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So we have covered the West Coast of New Zealand and headed inland away from the rain and into the sun, here is our second week in NZ.
Wanaka
Ouch getting up at 7am was hard! We stopped at the Mirror Lake in the morning to take some photos and go for a walk and then stopped for a picnic at a national park somewhere and got bitten to death by sand flies! We arrived in Wanaka mid afternoon after taking in some amazing views. Wanaka is a little town but very lively full of bars and restaurants, the scenery is also pretty impressive. There was a music festival going on which had been sold out for weeks however Josh (our driver) informed us we had free entry into the after party. SWEET AS!
We decided to check out the small town however only made it to the first pub before getting dragged in by the Irish girls on our bus! We only stayed for a couple though as a few of the other girls from the bus were cooking us all a big Thai curry, yummers! We had made some really good friends by now and so we all went back to the dorm to get ready for the night ahead. We headed to the bar and got amongst the happy hour drinks before turning our attentions to Jaeger Bombs and by god did we drink a lot of them! We had a great boogie and at about 2am Blackburn vs Arsenal was on the TV so we both sat and watched that with a bottle of wine (which by that point we didn't need!). We ended up leaving when Arsenal went 3-1 up as Hickey didn't want to see anymore!
We had another early start in the morning and the whole bus were pretty much suffering. Hickey was still drunk and fell over with his backpack still on when trying to board the bus! Next stop was Queenstown and the end of our time on the bus with the same group. Josh had planned a night out for us so we were all looking forward to that.
On our way to Queenstown we stopped off at Puzzle World which was amazing - it was basically a place full of illusion and puzzle rooms, plus it had an awesome maze. Closer to Queenstown we stopped and watch some people do the bridge bungee, the world's first bungee site, we weren't planning on doing a bungee but after seeing this plus the video we watched on the bus we decided to book a bungee, Hickey booked the Nevis Bungee, highest in Australasia (134 metre) and Lorry booked the Nevis Arc, the worlds largest swing. We booked these for a couple of days time.
Queenstown
We arrived in Queenstown and had a group photo by the beach. We then checked into our hostel which had been voted the best hostel in New Zealand, they provide free breakfast and free dinner. Sweet as!
Josh had arranged for us to go to a place called Fat Badgers for some pizza before heading out. When we arrived he informed us that they do a 20inch pizza challenge where you have 15 minutes for eat a 20inch pizza. On hearing this Hickey signed up! When the pizza arrived we couldn't believe how big it was. Josh set up a table for Hickey to attempt the huge pizza in the middle of everyone. Obviously he failed but made a decent effort, we have some good photos! We were then told that the record for doing it was 3minutes 34 seconds, set by a massive Samoan guy he just folded it in half and shoved it down his throat. Unbelievable! After Pizzagate we headed to a place called Altitude were we had loads of free shots and met the crazy German owner! The music was ace, we played a few drinking games and then headed to World Bar, where we had loads of teapot cocktails. Basically cocktails served in teapots, they are frikin ace! We danced the night away and again took loads of photos. Everyone was pretty wasted and our first night in Queenstown pretty much set the precedence for our stay.
Next morning we woke up and decided to beat our hangovers by heading to the World Bar to watch the Superbowl, we actually missed the first half but watched the half time show which was pretty impressive. Madonna still has it! We then decided to get out in the sun some we bought a crate of beer and headed to the beach. There was a festival going on near by so we walked to that and spent the day in the sun with a few beers.
That night we went on a bar crawl that was put on by our hostel, it turned out to be pretty rubbish so we left and met the others in World Bar. Hickey was pretty wasted and ended up being asked to leave for being to drunk, Lorry continued partying into the night, Hickey managed to take an hour to walk back to the hostel which was 5 minutes away!
