Feeesh and Cheeeps

4/29/11     Queenstown -> Kaikoura

The following words describe my day: wake up, drive, eat snooze, drive, fish and chips, beer, conversation, sleep.  We spent 8am-7pm driving and there’s not too much to elaborate on.  The following pictures encompass the day.

Our hostel

View from the window

Mt. Cook (?) in the background

Christchurch through a bug- spattered window

Our English friend, Georgina

Kaleb clambering onto Nora's bunk in his sleeping bag.

The Ride of the Rings

4/28/11     Te Anau -> Queenstown

The four of us in the tent happily rose for the day around 7 or so.  I think I was the only one in the tent who slept reasonably well.  Poor Kaleb was probably close to getting frostbite on his toes and only slept for around 30 minutes.  Nora was also super cold and didn’t get much sleep.  Tony was fine until his nose stuffed up midway through the night and he couldn’t breathe properly.  I was plenty warm, thanks to Nic’s sweet as sleeping bag.  I did get some pretty intense leg cramps at one point, but that was all.  Jess and Travis slept in the van and they seemed to be fine.

For once on our trip we were on schedule.  We left exactly when we wanted to, somewhere between 8 and 8:30.  We stopped for a quick breakfast then began our drive.  Due to our spectacular timing we ended up taking a detour to Arrowtown before going to Queenstown.  Arrowtown is a cute little town.  They filmed some of the Rivendell locations for LOTR here.  I don’t think that we went to any spot where they actually filmed, but it was easy to see.  Take a look for yourself…

We spent about an hour in Arrowtown before once again heading to Queenstown.  Upon arrival we checked Travis and Jess into their hostel, found some parking, food, and bathrooms.  A quick lunch later had us splitting up once again.  Kaleb, Nora, and I headed to ‘The Station.’  Here Kaleb and I were picked up for our horse ride and Nora was picked up to go do the Nevis Bungy, the largest in the world at 134 meters (440 ft).

Kaleb and I jumped onto the shuttle and rode 40 minutes out around Lake Wakatipu to their base in Glenorchy.  There we paid for our rides, dropped off our bags, and received riding gear in the form of helmets and boots.  Those of us going on the Ride of the Rings tour then got back on the bus and rode another 20 minutes to where we began our ride.  I was paired with a horse named Cort and Kaleb was placed with Bob, the biggest horse there.As there were 16 riders we were split into two groups of eight, each with two guides.  Our group was off first.  The horses quickly formed a single file line, with very little instruction from us.  And we were off, exiting the paddock at a nice, sedate walk.

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.