Surviving South Island Part 2

Heading down the highway to Queenstown! Now, Queenstown is considered the capitol of the South Island! During the summer it is a booming, bustling city of adrenaline junkies who bungy, hurl themselves out of planes and do a momentous amount of other crazy shenanigans! During the Winter (when we are there) it is a booming, bustling city of adrenaline junkies who ski and board. Also known all year round as a great place to party! Bring it on!

We find our hostel (yes we have a camper van but our accommodation was free thanks to some friends) and go out to explore and gather information for the next night. Find out that it doesn't seem as partying as Wellington (at least not proper "let's get dressed up and hit the town" going out) but has many possibilities! That night we turn in fairly early and are awoken equally early by our loud, rude and have to say pretty smelly male roommates! Was barely awake but could make out two male shapes that were not trying to keep quiet as they headed out to snowboard and didn't seem to have consideration for other people! Grrrr!

EG#2 and I decide to spend the day with more exploring and working out how we were going to snowboard (even though neither one of us had ever done this before). At lunch time we decided to try the famous FERGBURGER! Everyone raves that it is the BIGGEST burger ever and many people can not even finish it on their own! It was impressive and made my belly feel twice the size but really was the size of any decent burger in America! The rest of the world just isn't used to that much food :) After we waddled away from Ferg we found a great deal where we could get all our gear and two lessons! Hurrah, maybe I wouldn't break both my legs on the mountain after all!! That night I go to drop off my gear and there are the loud, rude male roommates hanging out in the room........oh, they are rather cute....especially the dark haired one who looks a bit like Sylvester Stallone without the paralysed face and before he was 80 years old! Okay, maybe was a bit harsh in the morning and they deserved another chance.

EG#2 and I decided to hit the town and see what sort of trouble we could stir up! Started at Altitude and then hit a happening place called Buffalo Club! Everything was going nicely, had a great bartender and then a group of Aussies showed up. Now, you'd think that I was used to running into Aussies since I have been in NZ for 6 months. Well, truthfully I had only ran into a few during my stay. However, Queenstown was chock-a-bock full of Aussies and ALL are snowboarders or skiers. These group of lads happened to be boarders and very smug about the whole thing. They had matching jackets!! They had us surrounded against the bar and managed to extract EG#2's number and email because she didn't know what to do! After an hour they were ready to move onto the next bar and expecting us to follow. EG#2 in a flash of brilliance, said we were meeting our guy friend and had to wait around at this bar but would meet up at the next place. It worked! Scary, pushy Aussies left and EG and I waited a few minutes before heading out to our next destination. There we are heading down the street when we see the matching jackets a head of us. Right, duck into a doorway as fast as possible and hope no one turned around! Okay so we head down an alley and take the next street and....DUH! There are the freaking jackets! We dodged and weaved all over Queenstown, ducking into doorways until we stumbled onto Winnie's. After a quick scan to make sure the Aussies were no where in site we joined the fray. The music was awesome and the dance floor was PACKED! We danced until our legs buckled and our backs were drenched with sweat! Off to bed!

