Queenstown is a four hour drive from Dunedin. Luckily my flatmate Petra, and friend, Ondrej, had purchased a lovely old Audi for the semester which we we took to Queenstown. As a side note, I should explain that it is common for exchange students, and local students, to purchase cars for a semester and sell it before they leave. The cars are traded for, on average, $1,500 NZ... which works out to approximately $1,220 CDN. Driving is the easiest way to travel around New Zealand since busing and renting cars can be either expensive or inconvenient. Therefore, buying a car, strangely enough, tends to be the cheaper option. Usually people buy a car in a group and commit to sharing the car and traveling together throughout the semester. Since my travel schedule is a bit different than some of my friends, I am not planning on buying a car and will opt for the busing/renting option. I should note, though, that they drive on the opposite side of the street here, which can make driving an adventure in itself!
Back to Queenstown! Queenstown is a magnificent ski/party town that reminds me a lot of Whistler, BC with a touch of Lake Como, Italy landscape. Queenstown is popular for extreme sports of all kinds including bungy jumping and sky diving or, if you are an adventure-seeking-wimp like myself, jet boating!!!
We arrived at our hostel at around 10pm and spent our first night partying at World Bar. Some of our Aussie room-mates from the hostel joined us! One of them had, once upon a time, been planning to go to UofT and had his UofT ID handy- what a small world!
The following day, I woke up early to "scope out" my adventure plans for the weekend. I also walked into town, had my first look at beautiful Queenstown, and ate at Starbucks... aahhhh home!!!
Once everyone was dressed and (FINNNAALLYYY) gathered and ready to depart, we all began a LOOONNNGGG hike up the Ben Lamond trail. The hike, round trip, was supposed to take 6 hours. I excitedly strapped on my newly purchased hiking boots and hiking gear, but I don't think I realized what I was in for... My friends were all prepared with packed lunches (sandwiches and the like), whereas I brought along a handful of almonds for a snack along the way. Although I had little to eat when we stopped for lunch, I was the lucky one that packed light without a backpack to lug up the hill. I think in the end it was a smart decision.
The views from the trail were absolutely stunning!!! It made the 3.5 hour climb up the mountain truly worth every step. We climbed above the treeline and looked out at gorgeous mountains jetting out of waters. When we got high enough, the terrain got fairly snowy and icy and it started to get colder and colder. That's when I knew I needed warmer hiking gear for next time.
When we were approximately 1 hour from the peak we decided to turn around and head back down. Although part of me wanted to finish the climb, I was pretty exhausted and wanted to make it in time for "the luge" (which was a blast-- and a bonus because a very nice man that Ondrej befriended gave us free tickets).
Later that night I ate a delicious burger from Queenstown's favourite burger joint-- FergBurger. The burger was larger than my head and, had I known that, I probably would not have purchased the fries to go with it. Petra, Sina and I later partied again and World Bar and then headed to bed rather early given that we were exhausted from out hike.
The next day, I woke up bright and early to call home at an internet cafe and get prepared for my BIG, SCARY, EXTREME SPORT ADVENTURE... JET BOATING. Okay, so I know that it's not as wild as the Nevis Bungy (the second highest bungy in the world-- located in Queenstown), or the Canyon Swing (another popular bungy in Queenstown Cambrae conquered) but it was nevertheless an EXTREME and FUN adventure. They bused me out to this canyon where we hopped on a jet boat that sped extremely fast down a very narrow canyon.... Juuuuustttt missing the rock walls by an inch!!! We did 360 degree spins along the way and I got a bad-ass picture to show for it!!!
Later that day we walked around the town in Queenstown, and then began driving back to Dunedin. On the way home we stopped in Arrowstown to see the old Chinese settlement (which was sub-par) and grabbed a bite to eat. Cambrae got harrassed by a random guy who tried to, literally, pick her up over his shoulder... while his friends stood and laughed in the sidelines. Lucky Cmabrae duked it out!!! CRAZY KIWIS!!!
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