More of Queenstown

Kia Ora!

The morning following my bungee jump, saw an early rise in order to catch a bus to visit Milford Sounds. Milford Sounds is described as the '8th Wonder of the World' and is supposed to be breathtakingly beautiful. A number of us had booked onto a full day-trip to see the sounds which included all transportation, a buffet lunch and access to the underwater observatory to view various wildlife creatures. Unfortunately we were told that we would be unable to go on the trip due to heavy snow fall which had caused certain roads to be closed.

That day was therefore spent sleeping, chilling, watching movies and lazing about with the other lads in our room. As much as I hate wasting any time while travelling, sometimes it's essential to simply rest and recouperate. It also made it an extremely cheap day! We rebooked our Milford Sounds trip for the following morning, in the hope that the weather might improve.

The next morning was rather deja vu, as once again we woke early to once again be told that we would be unable to visit Milford Sounds. At this point, we only had one further day left, so we decided to cut our losses and get a refund on the trip. That day, I walked around Queenstown a fair bit, visiting the various shops and sites. Later that afternoon, we had a knock on our door from one of the hostel employees inviting us to play frisbee golf. I'd never plaid before but it's one activity I'll definitely be keen to play again. I ended up 14 over par, which wasn't terrible with all things taken into account. That evening we hung out with more of the people on our bus and enjoyed a relatively low-key night.

The next morning, I decided to do some hiking once again. Having learned from my previous errors, I was dressed much more appropriately this time. I decided to hike up a big old hill, which would take me to the Queenstown Luging Centre. The climb was tough but by no means comparable to Mount Roy. After just over an hour of solid climbing, I reached the summit which provided some beautiful views of Queenstown. I sat down and had a quiet coffee before walking back down. That afternoon, we had another knock on the door from the same hostel employee, this time inviting us to take part in a scaveneger hunt. After being split into pairs (which meant Andy and I working together), we were given an hour to complete as many of the challenges as possible. We were required to bring our cameras with in order to gain photographic or video evidence. The challenges involved everything from finding certain items, completing random tasks and the occassional display of nudity. Andy and I returned victorious and won ourselves a few freebies at the hostel.

Tomorrow morning we will be boarding the bus to Christchurch, which will be our final stop in New Zealand. Christchurch received a 7.4 recorded earthquake 3-weeks ago, so I'm unsure what to expect when I arrive. I'll look forward to telling you more soon.

Much love!

Sam