We come back to the room to find one roommate in bed and one still out partying! Just after we jump into our pj's we hear a knocking on the door and there is Sylvester who forgot his key! He promptly wakes his mate and we stay up laughing and talking despite the fact that we have to catch a 7:30am shuttle up to the mountain to begin our snowboard adventure. Decided that night that the boys were actually quite funny and witty and maybe was rather harsh and rash in my judgement of them. Ended up going to sleep much too mate but with a smile :) Couldn't wait for the snowboarding adventure!
The next morning we got up (late and rushing as usual) and gear up for our big snowboarding day!! The shuttle (a giant bus driven by a maniac named Ollie) took about 1 and 1/2 hours and went over the scariest mountain roads I have ever witnessed. I literally closed my eyes and prayed that we would not die BEFORE we got to snowboard! Arrived in one piece and sorted out our gear. Then we met Nick our wonderful first instructor of the day! We learned the basics and felt pretty confidant! It was a great morning and I felt like a real snowboarder! Had lunch then hit the slopes for our second lesson of the day. We were desolated to discover Nick ditched us but found consolation in Ross.......ahhhh, Ross, the Northern Monkey! He was gorgeous in his boarding gear with a sort of Viggo Mortieson vibe going on! Yummo! Learned that we didn't have all the basics down (bad, Nick) and had much to learn before being REAL boarders. First off the "floating leaf." This is where you go from side to side down the mountain in a gentle slopey pattern. Yeah, that was the idea. Of course that isn't how I did it. My floating leaf was promptly renamed "the forest fire." I would start great looking to the side and going gently, then the board would turn and swoosh I was hurtling down the mountain fast and not with a clue how to stop! That would result in a spectacular biffing incident where snow would go flying and I would end up on my ass. One time everyone thought I was going to take out the Magic Carpet, but my only response to that is, "that f#%^er came out of nowhere!" While EG #2 flourished under Ross' tutelage (mainly because he kept holding her hands), I think I discouraged him and he just allowed me to continue hurtling down at break neck speeds! At the end of the day, we were both bruised but happy to know that we could board! Very exciting (except the ride home had be squashed against a window with a dirty old man rubbing his thigh against mine and EG getting bashed in the head by the luggage rack coming unhinged). That night was another story!
Found our previously rude but now kindof hot roomies in and ready for more conversation. After more fun banter back and forth we decided to hang out together (part of our bonding happened due to 2 prissy roommates from Bristol, a weirdo from Scotland and a real character from Oz). Hit Altitude again and then mixed it up at World Bar (home of the teapot cocktails). Roomie 1 and EG seemed to hit it off well leaving me with Sly (Sylvester Stallone look alike). Sly was a cutie but not the conversationalist that Roomie 1 was. So, convinced EG that it was dancing time and left the boys drinking. After they had a little more liquid courage, they decided to join us on the floor (must remember to not talk about how bad guys are at dancing when I first meet a guy because it might make them self conscious). Had a great time dancing but EG decided it was time to turn in (think she was freaking out a bit). So left the boys early and confused. (it happens that way was too often)
Next day was more exploring and then decided to have a HUGE night since it was to be our last in Queenstown!! Got major dolled up and hit the town! Started at Altitude for a quickie then went to Minus 5. It is an all ice bar that is slightly cheesy in a really fun and hilarious way! Everything except the floor is carved out of ice (including your cocktail cups). You are given a parka and gloves before entering and warned you can only stay for 1/2 an hour! Our bartender was really funny and mixed some kick ass cocktails. One of the ice sculptures was a gun that doubled as a shot dispenser! Had some great shots out of it! One of them was even free (won't tell you what I did to get the free shot ;) George told us that World Bar was having a roll night where you could roll the dice and if you got a 4, 5, or 6 you got the teapot cocktail free. We ran all the way there! Turns out....EG is awesome at dice and we are so going to Vegas sometime! After 4 free teapots in a row, sharing a teapot with lovely French and Swiss guys and then getting a free one from a guy who was so drunk he was getting thrown out of the bar..........we ran into our roomies! This time I was chattie and on fire (or just really feeling the teapot cocktails). They had 3 friends with them and I decided to name them according to what I thought they should be named! They loved me :) EG hogged roomie 1 for the whole night and I was left to entertain Sly, Keith, Mack and Peter! After more drinks (and EG pulling a number from one of the bartenders who I later found out was a guy she gave a lap dance to in Australia at surf camp) the guys wanted to hit Fergburger (mainly because they are guys). EG continued her rein over roomie 1 and left me again to entertain the 4 others. Which was great because they all ordered food and proceeded to feed me :) Now at this point our two roomies were not our roomies any more because they had upgraded to a private and nicer room! Sly and Roomie 1 kept telling us the virtues of the room and I was given a key :) so we thought we had to at least check it out. I mean we are polite girls after all! So, EG and I ended up sharing a room with our former roomies again! They had tea, hot milo and TV! It was great (except when Roomie 1 and EG got told off for being loud in the bathroom arguing about tea water of all things). So, ended my time in Queenstown snuggled in big strong arms of an Aussie who resembled Sylvester Stallone (again without the paralysed face and 80 years of age!). So, tired and happy we hopped in the van to see scenic Milford Sound!