Thursday 7th January
Night out with a new bus group, an early morning in a jet boat, walking up the big hill next to Queenstown
Distance: minibus, 10km, walk, 5km
Total Distance: 4467km
For most normal people, by Queenstown, you've shared the same bus with the same people and driver for atleast a week, maybe three. However, at QT people split, staying more or less time here, going further south, going north, or flying out. Therefore, as a last hurrah, Kiwi Experience has a meal and pub crawl. I was on a completely new bus, didn't know anyone (which, after all the other buses I've been on, was novel), but still went out with them anyway.
I got chatting to the pair of British couples as well as the driver and the 5 German girls. They all seemed a relatively normal bunch. We had barbecue ribs, chicken, and chips, a few beers, pool games, visited a couple of bars for team shots, the usual. At the third bar I was talking to the bus driver. The driver-guides are always interesting to talk to, and this trip was his first solo, hence it was being an interesting experience for him. We chatted about New Zealand, different drivers, different parts of the country we travelled through, the sorts of people we saw on the bus, how different each person's trip was, and much more.
Then it all got a bit weird.
He'd had a suspicion, but it was confirmed that night. The 7 German girls were cry open in revealing, on the dance floor, that they are a group of swinging lesbians, and one of the British couples were in a very open relationship- the guy had found himself the nice German girl from the bus known for always smelling of weed.
"What's going on? I'm confused"
"Yeh, me too. Fergburger?"
Fergburger is New Zealand's best burger restaurant. Throughout the day it hosts a queue of over an hour in the centre of Queenstown. Turns out the trick is to go at unsociable hours. They open early in the morning and close very very late at night. We had a little wait, but not too long. Was it worth it? All the fuss? Everyone's patience? HELL YEH! Actually just scrumptious juicy succulent heaven. Nicely rare, beautiful sauces, all the trimmings. I'm not normally a burger person, but please, more, please! Have one for breakfast, or maybe a midnight snack- there's too much to do here to use up an hour- but it's even worth waiting for an hour if you have the time.
The next morning I was up at 7am to go on the Shotover Jet Boat. They've been running since 1965 and have it pretty well set up now, having taken over 3 million tourists so far. We got the bus down to the river and got the story of how a Kiwi farmer invented the jet boat to go see his sheep. The water in his river was too shallow for a normal boat, but a jet boat can function in next to no water, mostly we were in much less than 1 metre of water, even though the boat weighed over 3 tons. The farmer tinkered away and came up with this contraption, which turned out to be not only functional, but fun! We hammered down canyons, nearly smashing into many cliffs, rocks, and fallen branches, before being turned aside, or finishing with a flourish with a spin.
It was great, though I feel my adrenal glands have been some what over awed by the bungy jump. Cool thing to do though.
After that, and breakfast, I decided to climb one of the hills around QT. I walked up to 850m, where there's a cafe, viewing platforms, and a Jelly Bean gift shop. No, I don't know why.
Having done some exercise I came back to town and decided to sort out my next visit here. I'll be away for a bit, but I'm coming back for a day, maybe two. I checked in on the Shot Over Canyon Swing that I'd won, made sure my time was organised. After that I went in search of the Nevis Bungy office. This is NZ's largest bungy, at 134m falling into nothingness. Not even any water to dip myself in. It was going to be very expensive , but having done the previous bungy with them I got over 1/3 off. Frequently suicidal discount I guess.
I'm thinking about having an extra day here and adding in a horse ride/Lord of the Rings half day tour. There's a lot of chances to ride here, but it's not necessarily cheap. Kind of figure I need to do it once here though, and adding in a Middle-Earth tour too, makes it a must.
Tomorrow I'm off to Dunedin, to stay at Hogwartz Hostel!
