I finally found where I belong....Queenstown, NZ

 

Friday 3 The World’s Highest 
Swing 

Today is the day! I woke up, got to skype my families for a bit while I ate scarfed down some cereal and threw on some make up. My group of 6 for the 10 o’clock reservation consisted of my tandem partner Natalie, Stacey, Emily, Mallory, and Brittany. I was not nervous for the swing at all. It was strange I thought maybe because I did not watch people do it, but I was not scared at all, just excited! After getting checked in we had about a 30-minute wait before take off in the van! Once we loaded the van with our driver Kurt, excitement hit turbo power! I was getting very anxious and could barely make it the 30-minute drive. We passed the Karawea bridge on the way where a few of the girls bungeed earlier in the morning. We got to the top of a private road we followed up a mountain and there you can see the World’s Tallest Swing and the Tallest Bungy both over a huge canyon next to a small building. Inside the building you checked in where you are weighed again for extra safety. We went straight out and walked a small, shaking bridge out to the swing. Natalie and I went first and everything happened so fast it was almost a blur. I just remember getting on huge harnesses that went around my hips, thighs, and over my shoulders. Phil, the crazy, gray pony-tailed, worker man, hooked us in so fast we did not have time to ask to go backwards. He had already hooked us in and got us hanging over the edge before I realized what was happening. I think they may do this so people don’t have time to back out, although it is non-refundable even if you do back out. We got into an upside down position by wrapping our feet around the ropes and dropped faster than I could even explain in words. All I know is my eyes went shut and did not open until I was at the bottom of the swing. I was so upset because I did not get to watch it, but I could not help but close my eyes. It was an amazing feeling. I wished I could do it again, if it weren’t for the money. I cannot wait to bungy jump the Auckland Bridge! We headed back inside where we watched our video, viewed our pictures, and got our free hat. SCORE! They have computers with free internet for us to use inside. I feel so disconnected from the US being in NZ, not watching any sort of news, and especially being without internet. I feel like bombs could be dropping and I would not have any idea. I immediately got onto skype and called the family. I was greeted by Caysen and his friend Harry. I guess my mom and dad were out to eat, I should have known! Natalie was on the computer next to me and her mom was online. She just so happened check the mail today and Natalie’s mission call came. We all convinced her to open it because it may be another week before we have internet again. With the blasting music, random foreigners, and sitting on top of a mountain in our matching trucker hats all the girls gathered around cheering for Nat to open her mission call. It definitely got the attention of all the people around. We made a video and answered to tons of people what was going on. She got called to the Salvador Brazil Mission. It had to be one of the coolest mission call openings I have ever heard of, and one heck of a day! We headed back and got in a run before going out for the night to celebrate the day and our last night in Queenstown. We went out to Winnie’s and got a fancy $36 dollar pizza. Luckily we passed on the $12 breadsticks. The entire group met out on the grass just next to the lake and enjoyed our various dinners. After dinner we got some Patagonia Ice Cream! It was amazing I got tramontana, some kind of caramel, vanilla, and chocolate! After hanging out on the town I was way to tired for the clubs tonight and made it an early night in!

           
       

Thursday 2 Wanaka (rhymes with Monica) Lake

Today was the first time I got to sleep in a little bit. I woke up just before 9 and took off for a run. Guess how much I ran this morning?? Wait for it…..8.2 miles! Yes I think half marathon training is going quite nicely. Hopefully I can keep this up! Once I got back we got ready and headed out to Wanaka Lake. It was about an hour drive. We stopped at the most amazing fruit stand on the way. They had chocolate covered blueberries, delicious papaya, nougats, and the best things ever, Rascherrys. Yes it was some kind of combination of raspberries and cherries, but it had the texture of a craisin so it tasted like a candy! Mmmm and it was only $9 for a small bag. Prices of things here are so high; just about everything is expensive. The exchange rate is good, but still does not make up for the prices. I think it may have to do with this city being a trendy city, but prices are high in Auckland too. McDonald’s has no dollar menu and ice cream is all at least $3 dollars a scoop, usually a lot more! We decided to go to Have a Shot and shot some guns and arrows. The only shooting was like through little windows, did not look too appealing. Most people did the archery, but since I did that unit in PE in high school I decided not to pay for it. Because each set of two girls paid for a half an hour they all got tired and I got to try out a few arrows myself and I still got game, I hit the target! We made way over to the lake and decided to rent an aqua tricycle. It was pretty awesome and a lot sturdier that expected! 

