Adventure Activities and the Scenic Route

I was in Queentown, at last. The first thing I did after checking into my hostel was to sign up to a bar crawl that was happening that evening. I thought it would be a good way to meet people in the hostel and familiarise myself with the area. It turns out that, while I did get to meet people, I had no idea where I was because they blindfolded us between bars, and we had to do the conga along the streets being led by the hostel staff to make sure we didn't get lost - a surreal but admittedly fun experience, especially when you've had a few beers!

The next day, I decided to face my massive fear of heights and do New Zealand's highest bungy jump - and wow it was amazing! I was terrified though. Especially in the little box that shuttled us over to the ledge (which had a see through floor...) and when they had me sat down doing up my harnesses. Strangely though, my fear completely disappeared when I got to the edge - I just thought "wow, that's a long way down!" but I wasn't scared, and just like that, the man in charge counted down 3... 2... 1... and I (rather inelegantly) threw myself off the platform! I could see the floor coming towards me, and was probably free falling for about ten seconds before I felt the bungy rope lengthen and save me from hitting the rocks below me - what a rush!

Once I was back, and had calmed down from the jump, I decided to go and taste one of the world famous Fergburgers. They are enormous, delicious - and best of all - cheap! Everyone who has been to Queenstown told me to get a Fergburger, and they did not disappoint at all, with layer upon layer of burger, salad, sauce, bread and a whole bunch of optional extras. I had one of these burgers every day of my stay in Queenstown, which meant I actually spent more on Fergburgers than transport on the South Island.

I spent the rest of the day wondering around the town, finding my way around and looking at clothes I knew I couldn't afford, and when I got back to the hostel, predictably, the Kiwi Explorer bus had arrived. I've not yet mentioned the Kiwi bus, and I will now explain why I knew I would bump into them at some point in Queenstown. I first met the passengers of the Kiwi bus in Westport (at the top of the west coast of the south island). The next day, I saw them at the pancake rocks. The next day, we were on the tour of the Franz Joseph glacier. By this point I was thinking that it was silly to keep seeing them everywhere and to not know any of them, so we all got chatting, and they said that they'd noticed me everywhere they went as well! Just like that, friendships blossomed and as we parted ways we said "see you in Queenstown!" - I didn't know they'd be in the same bloody hostel as me! So for the next few days, I kind of latched onto their group - drank with them, ate with them and sat around doing not much else with them...

I did, while in Qtown, also go on one of the 'world famous' jetboat rides on the Shotover river. It was pretty fun, but for the first five minutes of the 45 minute ride it was raining, and when you're going at 80 km/h, you do NOT want it to be raining. After the initial pain of rain splattering into my face though, it was great. The driver obviously knew what he was doing, and took us very close to rocky outcrops and pebble beaches to make us think we were going to crash, but obviously we weren't. In summary, quite a fun experience, but probably would have been more fun if I was with people I knew, instead of a load of Asian tourists that said "iiyyyaaaaa" every time the driver spun us around...

At this point, I was completely broke. I searched everywhere I could, in every bank account I'd ever opened, and I realised that I had almost nothing left. I made a call to my parents, and begged, and they kindly agreed to give me my Christmas money early (THANK YOU!). To stay on the safe side though, I didn't do any more adventure activities while in New Zealand. They might have been worth every penny, but they still costed a lot of pennies!!

I reluctantly moved on from Queenstown after four nights and went to Mt Cook - New Zealand's highest mountain. Apparently it's beautiful. I wouldn't know, there were too many clouds, so I spent the rest of the day watching the Lord of the Rings (which seemed to be playing in every hostel I'd stayed in - how clichéd) and playing scrabble with the other people staying there. The next day was still cloudy, but not as cloudy, so I went for a walk to kea point, hoping to see some kea. Unfortunately they were nowhere to be seen, but I did find some really, really, really blue lakes! I stayed there for a while, taking in the atmosphere, and eventually the clouds did start to clear up and I managed to see the summit of the mighty mountain.

Later that day, I got the bus to lake Tekapo. Wow. It had the bluest water I've ever seen. Properly blue, like when you're a kid and you use a blue crayon to colour in the water. It was so blue that you couldn't even see the bottom when you went and stood next to it - it was opaque because it was saturated with minerals that had been collected as glacial ice ran down the rocky mountain. It was stunning, and almost enchanting. I was told that there was no other civilisation around the lake within a 30 mile radius, meaning that there was no light pollution or any other kind of pollution, so on a clear night, it was the perfect place to do some star gazing. Because of it's ideal location, the'd built a large telescope there, and it was available for public use. At midnight, me and some other tourists went up to the telescopes and had a "tour" of the night sky, where they pointed out constalations, galaxies, nebulas and stars. We even got to get a close look at Jupiter, and saw its rings and three of its moons! A truly humbling experience.

Me in front of lake Tekapo

The next day I made my way to Christchurch. I didn't really know what to expect. Most of the travellers I'd met had told me not to even go there because the Earthquake damage had been so extensive. There's not even anything left - they'd tell me - but since I was flying out of Christchurch airport, I thought I'd at least have a look around. What I found was that it wasn't actually that bad. I was expecting some kind of apocalyptic wasteland, where you couldn't walk down the streets for fear of building collapsing on top of you. In reality, most of the destruction had been cleared and I felt very safe as I roamed the streets. In saying this, only one street was open for business, and the shops here had been made out of shipping containers, so that when the city has been properly rebuilt, the containers can be removed easily.

By the way, I don't mean to belittle the devastation that has obviously been felt in that city, but by the time I'd got there, almost all of the collapsing buildings have been demolished. I think they've made a lot of progress since the initial quakes, and it won't be long (a few years) before the city is back to normal again - although personally I feel like it would be a better idea to move the city away from the major fault line...

After a long night in the airport, talking with a French girl, a German man, and an Italian man, laughing a lot, and keeping everyone else awake, I finally boarded the plane and was on my way back to Australia! But getting back into the country was not as easy as I thought it would be, after getting my passport ever so slightly soggy back on the Tongariro crossing, but that's a story for next time! Thanks again for reading :)