Day 1 in Queenstown

Feb 4, 2010

If you were to put key largo in the middle of the Rockies, you should have the south island of new Zealand. The scenery is stunning, the people are so friendly, and despite being a tiny island there is Tons to do. Ive met alot of really intesting people so far, aNd ironically enough only one of them  has been kiwi, or what a person born and raised in nz calls themselves! On an avergage day in queenstown, 13,000 kiwis live here and 50,000 tourists travel or live here. Very interesting! Also, there are no bugs!  I could get used to this!

Last night we meet up with the other group and went to the world famous Fergburger. It was awesome. After out first fergburger experience, we went out to a few of the local bars, had a few drinks (my first legal one!!) and made it back by midnight to catch upon the sleep we lost from our flight. 

We woke up at about 8 am this morning, and decided that today would be excellent for mountain hiking. Michael made some eggs, and we walked about two blocks to the closest trail. 7 hours later, we finally made it to the top! It was harder than I ever imagined. Imagine being on a stair climber for 7 hours straight, then jogging a decline on a path of rocks. It was By far the most physically demanding but most rewarding activity I've ever done! The guys were pros, which Was nice because they really knew what tehey were doing and kept pushing me to go further. Naturally, I got very frustrated on the way up,especially after hour 4, but they were great at helping me! They even let me be the first to reach the top of the mountain :) What great travel companions they have been so far!It was so worth all the sweat,  cramps,and profanity yelled along the way.  The goods news is that the way down was much easier and only took about three hours.  It was scary to jog first, but once I got the hang of it I was keeping up well with the boys, or at least I'd like to think so ;)

Needless to say, our strenuous morning/ afternoon exercise activity  in the 80 degree sunshine left us all exhausted. We decided to take a nap around 6:30, woke up at 10 pm, and opted not to go out and just keep sleeping. So the good news is that I got a pretty good tan started, only spend 3 dollars today, and climbed a mountain. All pretty good if you ask me :)


The internet is very slow and expensive here, but I will try to post pictures soon!