I also got to try paddle boarding, which was awesome. I wish I had more time, but I just took a turn on Atticus’s board. We got home just before 8pm and in perfect time to run and pay for our Bungy reservations. I could not decide between the World’s tallest swing and the bungy jumping, but decided I will do the swing tomorrow and bungy off the Auckland bridge later on in my trip!

Wednesday 1 Milford Sound

This morning we had to wake up at 7am and load in the vans for our 4-hour drive to Milford Sound. New location on the prettiest places I have ever been. I know I say this in every post, but I have never seen anything more beautiful. The contrast between the greenest mountains you have ever seen, with snow tipped glaciers on the top and waterfalls spewing out from every possible place on the mountains. The cruise ship we were on was pretty big. We all loaded on and I found a spot near the front on the lowest level. About an hour into the cruise I began to feel seasick. The water was pretty choppy, but calmed just after that and I was fine the rest the ride. We were on the Tasman sea I believe, which is salt water, but because of all the rain fall and the difference in densities of fresh water and salt water, the top few feet are fresh water covering the salt water.  The drive home seemed as if it would never end. I got home exhausted but was able to get a run in before bed! 

Tuesday 31 Drive to Glenarchy

8 am came around too early after spending the last night clubbing. I rolled out of bed and got ready for our drive through Glenarchy. It was a beautiful drive, but a bit meaningless to me because I have never seen any Lord of the Rings. I guess I better start now. We visited a bunch of spots from the movie and we had a book that showed coordinates of where scenes were taken. It was pretty cool, but would have been cooler if I cared about LotR (we came up with that acronym for it). Once we got back to our hostel we made some PB&Js, which had never seemed to taste so great. The hostel we are staying at has daily activities that you can attend, and today’s was a free-guided hike up to the gondolas. We met down at the front desk at 2 and only 3 other people had come for the hike. There was a little older Bangladeshian man and a girl and boy probably mid twenties from Sweden. The Swedish couple was traveling the world and they have already done North and South America, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Peru, and they still have Indonesia and some other places before home. That would be crazy; they have been gone about 6 months and are planning 6 more. The hike was pretty intense, I would say much harder than the Y. It took about an hour to get to the top, but the entire hike was beautiful. You could see out to the lake, the city, and all the green of the mountain we just hiked. There were zip lines that ran through the trails and we would occasionally see people riding down in crazy upside down positions. At the top of the gondolas is where they let off for the luge rides. It looked pretty fun, but we are planning to do the luge in Rotorua. When we made it down the mountain we sat on the grass just outside the hostel. I was sad because we just missed the tie-dying activity there. I think we may tie die tanks to match while running the half marathon. About my half marathon training….well I have been slacking big time. I decided if I am going to be able to do the race I better start running. I ran about 5 miles last night and it was sooo nice to run around the lake. After my run I got ready for the club once again. 2 nights in a row, you would think I was becoming a regular. Tonight’s event was a limbo contest with a free shot each time you made it through. I entered the contest but refused the shots hahah. I only made it till there were 5 girls left, but another girl and I got out that round leaving the final 3 all girls that could be no more than 5’2. Dang if only I were shorter maybe I could have won the free river surfing trip!  

Monday 30 Beginning of the Adventure

The Flight

So my alarm rang at 4:30am; I woke up just in time to catch Cassie and Emmett on Skype before the taxi picked us up. Emily and I loaded in. I ended up packing both a backpack and duffel, as opposed to just a backpack as advised. There was no way I could fit 10 days worth in a backpack, I could barely do it for the 3 days of camping. We arrived to the airport about an hour earlier than we needed to, but I feel like that is how we usually travel everywhere. Better early than late. The flight was super short in comparison to the 13 hours it took to get over here. It was about an hour and a half and I got a bit of sleep in. Coming into land in Queenstown was amazing. As we came out of the clouds water surrounded by beautiful green mountains filled the ground. The 20 of us girls, Ramona’s family of 4 (her husband Chris, daughter Tiare 12, and son Atticus 10), and James (our tour guide) congregated together and waiting to get out 3 rental vans. We piled in and made way to our hotel.

