New Zealand, South Island: Queenstown and Mount Cook

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After our burger with Julian, we went for a walk in Queenstown. It’s a very nice town, which reminded me a lot of English towns but it is very busy and full of tourists! After a rest, we went for a walk near the river and had a takeaway dinner at a latin place. We are arepas and quesadillas on the beach with a beer. Shaun practiced his skimming skills on the lake. We wanted to buy some more beer and have another one in a quiet spot we had found but they refused to serve us as we didn’t have our passports. So we went back to the hostel! On the next day, we had a pretty lazy day and went for an early dinner at The Bazaar, an “interactive marketplace” restaurant we found a good deal for. There was a beautiful view from the restaurant but we didn’t get to sit in front of it and the food was pretty disappointing. A couple behind us was kissing very loudly, barely stopping to eat, and it annoyed us. We went back home and had a drink with some people in our hostel.
On the next day, we went on a jet boat tour in the river! It wasn’t as exciting as I thought it was going to be but it was still a very nice experience and we had beautiful views on the hills called the Remarkables.
In the afternoon, we took the gondola up the hill and went luging! We bought a ticket for six rides and it wasn’t a waste of money because we had lots of fun!! We felt a bit like children, or characters in Mario Kart, speeding downhill and avoiding other people! I even beat Shaun in our improvised race!! In the evening, we made fajitas and sat with some of the people in the hostel. On the next day, we left for Mount Cook village. Mount Cook/Aoraki is the highest mountain in New Zealand, located in the Southern Alps. Although it isn’t very high (about 3700 meters), it is said to be very challenging and dangerous to climb and many mountaineers use Mount Cook to practice before climbing Mount Everest. We stayed in the only hostel there, a YHA. It was pretty cloudy but the views were still beautiful. We went on a walk with a friend we had made while waiting for the bus in Queenstown, Julia, from Germany. We did the Hooker Valley walk up to the Hooker lake, where we saw icebergs and views mountain range. We had dinner at the hostel and went for another walk on the next day, at Kea point, where we got beautiful views of Mount Sefton. Wherever you walk, you can hear avalanches on the surrounding mountains - it happened pretty often while we were out there and is quite impressive! Julia left in the afternoon and we relaxed in the hostel, tired from our hikes. The day after, Shaun wanted to go to the lakes near Mueller huts, a two-hour hike through 2500 steps. We left early and checked with the Department of Conservation if there was any risk of avalanche. It was safe to go so we started walking but I left Shaun to go up the steps on his own and went for a different walk. Shaun did the hike pretty quickly, running down the steps on his way back. I sat on a bench in the sun, taking in the beautiful views and looking at the beautiful exotic birds around me for a while. After lunch, we took a bus to Tekapo.

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