Queenstown

Now seasoned pros, we stole another shower on the way back through Te Anau (thank you Te Anau Holiday Park), then headed to Queenstown where we spent a marvellous few days enjoying the buzz, the sunshine and the views from the top of the gondola. We also stayed in a campsite in town rather than a DOC site for the first time since coming to NZ, with the sole purpose of allowing us to go out into town in the evening for some drinks. This we did, and we had an awesome night bar-hopping and spending a lot of our night feeling smug (/devastated) that we are no-longer 21 like the most of the population (and awesome hangovers to match in the morning). 

We also spent a lot of our time luging. For those of you who haven’t been to Queenstown, this is the only organised thing available to people visiting that does not require you to take out a loan (total over-exaggeration, but we’re trying to last a year, so £100 to go canyoning is not really an option). So we did it 7 times. You basically sit in a plastic sledge on wheels and go down a hill. The fun part is that you can go as slow or as fast as you like, so on one track you have 10 year olds tootling at 2mph, and groups of men hooning it down at break-neck speed. Stick Brodie at the top end of the spectrum and me not far behind, and you have apparently hours of (relatively) cheap fun!