The Arrival

The drive through the town cannot be described by words. Pictures do not even work to do it justice. It is gorgeous every single place you look. There is a huge lake (I mean huge, it could be the ocean) in the center of the town. The city is super cute; it resembles a park city atmosphere with cute little restaurants, shops, and bars. I don’t know what it is about this place, but I like it already. It has a much different feel from Auckland. Auckland seems to be much more laid back and go with the flow. Queenstown seems to have many more tourists, attractions, trendy people and places, and in one day I have seen more cute guys than in all my time in Auckland. As we drive down what seems to be Main St of Queenstown we pull over at this little place that looks like a nightclub. To my surprise it is a nightclub and a hostel in one. It is called BarX and I guess there are 30 all over NZ and Aussie. We could not check in until 1pm, so we put all our things into the bar room and they locked it up for us. This place is pretty crazy, but I like it! It is nowhere you would expect a group of 20 BYU elementary education majors to be posting up. The bar is pretty large and the walls are painted black with paintings that fill them, about 99.9% inappropriate. Some of the girls seem scared to death, but I feel right at home. Ok so not at home, but I think this is a turn around from the life I have been living in Auckland (bedtime being 9pm most nights).

The Shotover Jet & Arrowtown
These things are amazing. The river water was so clear you could see the bottom just about anywhere. All of us loaded up into 2 jet boats and set off. It was basically like a 30-minute roller coaster ride. The jets sped close by the sharp rocks that lined the river and right next to large branches and logs. Occasionally we would flip a quick 360 that was quick to get you out of your seat. I snuck my camera on and stole a few shots even though it was not allowed! I later found out there was a camera in the front and back of the boat for pictures and video. Awkward, I did not wait around to see it I was holding up my own camera in any of their pictures haha. Still not having caught up from sleep from the morning I was exhausted, but the group headed over to Arrowtown before getting back to the Hostel. Arrowtown was cute; it reminded me a bit of a old town Sacramento mixed with a bit of Coloma. Every shop was too expensive for my taste. I tried to steal a picture of a possum fur bean bag for $3,000 and the sign read, “Please No Fondling,” but I almost got my head bit off by an uptight lady yelling at me no cameras allowed. After feeling exhausted and a bit overheated I settled down on the grass with some fresh fruit frozen yogurt, mmmm. This time I got blueberry and raspberry….delicious! Exhausted I found my way to the van and slept the entire way back to the hostel.

The Hostel

We grab out things and begin to check in. As we figure out our roommate situation. Each dorm room has 8 beds, so we planned for one group of 8, and two groups of 6. After making our groups we realize that the groups of 6 each get 2 more random backpacking, hostel living roommates. One room was booked with 2 other girls and 1 room booked with one girl and one boy. Well now this was just crossing the line for BYU, we could not have co-ed dorming! Ramona ended up renting out 2 of those extra beds, just so we did not have a boy. I happened to be in the group of 6, so it is nice our room is not too full. The group of 8 fills a room and the other group of 6 has 2 random girls in it. It would be an adventure, but I am so glad we don’t have other girls in our room. I would have to bring my bags with me everywhere; I could not risk anything being stolen. I guess no one really steals, but you never know. The entire place is full of young adults about our age that love to party and backpack. Four large matching bunk beds fill the room and we each claim our own. A Swedish girl was in the room making the beds. I guess she has been here a couple of months and will be here another month or so and gets free accommodation from working for the hostel. Pretty cool, I think a lot of people that stay here an extended amount of time do that. There is a small fridge and a bathroom right outside the front door. Weird huh? I guess this is a pretty nice hostel, but I am still freaked out. The bathroom is tiny and it freaks me out that other people use it, but I just can’t think about it. The shower is the worst! It is timed for 3 seconds so you basically have to hold down the button like a pool shower and just try to rinse off in it. I think they are trying to conserve water or something and I guess it is working because these are some of the shortest showers I have ever taken thanks to that stupid button.

After getting in a good 2-hour nap we took off to get some great Chinese food. It was PF Changs style, but a bit more ghetto. When dinner was done we went to the grocery store and bought some necessities so we won’t eat out so much! We also are receiving $20 a day allowance for spending money for food, but I am trying to pocket that to put towards bungy jumping. The club has a different themed night every night, so we decided to jump right in to Karaoke Monday. About 8 other girls and I really livened up the dance floor with our dance moves! We tried to get signed up for Karaoke and they said they had 7 people signed up, but need 10 in order to start it. We signed up a few fake people and asked a drunk guy to turn them in and then saw a couple others turn papers as well. I think this whole karaoke thing was a hoax to get people to the Altitude Bar because they are all talk and never followed through. You only have to be 18 to get into a bar here, and the dancing is much less bump and grind then even the Provo dance parties I have been to. It was pretty fun and the best part was we just have to walk up the stairs to get to our hostel!