Queenstown & Auckland
Trip Start
Mar 25, 2008
1
9
12
Trip End
Jun 13, 2008
Auckland,
New Zealand
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
On my last day i was 'persuaded' by Jay that we should all get drunk, so promptly at 4pm we went down the supermarket and everything got a crate of beer. Now with us watching Blade on t.v, all the blood and guts and everyone yelling at the t.v the beer only lasted till about 7pm, then we decided the bar was in order and since i've been in queenstown so long the barmen actually thought i worked at the hostel so all my drinks were $4 all night long...what a result!!! Now with a few more drinks in us we once again began the best game in the world....one handed pool...doubles!!!! Its an excellent game because with only using one hand everytime you pot one pool its a cause for celebration. i'm telling you this is going to be the next big paralympics event, and i think i could win gold. Not just because its against paralympians but because after 2 nights of playing it drunk i think i can brag a little and say that i am a master, matt and i were on the table for 3 games undefeated, and then lost spectaculary to Jay and Dave.
With things winding down in the bar we hit buffalo which is about 2 doors down so even drunken people can find it easily, and there thanks to some of these guys knowing somebody who knows somebody we each got 4 beers for $10, that was ace and surely enough more pool followed, however this was normal rules...which i did surprisingly worse at...i'm blaming my ginger hair. Now me moved onto world bar some of us and i bought a cocktail, however nothing is ever as it seems in New Zealand, these cocktails are served to you in china teapots, which you carry around talking to people whilst pouring yourself a drink, and although you know you look like an idiot know one cares because they are doing it too!! After wanding around chatting to some of the guys in my room matt appears next to me and shoves a teapot at me and says down it, to which I say ok, down it then find out that it was a long island ice tea, now i would like to finish writing about my night but i can only remember bits and pieces, i did get a fergburger though and i did catch my flight the next morning.
Now i got back to Auckland and i'm staying in the same hostel as before, except this time when i got to my room i found the door half hanging off the hinges, yet when i went in this didn't seem to both anyone inside. However i've seen hostel and i wasn't about to be kidnapped in the middle of the night and have my fingers cut off, so after a small amount of complaining at reception (dad you would have been proud) they sent someone down and within 5 minutes we had a working door. Now Auckland is a pretty small place so for the first 3 days i did nothing except go food shopping and sat in starbucks drinking my hot chocolate and reading my book.
However on Monday i awoke to car horns, lots of them, and i look out the window to fine all these chinese flags flying and people marching the street with signs saying not to make the olympics about there human rights record. So naturally as a guardian reader i grabbed my camera and mixed in amongst them, taking random pictures when i could until i realised they were actually just walking up and down the high street and the guys i'd followed where just walking the other way now. After becoming bored with activism i decided to do my laundry for the first time as i had no clean t-shirts and even i realised i smelt quite bad, no one else had mentioned anything though. It all went swimming till i had to put them through the dryer twice as everything was still a little wet.
My last day in Auckland and i thought maybe i should actually do something, so i thought a nice walk to Auckland Domain and a visit to the National Museum might be fun. Well i set off following a map i'd picked up and end up in what i thought was Auckland Domain but turned out to be Albert Park about a mile from my hostel, i went back to my room and studied it further and found out i would have to walk for 45minutes before i got to the Museum. Well i had nothing to do as i had finished my book (by the way 'The Other Queen' is quite a good read) so i set off and in record time of 30 minutes i was there. Now the Museum was ok, its a cross between a cultural, natural and war Museum set on three different levels so it took up some time. Now as i was walking back i was thinking about what dad had said, about why i wasn't doing a skyjump.
I thought it was took much like a bungy but as i walked past the skytower i realised i would be only meets from hitting the building and that as i came down it would be looking like i would hit the ground flat so with my credit card even handy i walked in and within 10 minutes i was in an elevator traveling at 10m per second up the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere. Now the suit they made you were is replusive - electric yellow- and with my hair there was no way i cold pull it off but still. So with 2 self proclaimed party dudes they clipped my back and front cables on, told me to look down and then on 5-4-3-2-1 to jump.
Now with those cables on its pretty hard to jump so you have to do it nervous suicide way and just fall forward, yet just as i was picking up speed they stopped me telling me to look up, because his was there idea of an action photo. After that i freefalled 182m until i landed on the bullseye. I'm glad dad bugged me because it was a total different experience, you can see the cars going past and the building on metres away like you might hit it. When i reached the ground and was unclipped they guy, also a backpacker, however he is a veteran of 2 years asked if i wanted to do it again FREE, well i wasn't going to just look a gift horse in the mouth and i jumped at the chance - literally. This time they didn't stop me after 10m so i freefell 192m to the ground, 60m higher than the Nevis Highwire Bungy, it was good!!!
Well there is a good place to end my adventure, i've left my Queenstown family behind, for the best, maybe one day when i return they'll still be there, sat infront of the T.V and Auckland is done and dusted, its now onto and Canada the US and A where i will learn important lessons for the people of Milton Keynes.
P.S - there are going to be more than the normal amount of spelling mistakes in the piece as i was rushed and couldn't use Word to Spell check, sorry to all you anal people who will be annoyed at reading this and picking out all the mistake - DAD - lol
