How ya going?

Right, hopefully this will bring things *actually* up to date… shall we give it a go? Yes? Good:

Sunday 3rd December: Franz Josef -> Wanaka

• Woke up FAR too early, as bus had to leave at 7am to see Lake Matherson… all were cheesed off as it was poor weather and hence probably a waste of time
• Royal our bus driver in a quite quiet state, either because he knew all on the bus were annoyed or because he’d been up since 3am
• Once at the lake (following a brief “under the hat” nap) most people decided to wait in the coffee shop but Pat and Kate decided to make the most of it and went for a long ol’ walk around the lake circuit. Some lovely photos, despite the slightly crappy weather, were taken:

  

  

  Oh and me sitting on a log:

  

• Pat, in his very tired state, got pretty cheesed off (for no real reason other than tiredness) in the next and final part of the bus journey on the way to Wanaka, but the views made him feel a little better:

  Knight’s Point – beautiful views of the west coast from a nice high vantage point:

  

  Haast River – awesome river rapids underneath a rather scary bridge:

  

  

  Arrived at Wanaka and checked into the hostel – which was more like a hotel, complete with:
  – Free towel
  – TV in dorm room
  – Ensuites in dorm room
  – Fridge in dorm room
  – Balcony!

• Fully awesome. It made Pat feel a lot better, as did a nice walk around Wanaka enjoying the gorgeous lakeside views and pretty high street:

  

  

  He decided in this afternoon that:

  1. He needs to get rich
  2. He needs to buy a place in Wanaka
  3. He needs to move to Wanaka

  He suggested something along the lines of marketing some cartoon character he’d designed… Squeege or something like that? No idea what he’s on about.

• After a nice afternoon chilling out on the lawn outside the hostel in the sun (drinking some rather rancid 8.2% cider called “Scrumpy”, which was clearly White Lightning in disguise) Pat had a nice early night to catch up on the many hours sleep he so desperately needed.

Monday 4th December: Wanaka -> Queenstown

• A lovely sleep was what was needed for Pat and that’s what he got.
  Pat woke up refreshed and after a nice breakfast sitting in the sun in front of the hostel, he made his way onto the coach with everyone else.

• Twas quite a quick day, journey-wise, which was very nice!
• First stop was at Puzzling World on the way out of Wanaka, which was hilarious:
  A huge maze (which Pat managed in 20 minutes bang on (usual time is 30 – 60 minutes) – hooray for the “always follow the left hand wall” technique):

  

  Some cool illusions:

  
  The faces follow you around the room…

  
  All the lines are parallel…

  A confusing “angled floor” room:

  

  And a forced perspective room:

  

  Twas great fun!

• Stopped off at the AJ Hackett Kawarau Bridge bungy site, whereupon Pat and the other peeps on the bus were shown a 10 minute DVD all about how cool bungying was… which lead to Pat deciding he was NEVER doing it in A MILLION YEARS. I don’t think that was the DVD’s purpose…
• Watching people (including Welshy and John) plummet off the bridge was, in Pat’s words, “F***ing scary in itself, let alone going up there and doing it”. He kept uttering “Why would you want to do that? Why?”
• Still, on the coach journey from the bungy site into Queenstown, Pat started getting the nagging feeling that he’d missed an opportunity… and started considering the possibility of doing a Birthday Bungy on Wednesday…
• In Queenstown, we stopped first for a nice group photo by Lake Wakatipu (sadly taken by one of the Kiwi Experience folks and not seen since) along with some other shots of the scenery:

  

  

• We then stopped at Info & Track to book some activities. What did Pat book? Firstly, the Shotover Jet. Secondly, a Birthday Bungy. What a nutter.
• Following checking in to the Discovery Backpackers hostel (owned by one of the big NZ hostel chains) we went for a prearranged Kiwi Experience meal at The World Bar.
• Some things about The World Bar:
  • The food takes ages to be served
  • The staff are moody and unfriendly
  • It’s a bit dingy
  • The staff are moody and unfriendly
  • …The staff are moody and unfriendly
• Anyway, after that fun experience Pat and the gang made their way down to the hostel bar; Altitude.
• It was Karaoke night
• Lots of alcohol was consumed
• Lots of singing was performed
• Pat and Kate got two free drink vouchers each for performing The B52s’ “Love Shack” (which those who were at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2002 will know is something of a favourite of Pat’s)
• Lots more alcohol was consumed
• Lots of really bad singing was performed
• The World Bar was visited again
• The World Bar closed too early
• Sleep was had.

