We walked around the town & around the harbour, got some really nice pictures. We also came upon a street performer. He called himself Mulletman (yes, he had a full-on mullet) & did juggling tricks, pranced around, and rode a unicycle. He was pretty funny though. Later, we ran into Emily who we had met at the previous hostel in Wanaka. This time, we exchanged numbers so we could all meet back up for coffee later in the week. After a sufficient amount of exploration, Sontsa & I decided to head back to Steve's. However, the problem was that we'd only been at his house for maybe a total of 15 minutes earlier & neither of us paid that much attention to our car ride to & from there with Steve earlier that day. We knew he lived up a big hill that was about a 40-minute walk from town; luckily there was a small city bus that went that direction (which Steve had told us about). So, we got on the bus, took a wild guess as to which stop was our exit, and somehow found our way back to his house after a short 15-minute walk. We really need to pay more attention to things in the future haha. His house was really nice--a big 2-story house set on top of one of the many hills in Queenstown. It had huge glass windows looking out onto the scenery, and a big balcony area that had glass for sidings instead of stone or brick.
When we got back to Steve's, we met his three Australian roommates: Beau, Jules & Viola. Plus, Beau had some family and friends in town from Australia who came to celebrate his 21st birthday. So, we met Beau's mom Zinzy, his 10-year-old little sister Jamila, his dad Lee, and his friends Dominic, Nicolas & Sam. Everyone was just wonderful & really easy to get along with. We all just chilled out for the evening in front of the fireplace watching rugby. However, Sontsa & I were just so tired from staying up so late the night before in Wanaka that we kind of fell asleep sitting in the living room at 8:30 pm. Steve kept trying to wake us up, talking in a loud voice saying things like "Look at these couchsurfers! Life of the party, eh?" Haha. We just kept falling back asleep though--couldn't help it. Eventually, one of the Aussie guys also woke us up; he had gotten out a mattress & blankets for us so we could properly lay down for a rest. We felt really bad the next day that we had fallen asleep so early & not been especially social, but I think we made up for it the next couple of days.
The next day, Beau was to have a big 21st birthday party at the house. So, Sontsa & I walked into town, bought some beer for the party, plus some classic chips & dip. While we were out, we saw Beau's three Aussie friends. We went over to say hello & they offered to give us a ride back to Steve's after they'd done some shopping. Sontsa & I were overjoyed since we weren't particularly thrilled about a 40-minute walk up a hill carrying a bunch of beer. Now, did I mention that Beau's party was a costume party? Yes, a themed costume party, focusing on superheros and villains. Sontsa & I were a little late on getting the memo, and apparently so were Beau's friends. So, the three of them decided to conjure up some last-minute costumes by shopping at a store that is NZ's equivalent to the American Dollar General. Oh yes...the costumes they came out of that store with were just as glorious as you would think haha.
Before the party started later that night, we had some time to kill. So, the Aussies, Beau, Steve, Zinzy, Jamila, Sontsa & I played a game called "Black Magic." The game involves having one person go out of the room while the rest of the group quietly chooses an item in the room. Then, the other person comes back into the room, someone points to different objects in the room and asks the other person questions such as "Is it this chair?", "Is it this CD?", "Is it this bottle of water?", etc. Beau was the question-asker & Steve was the question-answerer; Steve guessed the item correctly every time. Obviously, there is a trick to the game, and the person asking the questions and the person answering the questions need to know the trick. It drove all of us CRAZY not knowing the secret--to the point that we all played it for an hour & a half until one by one, we all finally 'broke the code.' Jamila, Beau's 10-year-old sister, was the first to figure it out! Haha..go figure.
The next game, which involved less mental concentration, was flip-cup. The reason I mention it is because it turned out to be quite comical. When it was my turn to flip my empty cup over to land it upside down on the table, I somehow managed to make my cup do a double-flip in the air before it came back down & made a perfect landing. My teammates' eyes were just beaming with delight haha. When it was my turn on the next round, all I heard was the chanting of my teammates: "TRIPLE FLIP! TRIPLE FLIP! TRIPLE FLIP!" Good times. It wasn't long after that the party officially began. I think a total of about 30 people came through for the party at different points throughout the evening. We met Jan from England, Collette, Sharon & Jennie from Ireland, Nathan, and many other people whose names have slipped my mind. It was SUCH a fun night! For the duration of the evening, I became known as "Miss Florida" and Sontsa was "Miss Finland."
The costumes were nothing less than comical too. Steve changed into his rugby uniform & claimed that he was obviously a 'superhero' just by being a rugby player. Jules, one of the roommates, painted herself green & attached a folded up green blanket to her back; she was a ninja turtle haha. As for the Aussie boys' Dollar-Store-bought costumes...well, Nic was Zorro (I think) & his red 'cape' resembled the cheapest plastic tablecloth that I have ever seen haha. Dominic had a small black hat with a propeller on the top, plus a huge silky green tie that had some suggestive wording on it =). I believe Sam was a ninja--he even 'customized' his hooded mask by cutting out a hole so he could drink. Beau, however, was done up right; his mom Zinzy had done proper makeup to make him The Joker. Zinzy also had a proper costume as a circus conductor. After some convincing, Sontsa & I gave in to her also doing some costume makeup on us. Plus, Nic had some extra mustaches (apparently they came in a pack of 6?), so he gave Sontsa & I one each haha. I'm not exactly sure what our characters were supposed to be, but hey, it was something nonetheless =)
Sontsa & I spent most of our evening around Nic and Sam---oh wow, those boys were hilarous! At one point though, Sontsa & I became quite hungry. We decided to make some pasta, even though we didn't have any sauce to put on it. We just planned to eat it plain. Steve came in the kitchen, saw us cooking, asked what we were going to put with our pasta, and was not at all satisfied when we said "nothing." He intervened, added in sundried tomatoes, white wine, pepper, basil, olive oil, and voilà---it was some of the best pasta we've had in NZ! Mmmm. Eventually, after a full evening of many laughs & tons of fun, Sontsa & I became weary and needed to go to sleep. Since there were still people hanging out in the living room, we just took our mattress into a corner by the dining room & went to sleep =) We stayed at Steve's one more night after that, watched some classic episodes of The Simpsons, Family Guy, and of course, watched some more rugby. It was another good couchsurfing experience overall =) Now, this only covers half of our time in Queenstown. I suppose I'll save the rest for the next blog, as I don't think you guys want to read anymore for now, eh?
Cheers,
Ash
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