Queenstown!

Dear Fam and Friends,

Birds the word, what? Haha couldn't think of anything catchy but I'm writting now from by far the coolest city/village/town we've been to in New Zealand, Queenstown! Allthough it's a bit touristy it definately has the most travelers, best scenic backdrop and best pubs!

Our last night in Wanaka we opted to not stay again at the same hostel as the management sucked and it was quite pricey the remain in our little cottage. We checked out some camp spots around town but they were super expensive too so we decided just to go with the wind, have some beers with our German friends back at the hostel and see what happened. Meadow and Jay went mountain biking while I had quite a relaxing day drinking some of the best coffee I've ever had while sitting on the edge of the lake gazing out at the incredible mountains surrounding. After a mellow day we ran into Jared, one of the hitchhikers we'd met at Franz Glacier and hung out with him for awhile sharring stories but more so listening to his. He definately takes the cake on truley defining what a backpacker is or in his case, a nomad! We grabbed some beers and headed back to the hostel that had kicked us out previously (because we used their showers and we didn't pay, cheep bastards) and with our to German guy friends and three German girls we'd met along with Jared we introduced to everyone our infamous game of: One Frog, Yee Ha, Ship Rolled into the Harbor, Gneiss, 21, Last Person and Hands! For pretty much anyone reading this that doesn't know, those are the drinking games we've carried with us all the way from Corfu, Greece last year that we've slowly added to fr om other travelers along the way, best and funniest games ever! Anyway after a long night of drinking we forgot that we still hadn't had a place to sleep, so we drove the car around the corner to a huge field, parked, and set up our tent. It wasn't raining has it had been shortly earlier so we were in good shape but than somewhere around the early hours the sprinklers went off and since they were on Jay's side well lets just say he moved to the car!

Next day we said bye to Jared hoping to run into him again, which we didn't and drove about an hour south to where we are now, Queenstown! The first day we caught up on some lost sleep and just explored the town.

The next day we said bye to our beautiful 5 door hatchback Ford Fiesta named Maria and dropped her off at the airport. After a little inspiration from Jared and looking at bus prices we decided it was best to hitchhike back to townn from the airport. Damn, if I'd had known it was that easy, catching a ride after the third car, we'd have hitch hiked the entire way through New Zealand! The couple that picked us up were locals and told us about how good the Cook Islands where and that's it really easy to hitch hike there because it's so small so we'll definately be doing that! After getting back to the hostel we went river surfing, which is body boarding on waves down rapids on a river! The water level was up pretty high so we didn't get to surf any waves for that long but there was other stuff that got your adrenaline going as we pumped through class 3 rapids on our boards. One of the tricks was called squirting where you find where two currents came together and duck dive with your board underwater while the current rushes you downstream for anywhere from 2 to 8 seconds! We also did a little cliff jumping and spun around in a couple whirl pools before we were done. It was definately cool but since the water level was high and we couldn't truly surf any waves we were a little bummed out but no worries.

The next day we all kind of had a lounge day and did our own thing which is always nice. I got a new book and took down to the lakeside with a coffee and read for a couple hours and shopped for gifts the rest of the day mostly. We went out that night with our two girls, one from Holand named Lora and the other from Germany named Gloria whom were both super cute and really kick ass! It was funny because all three nights we went out here I ran into this girl from Swedan that I'd met in Thailand and since I was kind of trying to hit on the girls we were with it made it pretty akward but in the end I found a solution, haha.

The next day, since Jay had already been in Switzerland, Meadow and I went canyoning which was the ultimate adrenaline rush and so wicked! Canyoning in a nut shell is going down waterfalls either by abseiling (repelling), jumping or sliding! The first water we went down was insane because we slid down the waterfall backwards, what a start to an incredible day! We jumped from about 5-6 waterfalls ranging from 8ft to about 20 ft landing in specific spots between rocks and out of the way of the suction circle under the water fall that pulls you underwater if you land in it, which I did once and got pretty jazzed! We had to scale around cliff edges overlooking falls while strapped to ropes by our carrabeaners which was pretty exhilerating in itself but then at the end we had to repel down a 30 ft. cliff side along a waterfall that was super narly and such a good rush! After an exhausting 2 hours in the fridged mountain spring water we hiked out and found a fallen tree to relax on for a few minutes. It must have been God because what happened next I'll never forget. As we all stopped and sat down to soak in everyone we'd just experience and truly embrace the massive surrounding landscape of overhanging cliffs and mountains the fog began to dissapear from the high peaks. For about 3 minutes the fog was split upon by a gust of wind as it revealed a window revealing a massive waterfall that seemed to drop from the clouds above. Just as our instructor began to say how he'd sat for hours the day before waiting to see the falls the gap in the clouds closed and we continued our hike through a couple rivers back to the van. What an amazing day that I'll never forget and I'm definately going to look into starting up a canyoning business when I get home as I talked about setting it up with our lead guide, who also happened to be a partial owner in the company.

Last night we went out with our crew an English guy named Charlie who was quite the character. We went to our usuall spot Buffalo Wilds where it is two for one drinks until midnight before we headed to the World Club to dance for hours until we just flat out where warn out and tired! While I was heading out to leave I ran into the Swedish girl again and hung out with her for a bit before giving her a kiss and saying goodbye. After trying to leave again I rain into the German girl who'd I'd been flirting with for the last couple of days and ended up getting convinced to go back in for a couple more songs and dance, what can I say I'm a sucker for those accents! A couple sounds later I told her I was just to hot and tired so she agreed and we walked back and hung out for a while before getting some good night smoochies and getting to bed.

Today we are heading to Auckland where we fly out to Rarotonga, Cook Islands! I am so stoked as we've not been able to stay in one spot for more than 5 days and we'll be spending 12 days on this island! It's like a vacation within a vacation I love it! It will also be good to see Tom again in Auckland tonight before we head out tomorrow because I could be saying my last goodbye to him, been a really good mate to me and we've had heaps of fun! My time on the net is running short and we've got to get to the airport and yes we're hitch hiking!

Sweet as,
Grant