We arrived at Lake Matheson and did a quick walk to see Mount Cook and Mount Tasman reflected in the water below, which was amazing. We then sat out at the visitor centre enjoying our drinks in the warmth of the sun with an amazing backdrop. We didn't want to leave as it's been quite rare on the trip to have a hot enough day to sunbathe.

Whilst some of the group went jetboating in Makarora the rest of us went for a walk to the Blue Pools. We had to walk over a bridge that you couldn't exceed 10 people being on it at the same time, which was understandable as it moved a lot when you were on it! Nasreen, Kristina and I tried to skim rocks acrsoss the water and then when we had accepted that we weren't very good at it we decided to write the word Stray out of coloured stones instead.

On the way to Queenstown we stopped for 20 minutes at Wanaka, which is a beautiful town with a huge lake that had the stillest water. We had just enough time to paddle in the water before having to depart. We had to pick up two guys from the group at the skydiving place and because they hadn't landed yet we sat and watched them fall out of the sky.

We arrived at Queenstown - which has a huge lake called Lake Wakatipu and is renowned as the adventure capital of New Zealand - at 6pm and got a group picture with Nat as it was the last time she would be our driver. We then checked into Base hostel and were impressed with our dorm as we had an ensuite, fridge and tea and coffee facilities.

We all met at the infamous Fergburger (Adam and Finlay that I met in Melbourne had told me it was a must to have one) and ordered a Southern Swine and then grabbed some ciders as Nat had told us that we could drink on the beach till 10pm. Once we had our drinks and burgers we all headed to the beach which is at the edge of the lake. I was really impressed by Queenstown as it feels like a really pretty ski resort, with really nice boutiques, cool looking bars and all the buildings are really pretty. Most of the people from our bus were down at the beach and most were having burgers too. The burgers were huge and sooo tasty! We watched the sunset over the lake and then when it turned 10pm we dropped our hoodies and undrunk drinks back in the hostel and headed to Altitude bar next door as we could get 241's with our key cards. After a couple of drinks we headed to the dance floor when a good track came on. The bar felt like a British club as it had a DJ who would announce that they were giving out free shots and the girls would line up at the DJ booth and have spirits poured half in their mouth and half down their face. It also had girls in teeny outfits discussing boys they liked whilst they applied their make-up in the toilet mirrors! I was grateful when the others were also happy to leave to find another place to go to, especially as there wasn't enough room to dance in a circle like at Greymouth - although we did do a mini conga through the bar.

Unfortunately one of the bars that was recommended in the Lonely Planet was closed so we took a recommendation from a guy we bumped into and went to Buffalo's but we weren't really impressed by that either so we decided to call it a night.