Our next couchsurfing hosts were great too--Sophie from Whales, Aaron from Ireland & Luke from England. In their house, they had kind of a permanent couchsurfing area set up on the floor just off the living room. They just enjoy hosting people so much that they have surfers all the time, sometimes back to back during ski season. The first night we got there, Luke & Aaron didn't get home until late because Aaron had hand surgery that day (and still let us come stay!). So, Sontsa & I visited with Sophie for a few hours and watched episodes of a pretty hilarious show called The Imbetweeners. After the guys got home, we all just hung out & chatted. At one point, they had a knock on their back door & in walked two girls, Sharon & Jennie, who we had met a couple of nights before at Beau's birthday party at the previous couchsurfing house. To say the least, the girls were quite surprised to see us haha. They only stayed for a few minutes though to check on how Aaron's sugery went, then headed back out to a house party.
We stayed up for a little while longer chatting with Aaron, Luke & Sophie. They had all been living in Queenstown for over a year & had plenty of tips for things to do. I know I mentioned that Queenstown is where backpackers flock to & never want to leave. Well, the reason is because besides being beautiful, it is also the adventure capital of New Zealand AND actually has a nightlife! We have met backpackers that literally spent all of their money in Queenstown in a matter of days. It is known for its bungy jumping (the highest jump is 402 feet high!), skydiving, jetboating, rafting, parasailing, hanggliding, ziplining, skiiing...the list goes on and on. However, Sontsa & I were very good girls and barely spent any money in Queenstown. One reason being that everything is so expensive: he highest bungy is almost $300 NZD alone! However, there are also many things to do in Queenstown that don't cost much money.
One of the main areas for activities in the town is up this massive hill--at the top, you have seriously crazy mountain biking trails, ziplining tracks, a bungy, and something called luging that is basically like high-speed, downhill go-carting. Luke & Aaron both worked the luge rides on the mountain. So, Luke told us to come up the next day while he was working & he'd hook us up with some deals. We had the option of either taking a gondola ride up to the top OR doing an hour-long hike up the moutain. Being the troopers we are, we decided to take on the challenge of the latter. Let me just say...it was quite a little hike, more like a climb at times. Most of it didn't consist of any real path, just rocks & trees that had orange arrows spraypainted on them to tell you which direction to go. It was well worth is when we got to the top though--such a wonderful view of the city, the lake, and the mountains.
Luke had told us to text him when we got to the top, so I texted him that we were just taking a short rest at the picnic tables, then we'd make our way to the luging. Well, two hours later after our 'short rest' and a hot chocolate break at the cafe, we felt fully recovered from our hike & made it over to the luging. Luke gave us some luging tickets, but not before teasing us about our 'short' break at the picnic tables =) Haha. After getting properly fitted with helmets, Sontsa & I did 6 rounds of luging down the hill, taking the chairlift back up the hill after each time. It was really fun =) A big camera on the hill took pictures while you were the chairlift, but you could never tell when it was taking the photo. So, Sontsa & I looked half-retarded with permanent smiles on our faces each time we went up on the chairlift, determined to get a good picture =) After our luging adventures, we took a relaxing gondola ride back down to the very bottom of the hill. It was a good day.
The next day while Luke & Sophie were at work, Sontsa & I went ice skating! Since Aaron was out of work because of his surgery, he came along too for moral support =) It was my first time skating on real ice, so I was quite excited. My only other 'ice skating' experience was in Panama City, Florida where the floor was made of a cutting board material & drenched in oil to make it slick...not exactly comparable to real ice. To my surprise, I did really well (for a beginner). I only fell once, and that was only when I started to get cocky & unsuccessfully tried to do a fancy turn. What made the experience more interesting was a young local girl named Freya. You see, Freya was about 8 years old, and was apparently an 'expert' ice skater. She came up to me on the ice and said in a strong Kiwi accent, "You look a bit wobbly. For your own benefit, I think you need to use this." She handed me this little push-buggy thing that beginners (moreso children) are supposed to use until they are totally comfortable on the ice. Yes...I used the stupid buggy. I was perfectly fine without it, but she made sure to reiterate its importance to me whenever she saw me skating around on my own. Aaron was of course laughing from the sidelines the whole time Freya was instructing me haha. Luckily, she eventually got distracted by some other skaters that were a hell of a lot worse than me & finally left me alone =)
After ice skating, Aaron went to run some errands & Sontsa and I walked around the Queenstown Gardens, which were really beautiful--the leaves on the trees were changing for the season with bright reds and oranges. To my dismay, it was during this time that my camera stopped working properly =( It will now only take green or purple photos & apparently has a faulty sensor, according to a camera shop I took it to. So, since then, Sontsa has been letting me use her camera, which has been really nice. It actually works out as a fair tradeoff too because I have been sharing my laptop with Sontsa all this time. I will have to buy a new camera when Sontsa leaves NZ next week though. After the gardens, we went back into town & ran into two of our favorite backpackers, Rachel & Vinnie from Napier! I was soo excited to see them again! We couldn't talk too long though because Sontsa & I had already pre-scheduled to go to the ice bar in town at 5:00 pm.
