We arrived into Queenstown to be welcomed by gorgeous sunshine which with the mountains and the river just made it look even more amazing. Before dropping everyone to their hostels we stopped off in a lovely little grassy spot for a massive group picture- a lot harder to take then you would think. All jumping in each other and smiling through the pain of the people crushing you above but the picture turned out looking awesome so it's all good. After everyone pulled themselves together we got back on the bus as a group for the final time to be taken to our Queenstown homes. In the bus Lauren announced that she was taking us all on a bar crawl that night as we had been such a good bus (I've checked with people on other buses and their drivers dont do it so yay for us!) and on the crawl their was a bar which had a $1000 bar tab from 11pm result!! Anyway, we got dropped off and got a really got room for the 6 of us - Ally, Amy, Lauren, Kate, Stingray and me :) we had an en- suite and a double bed which we agreed we would take turns to stay in.. At this point we were planning on being in Queenstown for 5 days. Loved our room, got changed and refreshed and decided to have a wonder round to get our barings together; didn't take long, Queenstown is surprisingly small. As it was such a lovely day and we had a few hours to kill before having to get ready we found an Irish bar with an outside area and had a few ciders, the boys found us after a while and joined us then we went back to glam ourselves up. This was the first night we were getting properly glammed up since I had started travelling so it was really good actually taking time to do make up and using GHD's again! everyone met downstairs in the lobby and our bar crawl consisted off numerous bars. first stop was the ice bar where we got given these massive fur coats and got our drinks in ice cups ect- was so cold in there, the bar decided to do a little bit of amusement where basically anyone who flashed t*** or willys) got a free shot- for some reason this seems reasonable in queenstown, the queenstown curse and so pretty much all of us ended up with a couple of free shots before leaving before we freezed to death. then we hit boiler room, then base bar where we saw like dominos with jager and took part in a compition which involved you being in a couple on stage and then couple by couple you got 30 seconds to perform as many sex positions as possible- we went first and didnt win..gutted but was so funny! after the excitement of base bar we hit world bar in time for free drinks and the night ended as all the kiwi nights do- fantastic and drunk. we spent the whole night doing crazy dances, shots with driver lauren, trying to get pennies into this big saxaphone behind the bar and getting pizza at the end of the night- there were like a million pizza places around.
The next day the weather was lovely again and all the boys were off doing their bungy jumps so we went for another little walk along the beach- where there are loads of ducks, fantastic! And came across ferg burger.. We had heard a lot about it and basically in Queenstown it's a famous burger place which is said to have the best burgers in the whole of New Zealand so obviously we had to try it. OMG they literally were amazing, we all picked the relatively small ones (compared to the monster big al which is like the biggest burger in the world!) and they were still HUGE. I couldn't finish it even though it was epic, me and lauren got 2 different bugers and had half each, the beef one we had was amazing and im going back to queenstown one day just to have another one aghh so good. Rest of the day wasn't massively exciting, we went back to the hostel and laughed at the boys bungy videos. They then gave us the best piece of info we came across in Queenstown.. They had decided to go to a bar to celebrate their Nevis success and came across a place called cowboys- free pizza, $3 beer (that's £1.50!!!) free pool, free bucking bronko and the place was just generally awesome so of course we made our plan for the night to investigate this magical place. When we were in their we then discovered for a couple extra dollars you could get a massive jug of beer/cider and that's where the idea to play 'Edward Fortyhands' came from. Basically we had to buy 2 massive jugs of drink and celotape them to our hands- 1 per hand obviously. And you couldnt take them off until both drinks had completely gone. Sooo funny but so awkward, especially when they start bringing free pizza over and you have no hands to eat it, thankfully Stingray came in and helped us eat! Anyway, it took ages to finish and when I did I was so happy I slammed my empty jugs on the table and managed to smash the plate of pizza.. And the same time Lauren was throwing up in the corridor. We went allowed to play Edward Fortyhands anymore. Night ended messy we went to bed that was that.
