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| View over Queenstown |
It was really nice to
chill out in Queenstown, the party capital of New Zealand for a few
days because its not often that we stop more than one day in a place
on this whistle stop tour. We checked into our hostel, Nomads, which
was just like the one in Wellington – a big, clean, modern hostel
with everything you need. We got some bottom bunks and then chilled
out for a while before catching the free dinner at 6pm (Thai green
curry!). After dinner, we went for a walk to watch the sunset with
Yoshi and a Korean girl we met on the bus and after this we went to a
nice quiet bar for a glass of wine for my pre-birthday celebrations;
it was lovely.
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| Fergburger |
The next day was my
birthday and it was an excellent day. I had a lie in until 11 (first
lie in in so long) and then Jemma gave me some surprise presents! The
night before she had bought me two chocolate bars from the
supermarket and told me those were my present and I honestly believed
her! However, I had a card, two big chocolate bars, a lonely planet
book for Australia, a notebook/diary, and a Margaret Thatcher book!
Lol. She had bought it all in Wellington when I was lost. After the
presents, I had 2 bowls of cocopops and then we decided to go up to
the top of the mountain next to the lake to get a view over the city,
with Jemma intending to do the luge at the top. It was too expensive
to take the cable car up so we walked up the mountain which took
about an hour and was very scenic (through a forest). Mountains are
nothing after Huayna picchu and I even ran up some bits to burn some
calories before my birthday banquet. It was a lovely sunny day and
half way up we saw some people ziplining through the trees. When we
got to the top the views were spectacular; you could see the whole of
Queenstown, with the lakes and the mountains. You could also see
people doing bungy jumps off the edge of the observatory. We looked
at the luge (a little bobsleigh track at the top of the mountain) but
it looked far too expensive for what it was, so Jemma had a pie and
then we went back down the mountain by cable car. We went back to the
hostel to have showers and then we went for tea at Fergburger – one
of the places it is recommended you visit whilst in Queenstown. The
burgers were huge and you got a lovely big portion of chips. After
this, we went to buy some alcohol from the supermarket and then went
back to the hostel to get ready. In Nomads, you are allowed to drink
in the common area until 9pm so we went down there with our box of
wine and beers and some of our friends came to join us (Yoshi, two
German girls we had met and a Malaysian girl). The others brought
snacks and we drank as much as we could before 9 and then headed out
into town on a pubcrawl where we met a bunch of Aussies who we hung
about with for the rest of the night.
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| Pre-drinks |
Yoshi and the Malaysian girl
(Xena) gave me a card they had made and half way through the night,
when Yoshi was really drunk, she produced a hat from her bag and gave
it to me. This was special because a) Yoshi had bought this hat (with
a kiwi on) in the North Island then had left it in the hostel in
Wellington by accident. I found it and kept it for her thinking I
would give it her back in Japan when we went. I got quite attached to
it and started wearing it every day. Then, we bumped into her again a
week or so later and I gave it her back and she was so happy. Then on
my birthday night out, in the club, she produced it from her hand bag
saying 'I asked the hat and it chose you. It wants you' Lol. I think
something got a bit lost in translation – either that or she's been
reading too much Harry Potter. She was very drunk at this stage and
me and Jemma wonder whether she actually wanted to give me that hat
or gave it to me by accident when she was drunk. After clubbing, we
went and got a McDonald's and then went back to the hostel where
Yoshi begrudgingly took off her fake eyelashes off for us to see what
she looks like without them. Apparently she never takes them off, not
even to sleep and said she was only doing it as a birthday present to
me.
The next day we slept
in late and then bought 24 hour internet which is such a luxury I
can't tell you. For £4 you can surf the net as much as you like,
which is such an exaggerated pleasure when you're used to having no
internet at all. The only problem is, we only have one netbook and so
have to share it in shifts. We finally emerged from the room at 3pm
and went to get a pizza. I hat pizza, chips and beans with a coke and
it was perfect. It was to be my last chips of the year (I have given
up chips for the age of 26 :( ).
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