Queenstown

Day 11
I woke up early to grab breakfast and then walked to the location for the scenic flight. I didn’t get my hopes up because I was afraid that it was going to just get cancelled again. When we got there they checked us in and took our weight (there were 2 groups of us, each with 4 people). In my helicopter was Georgia, Michaela and Marnie. We sat waiting for a while, nervous it would get cancelled, when they finally escorted us out to where the helicopters took off from. We saw the first group take off and about 5 minutes later our helicopter arrived. The flight up was amazing! The mountains and the glacier were so incredible and as we were flying I completely understood why they needed a very clear day because we flew close to the mountains. Once we landed on the glacier we were allowed to get out, walk around and take pictures. It was so surreal to be in New Zealand walking on top of a glacier! It was obviously covered with snow but it wasn’t too cold which made the whole experience very enjoyable. The whole experience was around 20 minutes (it was pretty expensive for the time spent up there but was very cool to see) before we were back on land and heading to the bus. We made our way from Franz Josef to Queenstown (one of the most popular tourist stops in New Zealand and known as the adrenaline capital of the world) which was a 5 hour drive. We broke up the drive by making a stop at a beautiful waterfall and then stopped again in a lakeside town to grab lunch and spend an hour enjoying the view. I grabbed a chicken quinoa salad and went to a picnic bench on the water to eat and enjoy the sunshine (the south island was chilly and I found myself layering with long sleeves here). After eating I went to the water to look at the giant black eels that were swimming under one of the docks. We got back on the bus and continued the scenic drive through the mountains until we arrived in Queenstown (I would definitely recommend to anyone visiting New Zealand to rent a car on the south island, the drive is truly breathtaking). We checked into our hotel (Jucy Snooze, which had 8 pods in a room, very tight, with privacy shades for each bed) and those of us who were interested in getting a contiki shirt made, met Dan outside. Once getting back to the hotel I showered and got dressed up for our optional buffet dinner on top of a hill overlooking Queenstown. We got onto the bus and drove down to the water first to get a group contiki picture and then were dropped off at the gondola lift which brought us up to the restaurant. We grabbed drinks at the bar and a bunch of us went outside to a viewpoint which had the most magnificent views of the lake. When they were ready for us, we were taken to the buffet which was surrounded by glass windows with unbeatable views. There were so many different food and dessert options, it was the biggest buffet I had ever seen and pretty tasty. After dinner we went out in town to a bar with a live musician to grab drinks. Once the group moved to the next bar a couple of the other girls and I decided to head back to the hostel.

Day 12
I got up early for breakfast at the hotel (which was the nicest of any of the hotel breakfasts, I got avocado toast) and had to be on the bus at 8:30am to go to Kawarau Bridge to watch those who decided to go bungy jumping. Kawarau Bridge is the original bungy jumping bridge and it is 43 meters or 141 feet. I have never had any desire to bungy jump, I never understood why anyone would ever want to jump off a bridge only being connected by the ankles. However, as I was standing there watching all the people on my tour do it, I kind of regretted not signing up for it. Once everyone jumped, we got back on the bus and headed 15 minutes down the street to Cargo Brewery to taste beer and wines. This was one of the few activities included on our tour but they didn’t have enough samples for everyone (even though you could buy glasses of the beer and wine inside) so I was only able to try the beer. This was disappointing because we were in the Otago region of New Zealand, which produces some of the best pinot noir in the world. The brewery was very nice, it had a huge outdoor area with volleyball, soccer nets, cornhole, a fire pit and picnic beaches. After the tasting I got 2 or 3 beers and we all hung out chatting with each other and enjoying the nice weather. We had to get back to the hostel for the people who had afternoon activities. I took advantage of the free time and took a nap and did some blogging. I went into town with a couple of people at a korean restaurant that is all shared foods, and then met the group at a Cuban bar for a round of drinks. Once everyone was together, we headed over to below zero ice bar (an add on activity that everyone signed up for) and were given jackets and gloves. This was the most incredible ice bar I ever went to, it had ice chairs and couches, an ice hockey table made of ice and a bunch of big ice animal sculptures. We got a free drink to start and then had to pay for the ones after that. I had to leave the ice bar a couple of times because of how cold I was. We went to about 3 bars afterwards and I decided to get back to the hostel.Baca lagi