I was really excited to get to Queenstown because I had heard it was super touristy with a lot going on. I was ready for tourism things because we hadn't been to a super busy city yet. This could be because it was Easter Holiday, so people were busy doing family things, so we were excited to see people. It was a really pretty drive to Queenstown. On our way, we drove through the city of Clyde which was absolutely stunning. Since it is fall here, the leaves were starting to change color, so there were plenty of pretty yellow trees in the lookout.
We got to drive through the Valley of Vines and passed a TON of vineyards. This area is known for their red wines, and white wines are usually more north. Courtney and I prefer white wine, so we didn't have any plans to stop at any of these vineyards.
At this point, Shaina was starting to think she wanted to do it, so I was all like "yes let's do it!". After watching a few people jump, Shaina definitely wanted to do. Courtney at this point was definitely not going to go (although Shaina and I tried really hard to convince her). I was all for signing up and going that day, but unfortunately you have to pre-book it. No worries though, Shaina and I had booked our bungy for that Saturday by the time we left! There was no backing out then. Since it was only Wednesday, we had plenty of time to build up our anticipation for it! Once we got our fill of bungee, we kept on heading into Queenstown for another twenty minutes or so.
As usual, the first thing on our agenda once we got into town was to find WiFi. We were staying in one of the teacher at Thames High's daughter's house (for free!) so we needed to look up how to get there. Once we figured it out, we decided to explore the town first since we were way earlier than she was expecting us. I fell in love with the town almost immediately. There was basically a small-ish area of shops right on the shore of Lake Wakatipu. Plus there were beautiful mountains (yes REAL mountains this time) on the other side of the lake.
We continued walking around and shopping. We could tell we hit tourism central because every other shop was basically a souvenir shop. Plus, there were a ton of people walking around and taking photos just like us. It was really nice being around a lot of people again in a bustling town. It just seemed like everyone was having a great time.
Once it was an acceptable time to go check out the house, we decided to go and find it. We weren't sure if Sarah (the person we were staying with) would be there yet, but she told us where to find a key just in case. Her house was up on a hill. Once we got there, we all wanted to just live there forever. She lived up on the hill, facing Lake Wakatipu and the mountains. Plus she had huge glass windows and a nice deck to sit on to enjoy the view.
After living in hostiles for a few days, it was nice going to a real home where we could have some privacy again. Although we had to sleep on the ground, they gave us air mattresses and blankets which worked perfectly. We unloaded our belongings and decided to head back into town for dinner since Sarah wasn't home.
Apparently it gets really busy in Queenstown at night, so it is kind of hard to find parking. Luckily we were able to find a spot that was next to this restaurant called Prime. We were all pretty hungry, and this restaurant had a sign for a dinner special which was a pretty good deal, so we decided to eat there. I got fish and chips for the first time which is a pretty common meal here. It was delicious! I used to not eat fish that often, but I have eaten a ton of fish here in NZ. After dinner, we decided to go back to Sarah's place because we wanted to introduce ourselves before she went to sleep. We ended up talking to her and her fiance for a bit and then watched a movie before bed.
On Thursday we got to sleep in a bit and then headed into town. We didn't have much planned besides explore the town, so we had planned to do something "active" or at least go on a nice walk. The first thing on our agenda, however, was to go to a cupcake place called Cup and Cake. Zac had told us that it was the best cupcake place ever, so of course we had to check it out. On our way, we ended up running into the three Americans from Washington (John, Nathan, and Mitchell) who we had met in Rotorua. We made plans to hang out that night and then continued on to get cupcakes. I ended up getting a salted caramel cupcake which was really good. It turns out that the lady working there was on the show Master Chef New Zealand (although she was originally from Canada).
The show was currently running on TV, and it was the top 3 contestants. She was still one of the contestants in the show, and she wouldn't tell us if she won or not. Apparently they filmed back in November, so I don't know how she was able to keep the secret for that long. We ended up watching the season finale the Sunday we got back, and she got second, which is still pretty cool!
My parents had told us to check out this place in Queenstown called Fergburger, and we had also been told by many other people to go there as well. Apparently people who live in Queenstown don't go there, but if you are a tourist you have to go. Because it's so popular, you basically need to put in your order like AT LEAST half hour before you are hungry because there is always a big wait. We decided to go right after our walk, so it was only about 11:30 when we put in our order and were told it would take half hour. They give you an order number and it comes up on a screen when it was ready, so we were able to leave and go shop while we waited.
Courtney and I got a caramel sundae which was as amazing as it sounds. It had cookie crumbles in it and a nice warm cookie on top. By the way, the red guy in the picture is the Cookie Time mascot which I'm sure most of you could have figured out. It was a very good dessert and a good way to end the night. We were headed to Milford Sound the next day and had to leave really early, so we headed back to Sarah's for the night after dessert and got some sleep.
Friday morning we woke up at 4:30AM to go to Milford Sound. The reason we did it on Friday was because Friday was Anzac Day which is a holiday. Therefore we weren't sure what stores would be closed for the day and we wanted something to do. Nathan and John wanted to go to Milford Sound as well, so we picked them up from their hostile to drive with us. Our boat didn't leave until 9:15AM, but it was about a three and a half hour drive there which is why we had to leave so early.
