Queenstown, New Zealand
Trip Start
Dec 09, 2007
1
7
52
Trip End
Jul 07, 2008
Queenstown,
South Island,
New Zealand
Friday, January 18, 2008
I'd never traveled with them before and surprisingly we all got on pretty well and created some great memories together. They had a prearranged package deal set up for their more upscale accommodations (mostly nice cozy B&B's and then an amazingly posh place to close out in Christchurch. Mike and I made the best out of the free classy nibbles and champagne at the vip club lounge.) And I tried to stay at backpacker hostels close to their places.
Wanaka was beautiful and a lot of fun
israeli girls
. We all agreed later that it was one of our favorite places. The whole town was prepping for the mountain bike leg of a Marathon. It's nestled between mountains and next to a beautiful lake. Chill tourist town with a great range of accommodations. I stayed at one of the best places I'd been in yet. It was the justifiably famous Purple Cow. With it's wooden structure and large porches with some of the best views of the lake it feels more like a resort. I took advantage of these views to make a dinner for Mike and MR. They took me out to a fancy place the night before and this was my payback. Some great jerk flavored steaks and my yogurt curried chicken with sweet beat juice. With some nice local wine on the side and they were saying things like this was one of the best meals they'd had in some time. Mike and I took the next day to rent some mountain bikes and head around the lake. It was awesome ducking and diving under evergreens, through narrow tree lined passages, around rocky cliffs over the lake, through deep sand (I fell over twice). I can't remember the last time I was so thrilled and exhausted. When we got back to town I didn't hesitate to just run into the lake clothes and everything. Even got my wallet wet. We had some nice beers at local pubs and planned our next stop.
Queenstown was another wonder
girls and guy
. Amazing sunsets. Great food, cool pubs and dance clubs. The wonderland known as the Deer park heights where you can not only see but feed, Red deer, Bison, Llama, Alpaca, donkeys, pigs, and the list goes on. It had beautiful views overlooking Q-town and the lake and thus understandably one of the major sites for Lord of the Rings. Mike heroically freed a goat that got it's neck stuck in a fence. Met some great friends at my hostel. They were 4 Israelis, 3 girls and 1guy (named Guy) that I'd met briefly in Nelson. They were a lot of fun and we went out drinking and dancing and along with a couple other cool guys from the Netherlands and Germany stayed up all night laughing in one of our rooms. I've got audio of some of this craziness along with us saying. "I love you" in as many languages as we could think of. There were quite a few and I plan on using them in a song.
Mike, Mr, and I all took the cable lift up to the top of the hill behind town to enjoy the views and Mike and I had too much fun doing the sleds at the top. We also did the jet boats from Q-town, which to my surprise my 70 something aunt really enjoyed. Your cruising at around 60 Km/hr. through narrow rock wall passes often less than a foot from the boat...or your head or arm!
Then we went on to Majestic Mt. cook. On the way there is a lake (name escapes me now) that turns this incredibly light grey blue from the mineral run off of the Mountains and glaciers. Mt. Cook was stunning and graced us with a nice clear day. It was also serendipitous that we were there, the place of Sir Edmond Hillary's memorial and statue, shortly after his much publicized death and funeral. For those of you who don't know he along with the Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, were, at least historically, the first men to the top of Mt. Everest. Mt. cook was Hillary's training ground.
