Autumn, ANZAC, Ice and George
Trip Start
Jul 31, 2005
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Trip End
Sep 05, 2007
Queenstown,
New Zealand
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
We now only have three weeks left in Queenstown, before we go up to Christchurch for a few days and then leave to Fiji, we have an awful lot to do in that time too so it will be all go! We move out of the house we are sharing in two weeks and are going to stay with a friend from work for our last nine days or so, in a way because that is happening we feel like we have so much to do in two short weeks - including selling our car Polly who is up on a poster in some of Queenstown's hostel notice boards.
We have been busy planning and reading up on this next section of our trip - it will go something like this (as always subject to change!)
Mid May - leave Queenstown and spend a couple of days in Christchurch and then flying to Fiji for a week,
End of May - back to Christchurch for something like fifteen hours, before flying to Auckland and connecting our flight to San Francisco
Ali and Karen
. We will stay there a few days and then fly down to Mexico City.June and July - We plan to travel through Central America, the itinerary is quite fluid at the moment, but we hope to get all the way down to Panama. It will be a quick visit to all of the places we visit, but we hope to see some beautiful beaches, do some amazing snorkelling, stroll around colonial cities and see some Mayan ruins before we take a flight down to Latin America. We have about six weeks in Central America (maybe seven we will see how it goes) and hope to take in Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
Mid July - We really hoped to have time to travel in Colombia and Ecuador, but we just do not have the time, so we are flying from Panama to Peru, then travelling down through Bolivia, Argentina and then to Brazil (maybe with a quick hop into Uruguay and Chile). This is not enough to time really, but we shall see all of the major sights on our list, which include Rio, Buenos Aires, Iguacu Falls, Machu Piccu and Salar de Uyuni. Then at the beginning of September we fly from Brazil via Germany home to the UK.
Back to Queenstown stories -
These past few days have been craaaaaaaaaazy
Ali and Matt in Minus 5
! Monday was of course St.Georges Day, which I can't remember ever celebrating before, but when you are living overseas you become ever so patriotic, so we headed down three Pommies an American and a Northern Irishman to the Pig and Whistle pub in town for a Roast beef dinner complete with Yorkshire pud! We were all salivating at the meal! It was just delicious and was washed down with buckets of Boddingtons. We all managed to get enough drink stamps, so that each and everyone of us could get a free St Georges day t shirt! We moved onto Winnies for some music and dancing, then Fergburger for a huge burger and then shared a cab home. I remember looking at the clock in our room and it read 3am - 5 hours sleep till work then!A brilliant night was had by all on Monday, Matt and I nursed our hangovers at work all day, and then we headed home last night to get ready and go out and do it all again!
Last night was our work party, there was a fab turn out from work, some of us started off in Minus 5, which is an ice bar. Yes, it was freezing in there minus 7 actually! But you are only allowed to stay for 30 minutes.
You buy your ticket to go in, they kit you out in boots, a heavy coat and gloves, then you go inside the bar. It's pretty small in there, but it is amazing, everything is made of ice, from the seats, to the bar and the walls - even the glasses we drank from
Ali in Arrowtown
! A cocktail is included in the price of your ticket and they all included vodka, which as we learned is because it doesn't freeze. I drank a polar blair and Matt had a frozen kiwi, we all soon decided that we were frozen and headed back out into the rain to an Italian restaurant called Fat Catz.We drank copious amounts of wine and had a blast with most people from work on one big long table, it was so much fun. The food was delicious and we all talked, ate and drank the night away. Some people went home from the restaurant, but we headed into town with some of the girls and partied the night away, dancing on tables, explaining the true meaning of ANZAC day and correcting people on which day St. Georges day was! We had a great time, and were tucked up in bed by 1.30am, because it was officially ANZAC day at midnight all of the bars closed early.
This morning we awoke and cured ourselves with plenty of caffeine, before driving to Arrowtown. We have both been there a few times before, but this week Arrowtown is hosting their annual "Autumn festival". Arrowtown is located in a valley, the surrounding mountains and lakes are covered in a multitude of colours, it was so very beautiful and a lot of people had reccommended that we visit Arrowtown again before we leave. The drive there (about 20kms) was fabulous in itself, then we walked through the small town and looked in some of the small shops. We soon found ourselves at the end of the main street and walked down to the Chinese settlement.
Arrowtown's Chinese settlement is well documented, with signs in English explaining the history, you can see the ruins of some of the houses and there are one or two which you can still see
Ali on St Georges Day
. Some Chinese settled here in the late 1800's to mine the Goldfields of Central Otago, they like a lot of others lived here and worked long, lonely hours before if they were fortunate enough, they earned enough money to go back to their families in China and live a better life. It was very interesting and we spent around an hour walking through the settlement.Back in Arrowtown I suprised to see an older man, proudly walking along the street alone, with a chest full of war medals. I looked at him and smiled, today is his day, he was there in Gallipoli, and although I don't believe in war, he earned those medals. He was so proud, he actually bought a tear to my eye.
ANZAC day is a day when like at home in Novemeber we remember those who died and those who fought in the war, those who played a part on the beaches of Normandy. We wear a poppy on the otherside of the world, on a different day, here they wear a poppy too.
Today is a national holiday in both Australia and New Zealand, a day when they remember their war heroes and they remember those who stood on the frontline at Gallipoli, they remember the hard times and they pay their respects.
ANZAC day parades and services have been on here in New Zealand and in Australia too. In fact there is a dawn service at Gallipoli in Turkey and other services around the world.
We did not get to Gallipoli when we were in Turkey, but a lot of Australians and Kiwi's we met there did, and now we know why it is so important to them. Just seeing that man today, I know that when we return to Turkey we will definitley pay our respects at Gallipoli.
Hugs
Ali n Matt
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