On our drive, we had to stop in Te Anu to get gas and were told there really wasn't much after that until you got to Milford Sound. As we drove down there, it began raining. At first we thought this was unfortunate because we knew we would be on a boat and we didn't want crummy weather. However, as we were driving, we started seeing little waterfalls on the side of the road. Then, we turned a corner and it was almost like we were in a completely different world.
There were huge mountains with so many waterfalls falling from the top of them. I don't know why but I kept just thinking they seemed like "crying hills or mountains". Shaina had heard that Milford sound was even better when it rained, and I'm sure that was probably why. I'm not sure how many waterfalls we would have seen if we had gone when it was sunny. Everywhere you looked was just flowing with water. It was so unreal feeling. I think the best part was that it was such a surprise because I wasn't expecting anything like that. We basically drove straight through a mountain when we drove through a tunnel headed down.
I personally wasn't a fan of the tunnel because one of my fears is getting trapped by water. That's kind of how it felt as we drove down to Milford Sound because we kept going further and further down, and it was raining a ton so there was water everywhere. Not gonna lie, I kept thinking what if we got trapped down there because there really is not much besides the boats (we ended up being alright obviously) We got to do this amazing drive for about twenty minutes down to the bottom where we found the building where all the boat tours start.
Once we got to our boat, we were told that our tour was cancelled since it was still pretty rainy and the water was kind of rough. Therefore, they let us switch to the 11:15 tour. This one was more expensive, probably because it was later, but we didn't have to pay more which was nice. However, we were stuck just lounging around the waiting area for a couple hours.
Luckily the rain started to ease up a little bit for the 11:15 tour, so it was a go! We got to start our trip on the boat. We could see some blue skies to the left of us and some crappy weather straight ahead. Unfortunately, our boat headed straight ahead towards the nasty stuff. It ended up being really cool though because just like the drive down, there were a ton of waterfalls everywhere. It was really pretty.
Even though it was raining a little bit, we were still able to go stand on top of the boat outside and enjoy the view. We even got to take a picture with the two minutes of sun we had!
We kept having to move inside and outside of the boat because it would be nice outside, and then all of a sudden there would be sheets of rain. We didn't mind though because it just gave us plenty to look at. It was nice because our 9:15 trip was supposed to come with free breakfast since they know people have to leave so early to get there (because the closest accommodations are Te Anu which is like 1.5 hours away or Queenstown which is like 3 hours away), but since that one was cancelled, we got free lunch instead! Our boat had a Pita Pit on it, which I had never had before, so that is what we got to eat. It was really good...and free...so it was a nice lunch to have on the boat! Our We basically just went between some of the mountains and came to the opening where the ocean was. The waves started getting really big and it was cool seeing out into the ocean.
Then our captain turned our boat around and we headed back on the other side of the little passage we went through. Although much of it all looked the same, it was still really breath-taking seeing it all. I have never seen anything like it, and it's kind of hard to think that places like this actually exist. If you don't think these pictures are cool, that is a bummer because I know they don't do it justice. But if you were there, you would know what I"m talking about.
Our captain took us to a spot where we could see some seals. It really wasn't that exciting because I've seen seals before, but there aren't many animals roaming about in NZ, so it's always fun when you get to see some wildlife (but don't get me wrong because I'm happy there are no snakes or anything vicious that can attack me at night). We saw about five seals just kind of hanging out. We were told that sometimes there were dolphins that could be seen as well, but unfortunately we didn't see any on our tour.
After seeing the seals, the captain took us under a waterfall! Now, there was plenty of indoor seating, so he told us we could go inside if we didn't want to get wet. Since it had been raining and we were outside most of the trip, we were already kind of wet, so I decided why not? I've never been under a waterfall before.
It was a great choice on my part. It was neat because it just got really windy from the pressure of the water coming down and then there was like a thick mist from the water. It was really loud too as it came down and kind of blew you away almost. Not too many people decided to stay outside during This. I could imagine people are all for it when it is a nice, hot day outside. As you can see from the photo, I definitely got soaked, but it was worth it! Unfortunately, I had a three hour drive back home. I did bring extra pants though which was a great decision.
After showering and getting warm again, we decided to meet up with the American guys again and explored some of the night life of Queenstown. Many of the shops stayed open pretty late, and there were some little stands set up near the water. It's a completely different scene than during the day. Because Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world, there are so many activities you can do during the day such as bungee jumping, sky diving, paragliding, take a jet boat tour, go on hikes, go four-wheeling, and take the gondola up to go luging (which we already did in Rotorua). At night, obviously none of these activities are going on, so it's mostly people just walking around and socializing. We had seen a Mr. Whippy ice cream truck in Christchurch, and then we saw a Mr. Whippy store in Queenstown, so we decided to try it out. Basically, the had either 6 different types of frozen yogurt where you could put toppings on, otherwise they only had just plain vanilla ice cream to put toppings on. I ended up getting the frozen yogurt which was really good!
The next day we were going bungee jumping, so we headed back to go and get some rest for our last half-day in Queenstown before heading north!
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