Queenstown is by far one of my favorite places in New Zealand! It is located next to a lake, as are many towns in NZ, and is surrounded by very remarkable mountains. As you can see from the picture, describing it to you would not do it justice. The first day we got back to Queenstown from the Deep South, we met up with some friends for dinner and had a couple of drinks. The following two days it rained nonstop. Nathalie and I did not feel like going out in the rain so we just stayed in our dorm, watched some movies, read some books and at night met up again with friends for drinks. The third day, it even started snowing… Yes snow, and the kind of snow that stayed on the ground. So it was very cold and besides an attempt to climb Queenstown Hill during a clear period that only lasted for 1 hour, we went back to bed and did nothing again.

On Monday however the weather was amazing! Clear sky, not a cloud to be spotted, the mountains looked amazing with a fresh layer of snow and the water of the lake had never looked so blue. This day Nathalie and I made it to the top of Queenstown hill! We even made a snowman on the way up. It was a tough walk, about 2 hours up the hill, but it was so worth it! The views were absolutely astonishing! After our walk we treated ourselves to a good lunch at Devil Burger, one of the best burger places in town and then we decided to go to the gardens to play Frisbee golf. On the way there we ran into 2 more people who were on our bus and they joined us there. In the park we ran into a couple more people so we ended up being 7 people playing Frisbee golf. Throughout the park there are several spots marked where you have to thrown your Frisbee from, the tees. The goal is to reach a sort of metal pole with chains on it in which your Frisbee would get stuck. Those 'holes' were about 50 meters to 100 meters apart from each other. You count the amount of times you have to throw your Frisbee to reach the hole. Just like golf. It was pretty hard I can tell you! But it was also a lot of fun. The main obstacle was not to throw your Frisbee in the lake! After a while we stopped counting… There were other people on the parcours who were obviously professionals and they different Frisbees for different distances etc.

Tuesday was also great, we decided to climb up another mountain, this one you could also 'climb' using a cable lift. We felt like being active so we climbed it. It was such a steep hill! It took us an hour and a bit to climb it. At the top you have the skyline center. There is a café, souvenir shop, you can do a bungy or a swing from there and there is the 'luge'. The luge is a race track that only goes downhill. You get to ride these little carts that are like go carts but without the pedals. The only thing you can do is break and steer. I had one ride on them and it was so much fun! These little things can go really fast! Wednesday we slept in late and just enjoyed the sun! On Thursday we were to take the bus in the direction of Mount Cook. So after a week of staying in the same place, at a great hostel (Bumbles), we had to get back on the road!

Splash our new bus driver picked us up at 8 and off we went to Mt Cook. It was a relatively long drive. We arrived in Mt Cook village around 3pm. We went for a walk to go and see the glacier, which is absolutely massive! The glacier is a hanging glacier, so every now and then big chunks of ice break off and there is a massive thunder to be heard. We didn't get to see that though, but it was still great to just see this mountain from relatively up close. The next morning we had to leave around 8 again to go to our next stop, Rangitata. I was really looking forward to this stop, because I was going to do white water rafting! There was one other girl joining me on this trip and there were about 10 other people at the Rafting center. The Rangitata river is one of the best place to do rafting, because it had 2 rapids in it that are graded level 5! Level 6 means that you cannot raft on it, so level 5 is the highest you can get really. Because of all the rain from the last couple of weeks, the water levels were rather high, meaning the river was extra wild! Our guides were trying to scare us a bit, but at the same time they were also trying to make sure we knew what to expect. Dani, the other girl from the Stray bus and I were in the front of the boat, meaning we got the most water over us. And let me tell you that that water was cold! The water from the Rangitata river comes from the glaciers… So after a couple of rapid 2s and 3s we were already pretty wet! When the first rapid 5 came up, I got knocked back in the boat because the wave hit me full on. Luckily we made it through and I did not fall out! The second rapid 5, was one that is about 350 meters long, whereas a normal rapid would be about 50 to 100 meters long. The first couple of waves we went through smoothly, but then we hit one wave wrong and our boat got tipped over. Everyone was in the water! I was in the water before I knew what actually happened. So after a couple of seconds under water that were really scary, I came back up and luckily was really close to the boat, so I could grab the rope attached to it. About 2 seconds later another guy came from underneath the boat and was next to me holding on to the rope. When we came to a calmer part of the river the guides flipped the boat, and we all climbed back in. Gosh, what a rush! It was pure adrenaline running through my body. The boat that was behind us did make it through without flipping it, so they helped us out a bit. It would have been more awesome if we could have stayed in the boat, but nevertheless it was a thrilling and unforgettable experience! At the hostel the rafters got a nice BBQ and then we joined the rest of the group for a movie night!

This morning we had to get up at 6 and we drove all the way to Christchurch! Nathalie and I and a bunch of other people hopped of here. We all wanted to see the city after the terrible earth quakes in 2010 and 2011. I can tell you, wow, this city is still under construction. A lot of buildings still need to be taken down, there are roads that are still blocked of and overall it sort of looks like a ghost city. The city center is super small, one street where there is the 're:start mall'. This mall consists of cleverly stacked and beautifully painted containers which host several restaurants and shops. It looks very cozy and modern. The botanical gardens, which we visited shortly as well are massive and also very beautiful. We are staying in a hostel about 20 minutes from the city center, because most of the hostels that were in the center were destroyed during the earthquakes. We'll be here for a couple of days before we can catch the Stray bus to Kaikura where we can do some more whale watching and even swimming with dolphins… Until the next time!

Tine