April Adventures III- QT
The first day of my last year of undergrad. Let’s just say… when will I ever have time to blog about the North Island!? The GRE is screaming at me, clinical observation hours are looming, etc. etc. ha. I wrote this about Queenstown throughout the week last week and now I feel like it’s not that interesting. But I’ll try to spice it up with pictures. P.s. don’t let the end freak you out. Hitchhiking is super common in N Zed!
The day we came down from Mueller Hut was April 15th- Liz’s 21st birthday! Liz and Damon drove down from Chch to meet us in Queenstown and Nicole, who was traveling with her aunt, also happened to be there! We were all reunited.
And starving. First stop= FERGBURGER. Awww to remember my first Fergburger…Tropical swine! Real food already tastes 10x better after tramping…even better when it’s a Ferg. I think I’ve already described the amazingness that is Fergburger in another post, so I’ll refrain from expounding too much.
We then went to a couple places to celebrate Liz’s birthday, the last of which was called Winnie’s that had a retractable roof!! So cool to look up and see the stars. That night we camped next to some cows and a little lake. It was pretty chilly down in QT, so I was all bundled up in my mummy sleeping bag with all the strings pulled tight. Apparently too tight. In the middle of the night, I wake up Liz and Damon with a bloodcurdling scream. I was murmering something but all I remember is Liz’s soothing voice saying “It’s okay, we’re getting you out” as they begun to tug on all my strings to unzip my sleeping bag. I fell back asleep right away and realized when I woke up that I had a dream about being buried alive… lol. My sleeping bag= the dirt in my mind. Hence the freakout.
Sad to say now, we didn’t do much in Queenstown. Even though it’s the adventure capital of the world. But you know that’s okay. It was cold. We were tired. Somehow I ended up in Starbucks in the morning waiting for Liz and Damon when a guy in front of me asks if I’m Canadian. Besides my lack of a NZ accent, I just happened to be wearing socks with my Birkenstocks. Apparently, socks and sandals is a Canadian thing, eh? He was Canadian, so he should know! We walked around some of the shops the rest of the morning- it’s kind’ve reminscent of a cute little ski town next to a lake I’d say and then Liz and I couldn’t leave without another Fergburger for lunch. Or two. We split Bambi and Southern Swine! We made fun of everyone else for going to Subway. P.s. there are a lot of Subway in N-Zed. Then, we sadly split ways. Emily stayed with the boys for their South Island Road Trip and Liz, Damon, and I ventured back to Chch to get ready for the NORTH ISLAND…
We had a wonderful drive back to the Ch-squared. Our one-way rental was upgraded to a really nice SUV. We saw the River Anduin from LOTR. We got an amazingly clear view of Mt. Cook from Lake Pukaki. and we picked up our first (and last) hitch-hiker!
Kawarau River a.k.a where they canoe past the huge pillars of the kings!!
Seriously. Can you get a better view of Aoraki than that!?
Yep, same blue lake. I know, I’m obsessed. Hi, Liz.
Sorry, no picture of the hitch hiker. That would have been weird. But this is taken from the car on the way back.
Until next time.
good luck with school, julihoon!
did you do any hitchhiking while you were there?
Juli Your blogs make it almost seem like I was there too. Man would love to hike the river where LOTR huge klng pillars were.
Hi Juli, Your hiking adventures are such fun to experience – at least you make it so vivid that it seems like one is there hiking, eating and snapping beautiful photos along with you. Thanks for another fun journey.
Love, Grandma