Update from Queenstown!

So I’m on day 5 of my New Zealand tour and I’ve been having a blast!! Here’s what I’ve done so far!

Day 1: Tuesday morning we departed from Christchurch.  It was a 4-6 hour drive to Lake Ohau.  Don’t really remember.  Spent a lot of time on the bus getting to know everyone.  The people are pretty cool.  There are a lot of Australians, then a couple other Americans, Canadians, people from England, Ireland and others, so it’s pretty cool.  I’m definitely one of the younger ones on the tour, but people are still cool.  So we got into Lake Ohau around 4 pm.  Just kind of hung out and looked at the beautiful scenery. People were hanging out in the bar pretty late, but other than that it was a pretty chill night.

Day 2: We woke up super early for a long trip to Milford Sound.  We made several stops along the way though.  Some to take pictures, and others to get out and stretch our legs, make toilet stops and grab some food.  We got into MIlford at about 4 and boarded the Milfrod Wanderer for our overnight cruise.  It was a decent boat.  The rooms were about the size of my bathroom, for 4 people. But it was only for one night.  That was definitely sufficed though, by the AMAZING scenery. Seriously, most beautiful place I have ever been.  Mountains, waterfalls, glaciers, seriously stunning! I took tons of pictures! (Which will be up as soon as I get better internet accesss! lol!)  Went to bed pretty early.  I was exhausted from all the travelling.

Day 3: After having breakfast on the boat, it was about 2 hours until we arrived back to shore in which it was about a 4 hour drive back to Queenstown! On our way back, we stopped at the Karawau Bridge, just out of Queentown.  I think there is some historical significane to the bridge, but I was more concerned about the fact that I had to jump off of it! lol! Yep that’s right, I went bungy jumping! The Karaway Bridge is the first commercial bungy jump location in the world. I was freaking out before the jump. And I was the last one to go, so I had to watch everyone else go before I did! It all went by pretty fast though. They put you in a harness, then tie up your feet. Then before you know it you are standing on the edge and the guy is counting down.  It was a 43m jump, so not too bad for my first jump! It was only about a 3 second freefall, but still pretty awesome! I got kind of dizzy at the end from all the jerking and hanging upside down, but it was totally worth it! I got the pictures, the DVD, and a free t-shirt! That night we had a group dinner at the skyline gondola restaurant.  We took a gondola up and got some awesome views of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu.  And an amazing buffet dinner.  After dinner, we went out to a couple of bars, which isn’t normally my scene, but it was fun. Got back pretty late and fell asleep in like two seconds!

Day 4: First full day in Queenstown. Today’s activity, Mad Dog River Boarding! Pretty awesome activity I’d say.  Not to mention one of the hardest and scariest things I’ve ever done.  It was about a 45 minute drive down to the river. Once you’re there, they put you in a full out wetsuit, with flippers and a helmet.  Then they give you a boogie board.  Basically, what river boarding is, is like boogie boarding through white water rapids.  They put you through a short training sessions so you know what to do. I was struggling a little bit, so me and a couple other girls decided to skip out on the hard part and take it a little easier. Wise decision because even the easy part was a little hard.  It was really fun, going over the rapids and flowing down the river, but extremely tiring and my arms became weak very quickly.  I had some help from the guides, who had to pull me for a little bit.  At the end we got to go on a jet boat ride and water slide on our boards.  I was a little disappointed that I had so much trouble, but it was still one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. I’d love to try and build up my strength and try it again some day.  That night after dinner at the hotel, we went out again to a couple more bars.  One of which, was Minus 5. A bar completely made of ice.  They give you a heavy jacket, boots, and gloves to keep you warm. Pretty funny. And you get one free drink with entrance, in a cup made of a ice.  I had heard about this place before and was looking forward to it, but it was different than what I expected. It was one very small room. I was a little disappointed, I expected it to be more extravagant. But it was still cool (both literally and figuratively) lol! Got back later than I had hoped. But I fell asleep pretty quickly again

Day 5: Today I slept in (as much as I could sharing a room with 4 people) and came to town.  Shopped around a little bit, and now I’m sitting in an internet cafe in Queenstown typing this blog entry.  Tonight I an going to do the Ledge Sky Swing.  Kind of like a bungy, but more of a Swing than a jump.  It looks fun, probably not as exciting as anything else, but it should be fun.  (except for the fact that it’s rainy and cold out right now. I hope it stops later) But anyways.  Tomorrow we head to Franz Josef, where I will be hiking up the Fox Glacier.  I’ll finish this update a little later!

Tata for now.