The next day Lorry had her canyon swing, so went off nervously to do that. Hickey was hung-over but decided to head to the beach as the sun was shining. The Canyon Swing was the best thing Lorry has ever done, she did it in tandem with a lady called Karen from the bus and had an awesome time. The Nevis Arcis a 70 metre drop followed by a 300 metre acr swing! Insane! There are some good pics and Karen bought the dvd so we are hoping she will send us a copy. Lorry was very proud of herself and pretty much giggled all the way through the experience!
Whilst Lorry was at the swing Hickey played Frisbee Golf, its pretty much as it sounds, there are 18 different baskets and you start at the beginning throwing your Frisbee towards the basket, you then throw again where you land, it was pretty good but took ages as the course was quite long.
That night we headed out again as it was a few peoples last night (as we were staying the longest pretty much every night was someone's last night!). We headed to World Bar….again, not before helping one of the girls finish off a bottle of vodka. The music was pretty rubbish for a change so we headed to another place called Buffalo's and danced the night away, the played Business Time by Flight of the Concords as the last tune, classic! We got back to the hostel at 4am, so much for the early night Hickey planned as the next day was Nevis Bungee time!
Next morning we all got up and headed down to Fergburger, everyone who has been to Queenstown knows just how amazing this place is! The burgers are as big as your face, all freshly made and so much to choose from, it's a must do if you travel to Queenstown, epic is an understatement. After munching away on this (Lorry only managing half) Hickey boarded the bus for the 40 minute drive up the mountains to the bungee. The Nevis bungee is insane, Hickey was pretty nervous bit did it and it was an amazing feeling free falling for 7 seconds before bouncing up 50 meters in the air. Here is a link to what the Nevis bungee is http://www.bungy.co.nz/the-nevis/the-nevis-bungy and the Arc http://www.bungy.co.nz/the-nevis/the-nevis-swing Unfortunately we are running out of money so didn't buy the pics or dvd however we manage to get some photos on our camera. The worst part of the bungee was hanging upside down in the middle of nowhere waiting for them to pull you back up!! Hickey admitted to panicking at that point and his stomach muscles are still in pain!
That night we actually stayed in as the last 10 days had really caught up on us and the partying in Queenstown had taken its toll! We also checked our bank balance and the news was not good. We had already spent our savings and was already well into the overdraft! As much as Queenstown is the best place we have ever visited its bloody expensive! Anyhoo the next day we decided to actually see the other side of Queenstown, the scenery. We decided to take a walk up to the Gondolas which was supposed to take an hour, what we didn't realize was this was a walk which required proper hiking boots as there were rocks to climb and very difficult terrain to overcome, the fact we had our flip flops on made this very difficult! After nearly 2 hours we finally made it and it was so worth it as the view overlooking Queenstown was breathtaking. There was no way we could walk back down as we probably would have been killed as it was so steep so we got the gondolas down which was very nice. That night was another leaving do however as money is tight we said we would come out for 1 drink, we were then bought quite a few more to stay out and you guessed it ended up in World Bar. We only spent $7 all night!!!
The last 2 days we pretty much just chilled on the beach. Lorry got a heat rash so that isn't good, our last night we went out for a couple with the final 2 people form our bus. We were in bed by 11pm ready to leave Queenstown at 8am the next morning. It was very hard saying goodbye to Queenstown, everyone was pretty miserable in the morning! We had a new bus load of people however we have decided to be unsociable as we can't afford to make new friends!
Queenstown is just amazing and a place everyone should experience, it has everything, beautiful scenery, incredible nightlife, great food and a whole lot of adrenaline activities to keep you busy! Onwards though to the North Island not before an 11 hour coach journey to Kaikoura just to stay the night and then a 9 hour journey including a 3 hour ferry over to Wellington.
Kaikoura
Just a quick stop off here as we had already visited the place, our plan to be anti sociable didn't work though as we met some cool people on our bus and had a funny night at the hostel, alcohol free as well…..check us out!
- comments
Bex God your livers must hurt!! mega jealous sounds amazing!xxx