Tuesday 5th December: Queenstown

• Pat spent a lot of today sitting watching me blog… and he loved every second of it (Yeah, cos I clearly wouldn’t’ve preferred sitting in the sun or going for a nice walk – Pat) – ok, so would you have preferred to do the Nevis Bungy? (…ok, sitting in the net cafe was fine – Pat) Good.
• Aside from that, not really much to report. Went out again in the evening and Pat saw in his birthday with a nice pint of Bulmers

Wednesday 6th December: Queenstown

• Pat’s Birthday!
• Pat woke up somewhat scared and spent the morning trying not to think about the bungy
• We checked out of Discovery and into Downtown Backpackers (much more of an independant outfit with slightly old dorms (carpetted walls? tasty!) but friendly staff, free internet, free breakfast and some nice (if rather hot) showers. And it’s $4 a night cheaper than Discovery. Winner!
• Pat then went and threw himself off a bridge – I think he’s already banged on about that but all I’ll say is that I sat safely in Pat’s bag inside a locker throughout the whole insane experience.
• To celebrate his jump, Pat:
  • Ordered a custom T-Shirt… the design of which will be revealed in the next few days…
  • Had a beer
  • Had a whole load more beers
• A good evening was had all round:

  

  

  

  It ended up in World Bar again before Pat finally fell back to the hostel and into bed, rather worse for wear…

Pat sends his thanks to Kate and Jenny for the lovely birthday cake they bought, which was presented to him in Altitude accompanied by “Happy Birthday To You” played on the bar playout system – class! Also, thanks to Welshy and Chris for the rather revolting drinks… it made Pat feel like he was a student again :-)

Thursday 7th December: Queenstown

• Following the excitement of the bungy in the afternoon and the reasonable quantity of birthday-based beverages in the evening, Pat spent most of the morning in bed, rising at about 11:30
• Today was quite a chilled day. Pat and Kate wandered around Queenstown for a bit, taking it easy and looking around in shops for a bit – taking a couple of cool photos of the lake:

  

  And some attempted arty flower shots in between some rather posh looking lakeside apartments:

  

• I then dragged pat to this here Internet Cafe to finish off a mammoth blogging session (I think Pat’s getting sick of these PCs but I don’t know for sure (yes, yes I am – Pat))
• In the evening we trundled to a bar called -5C, which is entirely made of ice and pretty damned cool:

  

  Pat, Jenny, Jersey, Kate and Mette really chilled out:

  

  There were some n-ice sculptures:

  

  …er… everyone (f)roze to the occasion? (Get out! – Pat):

  

  Sorry.

• After that we joined Sarah in Altitude and spent much of the evening in there, before Sarah, Caroline and Pat trundled to the Always Friendly World Bar ™, sampled some of their rather potent (and expensive) “tea pots” (actual tea pots full of various alcoholic concoctions) and eventually fell back to the hostel for a well needed kip at about 3am…

Friday 8th December: Queenstown

• Pat woke up late again and spent the first few hours of the day wandering around town, checking emails and generally wasting time before his trip on the Shotover Jet at 1:20pm.
• He quite enjoyed the Shotover Jet, as it was quite fast, did some funky 360degree spins in the water and was driven almost into loads of rocks in the canyon it passed along over the 30 minute ride… but for him it just didn’t quite stand up to some of the other experiences. Probably because he wasn’t bricking himself for 48 hours prior to doing it :-)
• After the Shotover Jet, Pat met up with the usual kru and after a bite to eat they wandered up towards the Skyline Gondola, which takes you a full 450m above the streets of Queenstown for some amazing views – and also some crazy Luging and even more crazy bungy jumps
  Sadly it was raining but the views from the Gondola – and from the top – were still rather spectacular:

  

  

  We were a little confused regarding the fire risk, given the weather:

  

• Jersey needed to complete his “Thrillogy” (all three main Queenstown bungies) so we stood looking over the quite steep 450m drop as he wandered into the overhanging “Ledge Bungy” jump spot:

  

  

  Pat could hardly watch, as standing by the drop was bad enough for him:

  

• After Jersey successfully lived to tell the tale, we trundled for a quick pint in the Skyline restaurant, enjoying the views of Queenstown way below and listening to some beautifully sung relaxing tunes by a lady and her guitar in the restaurant.
• At 7:55pm, Pat picked up something he was very excited about. I’ll show you in the photos for Saturday.
• That evening, a few of us trundled to Hell’s Pizza and got some rather tasty pizza-based delights, then some beers and sat watching Shrek and some random New Zealand telly in the hostel lounge, before Pat bailed out early to get some sleep…

Saturday 9th December: Queenstown

• Despite some nobbers wandering around the hostel corridors at about 3am chatting and shouting drunkenly, Pat had a really good kip (yet again falling out of bed at gone 11am)
• So far today we’ve gone for a wander around town with Mette – checking out the cool grass market on the waterfront (including this cool display of colourful bowls):

  

• We also stopped at The Best Ice Cream Shop In The World (can’t remember its name sadly but it’s on the waterfront and also sells chocolate if you’re around Queenstown) for some rather large ice creams – and a chance to have Pat get a picture taken of himself with yesterday’s exciting purchase:

  

• After that (and some attempting to phone up Orange to ask why the hell they’d decided to charge Pat 200 quid for nothing, giving up after not being able to be understood by “Steve”, “Brad”, “Brody” or whatever the guy who’s clearly never left Dubai claims to be called this time) we trundled up here and I convinced Pat to spend time staring-er, I mean, watching me stare at this computer screen and blog.
• This afternoon we’re going Mini Golfing. Should be fun!
• Tomorrow morning we leave Queenstown and start our trek to the south of the south island – starting with Dunedin.
• Pat’s not looking forward to having to get up 4 hours earlier than he’d like…

“…I’m Squage, Now You’re Up To Date”