Our time in Queenstown is rapidly coming to an end, and while I’ve only been gone for 10 days I feel like it’s been months! Michael left us today for his study abroad program, which was kind of sad since he is such a fun guy, but we wish him well! Dunedin doesn’t know what they are in for—go get ‘em Michael! The other crew from CSBSJU also left for Cairns, Australia which leaves Gavin, Matthew, and myself still in Qtown. We had originally wanted to rent a camper van and travel around the south island of New Zealand until Tuesday when we head to Sydney, however none of us really know how to drive an automatic van especially in the mountains, so we opted to take a bus to Dunedin for the long weekend. We don’t really have plans for once we get there, but that’s the beauty of exploring. We’ll figure it out! J
As mentioned before, the past week has been nothing short of unforgettable.
Monday: Gav, Michael, Matthew and I woke up early to go bungee jumping and canyon swinging. Queenstown has the 3rd largest bungee jump in the world ( the 1st and 2nd being in Capetown, SAfrica) and the world’s highest canyon swing. I was too scared to do the Bungee jump, so I decided to do the canyon swing since I didn’t really know what it was, which didn’t leave me a whole lot of room to be nervous. Then I saw the canyon where I would be falling, and freaked out. I told the guys that I had to go first in order to make sure I didn’t back out. After all is said and done, it was so much fun! Definitely the scariest activity I’ve ever done, but now I can work on climbing my way up the adventure ladder to the bungee jump.
One essential question we all had going into this trip was “Where are we going to watch the superbowl?” Since we are a day ahead of the States, it played on Monday afternoon and to my surprise, many bars marketed the game and had some great specials! Everyone from CSBSJU met at a bar called Ministry of Sports which is across the street from our Hostile. It also happened to be the 21st birthday of a girl on our trip, so we had a lot of fun all day J We even met a guy who graduated from St. John’s, and knew my older brother Jason and a bunch of his friends! Small world—this just proves that you can never hide! During halftime we had everyone over to our hostile for a few drinks, and we got to meet a lot of other residents in our hostile. Many people are from Israel, Germany, and London. We also met Stuart from England, who has been our new friend all week! He nicknamed himself “no hangover stu”, which means he has a glass of water after every drink or shot. Not a bad idea, right?! We’re trying to convince him to come to St. Joe, which would be a blast!
Tuesday and Wednesday we did a lot of walking around and relaxing. Tuesday morning we were all pretty tired from Monday’s series of events, so we took a personal day to explore the city and do a little shopping. We got coffee down by the pier at a place called Patagonia, which sells great chocolates, ice cream, and coffee and people watched for a good portion of the day. A few people here don’t wear shoes, which I find odd but interesting. We all went our separate ways to take naps or continue walking around, which was when I went to the Queenstown Garden, my new favorite place in the world! It’s right next to the lake, but there is a small pond, tons of flowers, beautiful landscaping, all with the mountains in the background. I could sit there for hours!
We returned to the garden on Wednesday, where we all took a nap in the sun. The weather is perfect here! It’s around 60-70 degrees, with a little breeze, but a warm sun! After our playday outside, we thought it was appropriate to get some seafood and wine since we hadn’t gone out to eat yet and it was Michael’s last night with us. We went to a restaurant called Finz on the water, had a lovely dinner, and then walked next door to a pub for 2.50 pints! Gavin did the exchange rate, and we found out that we were only paying $1.60 American dollars per beer, so we obviously took advantage of the situation. Man, does it feel good to be of legal drinking age!
Tomorrow we are taking a bus to Dunedin to explore more of the South Island. It should be a 4 hour bus ride, but since everything is so beautiful here I’m sure the 4 hours will fly by.
Miss you all, and I will let you know how Dunedin goes soon!
PS—to my roommate Taylor Boyum, HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY! I wish I was there to celebrate with you, but have a blast! Miss all my loop gals J
PSS--- As of 10 minutes ago, we found a van to rent! Good thing we’re flexible, right? This should be interesting!!
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