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Published: June 18th 2013
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Last Time I updated this I was just about to head to Wanaka. I can't write much about Wanaka really as the most memorable thing I did there was to get Subway breakfast for the first time. $3 for a bacon, egg and cheese roll. Not bad actually.
I've been in Queenstown for the past 8-9 days. I would write a day to day account of what I've done here but to be honest it's all turned into a bit of a blur. A general day in my first week in Queenstown goes as follows:
Wake up. Maybe sit around the hostel for a bit and get breakfast, or leave early if you've an all day activity planned. After leaving the hostel go and do one of the following:
• Gondola & Luge
• Frisbee Golf
• Skiing
• Bungy
• Canyon Swing
• Skydive
• Mini Golf
• Jet Boating
• Hiking
• Drinking
• Absolutely Nothing
I haven't actually done the bungy, canyon swing or skydive myself. I'm not that interested in the first two, and I haven't been able to skydive in the past few days because the weather has been so bad.
Lunch follows and nearly every day I've been
Pie
Tasty pie here it has involved going to Fergbaker and getting a pie. Fergburger is the almost world famous burger place here that everyone raves about, and yes it is pretty good. However Fergbaker is the bakery they own next door and it is where the real surprise comes. I think I am now addicted to pies. A month ago I would have regarded pies as food for overweight English people going to watch football matches. Now they are perhaps the greatest food on earth. Steak and cheese, lamb shank, Thai chicken... I could go on.
Before dinner may involve going for a pint or two in one of the quieter establishments such as Harry's or 1876. Dinner thus far has consisted of a couple of Indian meals, a double down from KFC (a chicken burger where the bread has been replaced by two pieces of chicken), and mainly Fergburgers. I've had Fergburger described to me by people I met in Thailand as the greatest burger place in the world, I'm not sure it's that good but then again I'd be struggling to think of somewhere better. I've only sampled a portion of their vast menu but the best would have
Fergburger
This is where I buy burgers to be the Southern Swine. Pretty standard burger with bacon, but they get it spot on.
Post dinner usually means going back to the hostel and cracking into a few bottles of Tui (Kev's favourite), followed by going back out and visiting one or more of the following establishments:
• Altitude (Kev's favourite)
• Harry's
• Buffalo
• Red Rock
• The Pig & Whistle
• Cowboys
• Winnies
• Searle Lane
• Zephyr
• Tardis
• Boiler Room
If you're lucky, the night will then end outside Fergburger/Fergbaker at about 3 in the morning. Before I left Ireland the most nights in a row I'd ever done was two, and even that was a struggle. During my time in Queenstown I got up to six, and was contemplating making it seven before collapsing on my dorm bed with exhaustion. I thought Thailand would be the main party area of my trip, apparently not. Also somewhere in the middle of all that drinking I managed to get myself on the finals board for Sugardaddy, a competition run at the beginning of every winter season by Tardis bar. There are 40 finalists, and one prize worth nearly $20000. However I leave Queenstown on Thursday morning, with
The Hill
It's both steeper and longer than it looks the final being held on Thursday night. You can't claim the prize if you aren't there on the night for the final, so I'm destined to win it now.
After I got all that drinking out of my system, I moved hostels to a place called Hippo Lodge up on the hill. I hate that hill, I really do. Kevin Gayer (a mate from home) was living in the hostel so it made sense to move here after the people I'd travelled down from Picton with had moved on. There's a rather large cat called Moss living here, so this place gets the thumbs up from me. Things have been a lot quieter since I moved up here, which has been good for both my liver and my wallet.
The original reason I'd come to Queenstown for was to ski, but in the end I haven't done that much of it. It's kind of the pre-season here, and I'm lucky there's anything open at all. A portion of Coronet Peak has been open since I got here, but it's a very small ski area for the price you are paying. Hence I've only been up once thus far.
The Remarkables opens just after I leave, as do the nearby ski areas of Cardrona and Treble Cone. Ah well, I guess it's a good excuse to come back here some day. I went up Coronet Peak late last week with Kev, his girlfriend and friend from Hippo Lodge. There were only two lifts open, and really only one run worth doing. Spent the day doing the same run mostly, and the snow wasn't too bad. The mountain restaurant though wasn't quite of the same standard as you'd get in Austria, I paid about $15 for a pie (of course), chips and drink. It's been snowing over the past few days so hopefully conditions will be good when I go up again tomorrow for my last day in Queenstown.
After getting back down off the mountain Kev convinced me to go for a pint, which I reluctantly agreed to. This was the day where I had been out the previous six nights in a row, I was genuinely amazed I even managed to get up in time to catch the 10.30 bus. After a couple of pints Kev got some rather important news, his visa to stay in New
Zealand had been approved. Things got a little emotional, tears may have been shed, and more pints followed. By 6 o'clock I was less than sober. The plan to go out and celebrate that night didn't happen when my body just refused to move at 10 o'clock.
As the weather has been a bit crap over the past few days I've been taking it easy. Went out and did some jet boating earlier, which was fun. After this I got another pie (I wasn't joking about being addicted) and wandered down to the waterfront. Queenstown really is a very nice place, even after you get all the drinking and touristy stuff out of your system. I'm looking forward to going up Coronet Peak again tomorrow and then I'm back on the Stray bus for two nights. I end up in Christchurch on Saturday and then unfortunately it'll be time to fly home. Overall I've loved Queenstown and could easily stay here for the season if I didn't have a big Glastonbury shaped reason to go home.
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Kev
non-member comment
Some corrections...
I hate Tui, Altitude is the worst place in the world and yes, a tear rolled down by cheek when I found out I got my Work Visa but it was a manly tear. Rhys, you're a dick. I hope you have to sit next to a crying child all the way back to Ireland.