And on to Queenstown...

I didn’t want to spend anymore time in my hostel than necessary today, so when I woke up on my own at 7:30 because of a combination of the noise outside and the couple in my room, I took a shower and packed up.

I ended up getting to the Auckland airport three hours early, which was kind of a bummer because it turns out that they don’t have free wifi in the domestic terminal. I should have just hung out in the city and McDonald’s or something.

My flight to Queenstown was pretty unmentionable. There was quite a bit of turbulence but I slept through it and anything else that might have happened. I caught the Super Shuttle into town for $20, which was more than double what I was expecting for transport here. My hostel is right in the center of town though and it’s very charming. I was given a tour right after checking in around all of the facilties. Minus the fact that they’re shared, the kitchen, bathrooms, and bedroom are all nicer than my place in Sydney and I’m paying less than $30 a night to stay here. There’s also free international calling during reception hours and free wireless internet. It’s like someone realized I needed to hear the word free and decided to indulge me.

I, of course, called Adam right away. I haven’t spoken to him on the phone since Fiji, so it was pretty weird at first. It’s so nice not to have to deal with the issues of skype. I was worried about hogging the phone for too long though, so we didn’t chat for long.

I wasn’t really hungry, even though it was way passed lunch, so I decided to walk around the city and explore. I bought some bread, peanut butter, and apples so that I would have breakfast food in the kitchen and I got a couple of souveneirs from the cute touristy stores. Queenstown seems to be primarily touristic, but that suits me. I could imagine owning a lake house here, set at the foot of the mountains. It’s really beautiful.

I stopped at Patagonia Chocolates for a snack of ice cream. The waffle cone looked burnt but somehow managed to taste amazing with the ice cream in it. The chocolate was a little rich for me though. It started to drizzle and I pretty much walked the whole town including along part of the lakefront, so I headed back to the hostel.

I spent my afternoon reconnecting with the internet before heading out for a late dinner at Fergburger, a well-known burger joint in New Zealand. Luckily for me, there menu includes options for people who don’t eat beef burgers. I settled on the Sweet Julie minus the “salad” plus cheese. It turned out pretty good. There was some kind of chili sauce on it, so it was a little bit spicy, but I really liked the bun and actually ended up eating it like a burger instead of tearing it all apart. I passed out immediately after getting back. Contiki exhausted me.

(Also, I'm out of photo space on my blog, so for photos, check out my facebook!)

End of Contiki

This morning, we got up really early to head back down to Auckland. When we got into Auckland, we waited by the bus for nearly an hour while everyone chatted and some people checked into the hotel that Contiki had organized for those who were willing to pay for it. We decided to all get lunch, but that didn’t end up happening exactly. Instead, I went with a group down the street to check into our hostels and then we went for ice cream.

It seemed like it was going to be difficult to walk around in such a big group and actually do anything, so after saying goodbye to a couple of people heading to the airport, Jacob and I split off from the rest of the group and walked around town.

We tried to find the Victoria Markets but ended up walking way past them to a city on the top of College Hill. It turned out the markets were closed for construction anyways, so we didn’t miss much. We headed back to the city and found a cute little café where I could get some chips for a snack and sat and talked, then we stopped back at my hostel for a little bit so I could show him where I’m staying because he had never been inside a hostel. Finally, we ended up in a mall across the street from the Mercure, where everyone else is staying, and sat and talked for an hour or so. We ended up getting locked in the mall because there was no announcement or anything saying it was closing, the lights just shut off. Luckily, we were able to get out through a restaurant that was still open.

We met up with the rest of the Contiki group still in New Zealand for dinner at O’Hagan’s Irish pub. I had the most amazing steak with mushrooms, barbecue sauce, chips, and a glass of wine. There was no way I could finish it, so I took a doggy bag home for breakfast. While we were waiting for dinner to be ready, we all stood up and said our parting to the group. It was actually a really sweet evening, one that probably maybe the trip for me.

Jacob and I at the Sky Tower -- the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere

Most amazing steak, ever

Bay of Islands

This morning came really fast. I was up before 6 and on the bus by 7. Breakfast wasn’t fantastic, so I was happy when I woke up from my bus nap and we were in Auckland. I wandered the streets with Scottie, Sebastion, and Jacob for a little bit. I feel like I have a possie or something. We went and got Burger King, even though it was only 10 in the morning. There wasn’t much else to do. We randomly found the hostel that I’m staying in when we come back to Auckland and I picked up a magnet from the souvenir store.

When we got back on the bus, we were joined by 25 more people on the same tour everyone else has been doing but going in the opposite direction. They got a whole little orientation to Contiki, which kind of made me feel weird about joining in Wellington and not really getting anything special. Then we were en route to the Bay of Islands.

The Bay of Islands is pretty nice. It reminds me of just about any other beachy island town. The group went to dinner at Shippey’s. It was this cute little boat set in the sand next to the ocean. The chicken burger I got with my wine was pretty good, but I ate way too much. 

Auckland as we passed through

Bay of Islands