Queenstown

I spent two weeks travelling with my college friend Lucas who was kind enough to come for a visit.  After meeting him at the airport in Wellington, we spent the remainder of the day having some low-key time in the city after his very long flight.  I had really been wanting to see a movie (going to a movie once by myself was okay, but I was wanting to go with a friend this time!), and I was happy to oblige when he suggested we hit the cinema.  There wasn’t much showing, and I managed to talk him into Snow White and the Huntsman which was great.  The next morning, we took an early flight from Wellington to Queenstown to start our trip.  Queenstown is where bungy jumping started, and it’s a very popular skiing destination.  It was beautiful!!!!  This was my second favorite place in New Zealand so far; it had a great atmosphere, beautiful mountains, and tons of great shops/restaurants.  

A snapshot of the first bungy bridge from the bus as we left Queenstown

We were very lucky.  Unbeknownst to me until days before, Lucas’ trip was planned for the entire duration of the NZ school holidays (they have 4 terms and have 2 weeks off between term 2 and 3).  I didn’t book accommodation ahead of time because I didn’t think we’d have any problems, but with Queenstown being a huge Winter destination for tourists and Kiwi’s alike, we barely got cheap rooms.  We lucked out, and someone had just opted to move their booking, leaving two nights in a great hostel open for us!

I always like asking locals for eating recommendations, and we were not disappointed hitting up Fergburger, a local burger place.  It was packed every time we walked past it.  I tried a wild Fiordland deer burger, and it was excellent.  Deer farming is common here, and it started when the meat from their wild deer population exceeded consumption demand.  The next night we went to a Vietnamese place that was also delicious, and because we were willing to wait an hour for our food, they gave us free drinks and dessert which was an added bonus.

From Queenstown, we took a bus trip to Milford Sound…