There is a 'special deals' website specifically for activities in Queenstown that Sontsa & I had booked cheap tickets for the ice bar on. I had been dying to go to an ice bar ever since James from Florida had told me about one he'd been to in Alabama. So, we got to the check-in area for the bar, which was called Minus 5, and were fitted with gloves and a big fur-rimmed jacket. Then, a guy from Ireland told us he was going to be our bartender for the evening & to follow him. The next room was the actual bar & absolutely everything was made of ice--the bar, the seats, the cups, etc. The room temp was -7 degrees celcius, so we weren't allowed to stay longer than 30 minutes. It was pretty sweet though; there were ice sculptures everywhere and changing light colors. Plus, our entry included a free mixed drink...not too shabby.
Later in the evening, Aaron, Luke & Sophie had a couple of Irish friends over to the house--Max & Bryan (who they called Charlie when he drank haha). We all hung out for a while having a couple of drinks, then planned to go into town. Remember I said that Queenstown had a nightlife; this is a very big deal since it is one of the only 3 cities or so in NZ that does! So, Sontsa & I had been looking forward to going out in Queenstown for months. However, leading up to that day, Sontsa had been feeling somewhat under the weather & had a cough for a couple of weeks. Well, that night after the ice bar, she felt A LOT worse. When it came time to head to town with the guys, she felt pretty wretched & opted to stay in and get some rest. Sophie had to work the next day, so she didn't go out either. I walked to town with Aaron, Luke, Max & Bryan, and also planned to meet up with Rachel and Vinnie while we were out. When I told the guys about Rach & Vinnie, they got super excited about meeting mine & Sontsa's Irish friends, so we headed straight to where they were. All of the Irish hit it off famously & the whole group of us, plus two of Rach & Vinnie's friends, went to 3 or 4 bars throughout the evening, danced, and had SUCH a great time. I found out Bryan is called Charlie when he drinks not for any bad reason, but just because he gets very happy, starts bringing out crazy Irish dance moves & going wild on the dance floor haha. It was soo great to catch up with Rach & Vinnie again too.
We didn't do too much else in Queenstown while we were there, although we did meet up one day with Emily who we'd met in Wanaka & one of her friends for hot chocolate. That was quite nice. We actually went to the cafe where Beau worked as a chef, so we ended up seeing Beau's dad & were able to nod a quick hello to Beau. Sontsa & I also ate out for one meal at the NZ-famous Fergburger; it is known all over NZ for having incredible burgers & chicken sandwiches, and it lived up to its expectations. We got our sandwiches to-go & ate our lunch on a bench overlooking the lake. One more thing worth mentioning is that Sontsa & I had expected to run into 'our friend' Armin again from Austria while we were in Queenstown, but never did. We messaged him and found out he had already left Queenstown & traveled to a nearby city about 45 minutes way called Cromwell. He apparently does less research than Sontsa & I though because he didn't realize how small the town was until he got there. He then went to I-site to get some information on any activities he could do, only to be told by the lady that there literally was nothing for him to do haha. Plus, buses barely went through Cromwell, so he was stuck there for a couple of days. Oh, poor Armin. Our Queenstown experience was wonderful overall though, with great couchsurfing hosts & plenty of good memories.
Cheers,
Ash
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