New Zealand - Queenstown

Ok - so we've made it to Queenstown but only just. We had a connecting flight from Christchurch to Queenstown and were given 1 hour to clear immigration, collect our bags, walk the entire length of Christchurch airport, stand in the wrong queue for 10 mins, stand in another wrong queue for a further 10 mins before we were rescued by a rather flustered member of the Qantas floor staff who bundled us onto our plane. All this excitement and we hadn't even left the airport...we're gonna like New Zealand.

We checked into our hostel which is run by a cat called Thomas. I kid you not it's called Thomas's Hostel and Thomas is a rather knackered looking old cat who wears a cravat and runs the hostel via telekinetic's. We headed out for a quick mosey, the hostel was right on the bank of a massive lake and surrounded by mountains it has a real Ski resort feel to it and it also feels abit like being in Scotland but we're at the other side of the world.... We returned to discover we were sharing a dorm with a young American girl (Andrea) who was like Uber "oh my god" "that's sooo totally awesome" American and an older Kiwi guy who was pissed (it was 6pm) So we all headed out for drinks, Andrea kept on getting shushed by fellow patrons as she had the loudest voice in the world ever and the Kiwi guy got more and more drunk. Then the Kiwi guy (we never knew his name) had a massive go at Andrea for being so American and then he passed out and we went to a Halloween party.

The following day we decided that climbing a mountain would be the perfect hangover cure so off we set after a hearty Subway lunch. The mountain was only an hours walk but it was hard going so we were relieved to reach the top and rest our feet. The views from the top were amazing I really am totally impressed with the scenery New Zealand has to offer - very Lord of the Rings. We discovered you could take a cable car to the very top of the mountain and then take these little Go-Cart style cars called Luge's down again. The Luge's were wicked, on your first run you had to do the scenic route down which was pretty good but after you have proved you are capable of steering a little car down a hill you could take the advanced route so we caned it down there a few more times proper boy racer stylie.

Worth a stroll up a hill for.

We climbed Queenstown Hill the following day which was pretty much the same set-up as the previous day. Alot of panting, glugging of water and a decent set Subway sweats later we reached the top, took even more photo's but no Luge's on the way down this time. I am waiting for MBNA to send me a new credit card which is why I we have been doing alot of walking (it's free) and not throwing ourselves off cliffs and canyons (MBNA need to finance that) so we decided to head over to nearby Wanaka for a few days whilst MBNA where dispatching my card.

I do own more than 1 T-Shirt..honestly!

Not sure what this is but thought it looked cool

Wanaka - (not to be confused with Wanka)

We stayed in a hostel recommended by our Irish mates from Melbourne - it was by far the best place we've stayed in on our travels. Our first day in Wanaka was spent at Puzzling World, Wanaka's premiere tourist attraction. Puzzling World is home of the worlds biggest maze which we spent about 90 mins trying to get out of and also has a series of trippy themed illusion rooms. The highlights where one room which felt like it was on a tilt but it wasn't so as you walked in you got all disorientated and nearly fell over. It was a really bizarre feeling and you could do strange things like play pool uphill. There was also a room which when you looked through the window it was totally normal but when you went inside one side was really small and you banged your head (ever Mark did) and the other side was massive. And there was this freaky wall of famous peoples faces which followed you as walked past. So we had alot of fun being totally puzzled by Puzzling World.

Hope this is covered by my travel insurance..

A little privacy - please!

Mark getting freaked out

We did another walk on our second day in Wanka - seriously though the scenery is so good that although it may sound boring just waking up and down hills all day it is actually really good - honestly! We got really lost on our way back and ended up in a tiny town called Albert Town (Pop: 13) but then we found Lake Wanaka again so we walked all the way round the lake which took about 4 hours to get back to our digs.

We went back to Queenstown to discover that my MBNA card still hadn't arrived so decided to do a road trip for a few days until it arrives.

Our next stop - Dunedin via Invercargill and The Catlins.