around the maze and spent ages solving the puzzle games, so geeky but really funny! Once we finished, we carried on towards Queenstown and stopped off at the Kawarau bungy (1st ever one that AJ Hackett designed) we all watched the videos and then went to watch people actually do it, including 2 11yr old kids. No one from our bus did it though as they were waiting to do the Nevis bungy.

Eventually we arrived in Queenstown late afternoon.. Everyone was so excited and we all signed up for the $25 ‘Big Night Out’ bar crawl before we’d even got off the bus! Our accommodation, Aspen Lodge, was great, $62 a night, two mins out of town and the kitchen and lounge area we had to ourselves most of the time, bonus! Was nice to be able to unpack and have a base for a while as it can get a bit annoying living out of our bags. The first night was just crazy as expected.. Had loads of fun and wayyyy too much to drink but it was brilliant. The bar we started in was Altitude bar then onto buffalo bar, then we cant remember but do remember having free shots in each place. The $25 price for the Big Night out band was totally worth it. We Ended the night the only way you can here, with a Fergburger..enough said!

The following day was a right off.. We were both so ill but felt like we had to go out and find our bearings (which takes two minutes as the place is so tiny!) so we just chilled and went out for a meal in the evening with the gang to Winnies for a pizza, watched the rugby, and had an early one.

Saturday was a scorcher and we felt relatively fresh so we took a load of supplies down to the beach and had lunch in the sun. There was live music on all over town as it was the Jazz Festival, and with it being the World Cup Final weekend there was heaps going on and a really good vibe around town.. A few of our Stray mates were moving on the following day so we went for a couple of ‘quiet drinks’ that night which turned out to be a very heavy night and ended with Fergburger number two, good times!

Rugby Final day finally came and was crazy! People dressed up everywhere, cars covered in flags, hundreds of people just lazing in the sun boozing..it was brilliant! Jen was rough from the night before so I convinced her to get some exercise by partaking in a bit of Frisbee golf. For those of you that dont know, its within Queenstown Gardens and is a course of 18 tees and big metal baskets.. Aim of the game, throw the Frisbee into the basket as close to par as possible. Jen struggled and ran off almost crying after the third one as she is possibly the worlds worst Frisbee thrower, on a par 3 she was averaging 8 or 9.. But she stuck with it and we did the whole thing, funny way to spend an afternoon! We watched the game (obviously) in a bar called Altitude and praise the lord the All Blacks won, wasn’t fun to watch though and we were surrounded by Frenchies taunting us throughout the match although they soon disappeared at the final whistle though haha! We stayed out celebrating and then made our way to a 24 hour sports bar to watch Man utd vs. Man City. Watched the first half but Jen actually fell asleep on me in the bar (must have been exhausted from the Frisbee golf) so we left early. As you can imagine I was gutted we missed all the action of the second half!! I reckon my godbro would have been buzzing and winding Kev Smith up. haha

We woke up Monday around 11am, but somehow didn’t make it out of out pit until gone 1pm haha and even then it was to go upstairs and make brekkie/lunch. We turned on the television, and everyone was still going wild partying through the night, and stood waiting hours for the All Blacks parade to happen in Auckland. As we were still rough from another heavy night and the weather was gloomy, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice tea at Lonestar (we highly recommend). On our way there we had a freak tornado wind, something I have only ever seen in films. Jen was blown into the middle of the road, and I had to grab her and run for cover as bins and signs were blown everywhere. I had honestly never seen anything like it, one car was inches from being damaged by flying bins, the remarkables (mountains) had gusts of dust blowing everywhere, and we found out later that someone’s roof had been ripped off their apartment. The strangest part of it all, was finding out that the Queenstown fire brigade are all volunteers and were called to the scene by an alarm sounding around the town that we heard several times.

Tuesday morning we woke up to another grey day but this time with lots of rain. Our Shot over jet ride had been cancelled due to floods, so we re-booked for Wednesday and went shopping for some bits. The place was a ghost town today due to the weather, so we watched a couple of DVD’s in our hostel, then went to Devil Burger for tea, which was very nice, but you cant beat the Fergburger! At night we skyped the parents, but had a power cut for around 30mins, which was fun as there wasn’t a single light on in the city, and people were screaming, laughing and singing, including Jen who wouldn’t let go of her head torch to stop me freaking her out even more. Haha.

Wednesday was the Zip Trek Eco tour, so we walked up the Tiki trail to the top of the gondola (it only takes an hour) but is a steep incline, so Jen was not best pleased and wished we’d got the Gondola up to the top. The Zip trek tour was really interesting, for example the entire forest was built from trees imported from North America due to the strength of them, so basically a manmade forest. The zip rides were amazing and we even had the confidence to go upside down, and the longest tree to tree zip wire in the world was amazing. There were 6 zip lines and you reach speeds of up to 70kph down them which was amazing and Jen loved it even though she was a little nervous at first. The rest of the day isn’t worth mentioning as the weather was bad so nothing was done!

For our last day in Queenstown we packed in as much as possible. In the morning we went to the Canyon Swing so Jen could do her swing. Jen chose the Elvis Cutaway as it was one of the scariest jumps you could do an she’s a freak when it comes to death defying stunts ha-ha. I was knackered so couldn’t be bothered…o.k. o.k. I totally wimped out but there are only a certain amount of fears you can overcome ha-ha. Once the Canyon Swing was done we went to the shot over jet, which was the best money spent for myself in the whole of New Zealand, it was amazing! Speeds of up to 80 kph’s, dodging cliffs by inches and 360 degree spins in the middle of the shot over river…..enough said! In the evening we went to see the ‘Inbetweeners’ movie with some of our Stray buddies and then drank the night away for our last night, which ended again with our 3rd Fergburger of the week!


Next stop… Mt Cook

TTFN xxx

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Comments

[Jess]

Its 8:24am......
....and I have never been so jealous!!! Queenstown looks amazing, the more I see of NZ the more I want to go! Was fab talking to you both last night, enjoy the rest of NZ and we'll catch up in a couple of weeks! LOVE YOU xxxx