Goodbye Sunshine, Hello New Zealand

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island
February 22nd 2009

Published: April 1st 2009

There was an 8 hour gap between us landing in Auckland and our flight down to Queenstown so rather than sleep in the tiny airport, we booked into the Kiwi International Hotel. Sounds fancy. It wasn't. Half of the place seemed to be under construction still and the other half seemed stuck in the 80s. To be fair, we did get a room with an en-suite and TV and all that for the price of some of the hostels we've been staying at. The hotel offered a pick up service from the airport and the couple that collected us were nice enough, chatting about what New Zealand had to offer. I think the drivers girlfriend was pissed though, which made it all the more interesting. We arrived there in the evening and the weather seemed cool in comparison to Australia, but not too bad. They then told us that it was the 1st day it hadn't rained in weeks. Great. Our hotel wasn't near any shops and the restaurant was closed so we walked 20 minutes down the road to the petrol station where we made do with pot noodle type things. Back at the room we found out that the cheap plastic forks they provide melt at ridiculously low temperatures so it was like eating noodles with, well, more noodles!

After a short flight to Queenstown, we stepped off the plane into drizzle and cold winds. Felt like home. After moaning our way into town on the bus, we walked upto our hostel, Hippo Lodge. The reviews had mentioned a steep hill leading upto it, but we were sure it couldn't be that bad. Laden down with rucksacks and guitars and stuff, it could be that bad. Think it took me most of the day to recover from that 1st climb. Had a wander round the town as we couldn't check into our dorm yet. Wasn't the crazy, adrenaline fuelled, extreme sport capital that I was expecting. Just a small town backed by some amazing scenery. Needs to work on its weather though. Having still not adjusted to the cooler temperatures, we thought best not to spend too long outside so headed back to check in. The lodge had 2 main buildings; one at street level and one that was up into the hillside. We were in the top one which meant our room had stunning views of the town, lake and mountains. The kitchen and lounge were just like someones house. Albeit, someones bloody big house. Had a real homely feel. Definitely a cool place to chill out. Wish we'd spent all of our time there at this place, rather than trying to experience as much as we can by staying in 2 places. Ah well. Didn't do much for the rest of the day, just dossed about, had a bit of a strum and booked our campervan for the weekend. That evening after we'd sat down for a hearty meal, some German girl struck up a conversation after seeing Garys plate stacked high with veggies and humous (I assume that's what it was, can't really remember). She was obviously a bit weird and proceeded to give him a bit of a grilling about his vegan ways. Nutters...they're everywhere!

Our 2nd day there was loads better. The sun was out, the skies were blue and it even got a bit warm. Wandered around town again before walking up a near vertical ascent to the top of a mountain to get to the luge. The luge, for those who don't know, is like a go-kart thing and you race it on a downhill track. With it being at the top of a hill the views as you're hurtling round corners, and also on the chairlift back to the start, are spectacular. The fliers boasted the line "Once just isn't enough" and they're right. Even twice isn't enough. We couldn't be arsed to queue up and pay for some more goes so just headed back down the mountain on the gondola, which is, for some reason, what they call cable cars over here. Back at the hostel we met the people who were in the dorm next to us as they were playing some pretty nutty drinking games in the common room. We just sat and watched trying to figure out some of the rules while they drank themselves stupid. Not content with drinking the hostel dry, they decided to head into town so we all went to the World Bar, famous for its teapots. These are basically just cocktails served in old english style teapots and had about 50 shots in (or some other more realistic number of shots). 2 of the girls who were travelling together were from Germany. Meet Sarah and Liza. Sarah has one of the best accents when she speaks English. Practically everything she says makes you laugh. She's also a complete loon. In the best possible way. Liza is the more sensible of the two but they make a great duo and we had a proper laugh with them and the rest of the guys from the hostel that night. On arriving at the World Bar, Sarah was refused any alcohol until she drank a pint of water and about an hour later she was kicked out for being too drunk. The rest of us threw some shapes on the dancefloor for a while before heading back to the hostel where we found a small, drunken crowd of people, 1 of which was playing the singing saw. Very weird. I sat down and chatted, played some guitar and drank some Absinthe until the early hours of the morning.

Awoke feeling like several people had releived themselves in my mouth. The thought of having a days activites with the most sober and active person in the world didn't sit well with me. Thankfully, Gary had booked a bike ride for this day so I spent my hangover dossing around the common room with the guys from the previous night, Ashley (England), Kay (Wales) and Jesse (Sweden). Around lunchtime we decided the best way to rid ourselves of hangovers was to go for a walk by the lake. Some way between the hostel and the lake, this had turned from a walk by the lake to some beers in a pub by the lake. So the afternoon was spent talking crap, drinking beer and playing football. Got some more beers on the way back to the hostel where we spent the night drinking and talking more rubbish. There may or may not have been more card games involved. I honestly can't remember.

After a fun 3 nights at Hippo Lodge, we checked out to make our way to the Lakefront YHA. We booked 2 to maximise our experience of Queenstown. At least, that's what we thought. In retrospect, it was a shit idea. We'd made some good mates at Hippo and the YHA was full of old biddies and was miles out of town. Oh well, you live and learn. We had a few hours before we could check in so decided to walk up Queenstown Hill. Got to the top and it started to rain. Bastard. Retrieved all our stuff from Hippo where it had been stored and started the walk to the YHA. It was way further than we thought and by the end we were stopping every 2 steps. Our pain was soothed somewhat by the couple of girls on reception who we had a bit of banter with before making our way to our dorm. It was 5 beds in a room where 5 beds shouldn't be able to fit. That night we made our way back to Hippo Lodge. Feel free to picture us dressed in black with balaclavas sneaking through the night into a hostel we don't stay at anymore. We arrived with drinks and got straight to the task of getting shitfaced whilst playing ridiculous drinking games. The most memorable one of the night being the animal game, where everyone has to make animal noises and mimes. The rules aren't important here, the drinking and stupid animal impressions are. Got into town for about 11. Tried a bar that had cheap drinks, but it was shit. Tried a bar that Gary had a flyer for that looked really good, but it was shit...and empty. So we ended up in the World Bar again. Gotta love those teapots. Gary left earlyish as he had another bike ride in the morning, but the rest of us stayed out til we got kicked out. Even Sarah managed to stay til the end despite dancing on the tables. Said our goodnights and arranged to meet up for lunch the next day at the famous Fergburger.

Awoke. Hangover. Got a text from Kay saying that they were meeting at 12 for burgers. Clearly they'd not been dedicate enough the previous night. Either that or I'm getting old and 3 hangovers in a row does bad things to me. Somehow managed to drag myself out of the hostel and meet them there. Glad I did as it was THE best burger I've ever had. I'm just gutted that I didn't go there for every meal while I was in Queenstown. After this everyone had things to do or were leaving so we exchanged numbers and details. It was just me and Kay left at this point and we spent a few hours on the village green enjoying the sunshine and a cool drink until it was time for her to get her bus. So I found myself with a free afternoon which I spent with my book, basking at various spots along the lakefront outside our hostel. Stopping occasionally to hone my stone skimming technique. It's a hard life. Queenstown is a really great place to chill out when the weather's good. Met up with Gary later. Cooked up a splendid batch of pasta and then watched the sunset by the lake. Pretty awesome surroundings. I could so easily spend months in this town and not really do anything and not be bored.

Anyway...I couldn't spend months there because we had a shiny, purple and green camping maching waiting for us which would be our bedroom, living room, kitchen and transport for the next 2 weeks!

Goodbye Sunshine, Hello New Zealand

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