Time to make our way to Queenstown. Again, incredible scenery on the drive - lakes, mountains etc. The lakes are not mucky brown, they're blue and green. We made a quick stop for photos at Lake Hawea. Got our group family photo!

Then we pressed on to Lake Wanaka. First we dropped Mel and Paolo off at the skydive centre (!), then went to Wanaka town centre. Wanaka is a really lovely place. It reminds me a bit like the lake district in a way, but it's much nicer. There's lots of little shops and cafes, and the lake is just across the road. Me, Therese and Craig had a nice leisurely lunch. I had blueberry and cinnamon pancakes with caramelised banana and marscapone cheese - lovely jubbly.
We contemplated staying over in Wanaka for a night, but the Stray buses are so full it makes it awkward to stop as we might get stuck for a few days. Had a nice couple of hours there anyway.

We met the bus again and went to pick up Mel and Paolo from skydiving. They were really buzzing from the skydive. Paolo was really psyched up! They got DVDs so we watched them. Paolo was really funny on his, excited like a kid on Christmas Day.

We had a couple more stop-offs on the way to Queenstown. First we went to a fruit farm shop. Loads if different fruits - we just shared a big bag of cherries with Craig.
We drove on for another 30 minutes through a narrow valley between the mountains alongside the chalky light blue Kawarau River. That's a really incredible scenic drive too. Then we got to the A.J. Hacket Kawarau Bridge Bungy stop. That's where the first commercial bungy jump started. It's a really cool centre they have there and a few people from our bus did the jump, including our driver, so we watched them. It's a 43 metre jump from the bridge, and a couple of the guys opted to be dipped in the river too!

Pretty cool bungy, but it doesn't look bad enough for me. So I've decided I want to do the one that is 3 times higher than that!! Yeah, it's 134 metres high! And I'm doing it in a couple of days...

We finally made it into Queenstown. We checked into the fairly new Nomads, and as ever managed to get a dorm for 'the family'. Actually, an 8-bed dorm. Not too badly priced at $30 (£15) each a night. It's got good facilities like a nice lounge with big leather seats, a cinema room with big bean bags, and a sauna. Plus it's a nice place as well.

Once we got sorted, we took a short walk around town. It's not what we expected at all. It's a really quaint town. We were expecting more of a big town with high-rise buildings etc. There's lots of nice restaurants, trinket shops, bars etc. First stop in Queenstown though, FergBurger! I heard about this place quite a lot before I came away. It's a fairly famous (among backpackers) burger joint. I got a Southern Swiner with Cheese (beef burger with bacon and salad). It was massive! It's probably the best burger I've ever had. I was soooooo full. I literally thought my stomach was about to explode. Maybe we shouldn't have got fries too. Although they were really nice with Wasabi Mayo. Therese shared a Spicy Julie's (chicken) with Mel, Craig and Paolo had a double burger each - fatties!

I waddled out of FergBurger in pain. I was ridiculously full. So, we went for a little stroll around on the lake front. There are some really nice bars and restaurants around there. And on the wharf, the views across the lake are beautiful.
We went to Pog Mahones Irish pub first and I could barely drink the pint I got. It took me so long that Therese and Mel decided to leave and go to another bar!

We met up again in Buffalo Bar. It was fairly quiet when we got there, but about an hour later it was suddenly packed out. It was really good in there, good music and we had a good laugh. We were in there ages, then Mel and Paolo went back to the hostel. So, me, Therese and Craig went to World Bar and had a pot of tea...that's a cocktail in a tea pot! That's different.

Well we had a fantastic first night in Queenstown! Definitely love this place already!