Next morning is when the fun really started... Canyon swing time baby!!! We got our little bus to the canyon and I got increasingly nervous the longer we drove for. When we parked up we were greeted by a very unusual toilet block with a Hoffman and Mr T theme..oddest pee ever. Then we had a 5 min walk to the area we swing from. Got there and watched others swinging.. Nerves got worse. Then it was time ti get harnessed up and pick the type of swing we wanted to do. Me and Kate had decided to do a tandem backwards swing which meant we were tied together and had to jump off a ledge backwards- Awesooome! the guys mess you around and wind you up by pretending to let you go and stuff and then finally we jumped, somehow my body turned and i basically ended up sitting on kates lap and we were screaming away, was so much fun.. another queenstown must do! Took a while for everyone to have their go and everyone did a different jump which was cool, combination of jumps included a backflip, leaning back on a chair, being hung over the canyon and just dropped unexpectantly and jumping headfirst. To celebrate our achievements we went for another ferg burger and then went and had a snooze on the grass by the water. After a while we got a bit bored and went to play frisby golf- a Queenstown exclusive. you get a frisby and have to get it in a target in a set amount of par, we were all so bad but had a lot of fun, that night was another night on the town and i kind of called it an early one so i wasnt hanging for the next day..we are now on Friday.. And just three words describe the day. Nevis. Bungy. Jump. Ahhhhhh my god it was more epic then epic could ever be!!!! Unlike with the swing I was excited in the bus, unlike Kate who had got very drunk the night before and had slowly started to sober up in the car on the way there! Got to the jump site and got harnessed up and brief talked- still excited. Got taken to the wooden ledge and saw the bungy and for the first time got the perspective of how high it really was- still excited. We got split into 2 groups to be taken over in the gondola to the ledge where you jump, Kate and Stingray went in the first group and me, Ally and Amy in the second. By the time we got to the ledge Kate had already jumped and I was somehow still excited. Saw some randoms jump and it was fine. Then I saw Stingray's jump- first person I know who I saw do it and oh my god I just freaked out at how fast she jumped. Then freak out mode started then ahhh all of a sudden it was my go and in the chair I was unbeleivably nervous, i was in such a blur that at one point i went to walk to the edge before the bungy was even attatched and after he did finally get me all safety'd up i waddled my way to the edge and I can't explain how you feel standing 134m high up in the middle of a canyon knowing your about to jump, my freak out didnt stop there and i was on the edge for about 2 minutes with the guy talking me into it before i jumped and then i dont know what happened, something just took over me and i thought f*** it and leap off. the feeling was insane. like it felt like it lasted forever but went so quick at the same and was just so so se-real. soooo buzzing for the rest of the day I was literally jumping on everyone we knew and telling them what I did like a little loser. That night of course we went out to celebrate and it got insanely messy- i was a complete mess haha.
Saturday... Hungover as hell. Not a lot happened in the day, we went out that night for Matt's last night and me him and Stingray left reasonably early, got pizza and went on the beach.
Sundayyyy.. Today we were going to Milford Sounds and we had to be on a bus at 7am.. We woke up at 10 to 7. Rush of our lives we had to pack, get washed and dressed and check out of the room in 10mins and tada we are that awesome that we made it! But the bus ride was horrific, so hungover. We had amazing weather though so was all good. Arrived to Milford after a few hours and got on a boat to do the tour of the gorgeous Milford Sounds. We got a massive Buffett dinner which fixed the hangover right out and then we saw lots of seals and 1 tiny penguin. After the boat we were taken to our lodge which was in a fantastic location but pretty grim- smelly beds yuk. We literally did nothing for the rest of the day except make tuna pasta bake and get into bed while Ally read us winne the pooh and we fell asleep just like kids!
Had to get up and check out by 10am even though our bus back to Queenstown wasn't until 4. We went for a wonder down the river and found a nice little spot where we stopped to chill out and read for a bit then we got hungry and headed to the cafe where we were also being picked up from. Food was horrible but did the trick and then waited around in the sun until we were collected. Another long bus journey back and then finally back to the lovely land of Queenstown. Next few days went overly exciting, went out for a few people's last nights and chilled out in the days. Then it was Wednesday. We had decided to hire a car and drive down to Dunedun for the night as we heard it was a fantastic place to go out. So road trip commenced! Took us a few hours and then we arrived in what looked like a relatively average town. Parked up and went for dinner and had a few drinks. It was here we discovered Dunedun was fantastic night life because it's a student town and we happened to go when the students had all gone home so literally nowhere was open. Being us, we bought a few boxes of wine and just got smashed in the back of the car and actually had a surprisingly good night! Centurion and never have I ever got interesting and we all passed out in the back if the car- most uncomfortable sleep ever.
Next morning we had to move our car by 8am because of the ticket running out. So Kate who had only fallen asleep a few hours before had to drive, managed to park on the wrong side of the road and opened the door to a guy telling us we went allowed to park there as a wine bottle fell out- oh dear. We got breakfast then did the horrifically long, hungover drive back. Soon as we got back and checked in we had to get preparing.. It was Stingray's birthday! Wrote her a list of 27 things she had to do in the night including saying yes to everything we asked her, got her a cake and got her singing postman pat on the tables in the dining area before dressing her up in a brightly coloured leotard and a green curly wig with writing all over her, she looked awesome. Night included the following: stingray dancing with an old man, kissing him and running away. Stingray swapping clothes with a guy, straight arm drinking for an hour, barking like a dog on the floor in a bar for 1 minute, climbing into a dustbin, dancing on a bar, kissing a bar man/maid in every bar we visited, doing a flaming sambuka along with lots of other stuff! I also got myself a 'ginger lover' t shirt from a bar by successfully buying 9 drinks in half an hour, it was messy.
As far as I can remember nothing too exciting happened during the day the following day apart from the Welsh showing up. That night we all went out again and I decided to rugby tackle Max for some reason.
The last few nights of Queenstown were a blur of drinking, Dave (guy Lauren met) taught us a drinking game called ride the bike which is awesome. Our last night was pretty awesome, ended up doing karaoke in a bar! So, that was Queenstown but this blog does no justice to how epic it really was!