Would You Like a Little Wine With that Cheese?

4/25/11     Wanaka -> Queenstown -> Dunedin

Today was utterly jam packed with action.  Well, not really.  We did a lot, though.  Today was Easter Monday and ANZAC Day.  (For those of you who don’t know about ANZAC Day, you can investigate here- ANZAC Day)  Basically it just screwed up timing for shops and everything.  There were parades and such too, but we didn’t see any.

Our first stop today was Stuart Landsborough’s Puzzling World.  This place was awesome.  There were illusion rooms, a puzzle room, a two story outdoor maze, and the Leaning Tower of Wanaka.  Due to time limits we could only stay for about an hour.  I could have easily stayed for two or three.

A quick drive then led us up to the Wanaka airfield where we picked up a fellow Kiwi traveler who went skydiving.  From there we were off to AJ Hackett’s Kawarau Bungy Centre.  We watched a film on the history of bungy and then went out back to the Kawarau Bridge and watched people bungy.  Some of them were even from our bus.  Four to be exact.  Two girls and two guys.  This jump is 43 meters (142 feet).  AJ Hackett also does the Nevis Highwire Bungy which is 134 meters (440 feet), which Nora is doing on Thursday afternoon.

 (Please note, we do not know this person)

We entertained ourselves for over an hour watching people fling themselves off a bridge (including 3 kids under 14).  We piled back on the bus and drove the short distance to Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world.  There we met up with Travis (who had left us the day before) and Jess, a new addition.  About 90 minutes later we were on the road again, this time in our super schmexy rental van.  We are so classy.

(Yes, that is a block of cheese)

The rest of our night involved high-tailing it to Dunedin.  We housed at this really interesting hostel, Manor House Backpackers.  It was literally two houses converted into all bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens.  Our room was on the second floor of the second building.  We had eight beds, a couch, a dresser, a desk, and free room!  We even managed to play a few rounds of Bananagrams.  The only downside to the place was its insufficient heating.  Inside was only slightly warmer than out.

That’s actually quite a common thing here in NZ.  Most of the buildings aren’t insulated in any way.  And they lack heating/air conditioning systems.  Makes for some extreme seasonal weather.

The last awesome thing about this hostel that I discovered?  A claw foot tub in the bathroom.  Hells yes.

Quote of the day: “Vineyards, heaps of them.  Grapes.  Wine.  Drunk.”