I wish this old train would just breeeak down

Well hello again, it's been years!

Well ok not years per se, but I do apologize for the stagnant blog for the last couple weeks. We've been very busy! Since the last update, the other girls went on a 3-day bike ride, and I peaced out and made my way to Queenstown (I don't do bikes) on a bus. I checked into a hostel called the black sheep, and it felt like home in about 5 minutes. Seriously, it was the most welcoming, friendly place I've ever been. Curtis arrived later the same day I did, and we met awesome people from all over the world. A group of us did the hike up the one mile track (about 800m elevation) to the top of the Queenstown gondola, where there is a nice cafe and a place where you can luge partway down the mountain. They are also currently building a series of ziplines, so that you will be able to hike up and zipline all the way down! Sadly, it was not done while we were there. But I bet it will be cool!! At the top you have a totally-worth-it view of all of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu, as well as Coronet Peak, The famous and stunning Remarkables mountain range, and Cecil and Walter Peaks. All very nice to look at! Then we rode the gondola back down for free (score!) and near the bottom, we passed a group of sheep grazing on the side of the mountain with 2 baby lambs! So naturally, we walked back up to visit. And we fed them and got pictures with the lambs! Sheep are surprisingly docile when it comes to annoying tourists going near their babies. Also they smell really, really bad and I hope they wash the wool before it becomes my sweater!

After 3 excellent days with Curtis and our new friends, the other 3 girls arrived and ruined all our fun. Kidding! We had another 3 days in Queenstown after that, and we went sailing!! I mean, real sailing on a former Americas Cup racing sailboat, and we got to be sailors! Everyone who wanted to got to learn how to grind (rotate the winches that reel in all the sails), steer and belay. It was a perfect day for it, plently of wind and perfectly clear skies. We were dissappointed in the morning because the kayak rental shop wouldn't rent out kayaks because of the high winds, and then the paraflights operator wasn't going up due to the wind. Then James and Curtis found sailing and the day was saved!

Another day we went to the Kiwi Birdlife Park, which was really exciting! They are an endangered species and also nocturnal, so it is pretty much unknown to see them in the wild. So it was pretty exciting that there was a breeding and conservation park where you can see them in the dark! We did an audio tour of the whole park, with lots of types of birds, and watched a kiwi feeding. It was one of the more interesting wildlife parks I've been to - the animals are not in captivity for show-and-tell, but are all either there to recover from injury or to have their babies in a protected environment. The guide told us that 95% of kiwi birds die before they mature, mostly because of paternal neglect to the eggs and non-native predators to the young(because they are vulnerable due to negligent daddies). Then when they are big and/or healthy enough, all the animals are re-released into their native habitat in protected forests. I liked it a lot! On the way to Milford Sound, we also saw Kea birds in the wild. Apparently they are the only parrots who live in alpine conditions. Even in the snow. And they are really, really aggressive! In Wanaka we watched a video of them tearing open cars, breaking glass, and killing live sheep, all with their beaks! So when we saw them in the Kiwi park, I was a bit uncomfortable with being next to them in the bird enclosure with nothing between that vicious beak and me.

We also went to a local burger joint called fergburger, which comes extremely highly recommended by all locals, travellers, and lonely planet. They weren't lying - the burgers are MASSIVE, and pretty spectacular. I think some travellers stay in Queenstown just for the Fergburgers.

So our second last night we did a pubcrawl with about 12 other people from our hostel, as well as a few from other hostels in the area. It was a lot of fun, and we all made a few new friends! Then we had to get up painfully early (ok 7am, painful when you went to bed at 3) to catch our Ecotours bus to Milford Sound. The drive was long (about 5 hours each way), but the boat tour of the Milford (technically it's a fiord, not a sound according to our driver) was well worth it. It was an overcast, RDF-type day with lots of low clouds, which made for some cool shots of the fiords and the waterfalls that were still rushing from the early mroning rain. Then there was a 5-hour drive back to Queenstown. If there is one thing I would recommend, it is do NOT do Milford Sound in a day trip. It is too far away from major centres, 10 hours of bus on one day is too much, and the area is far too spectacular to be properly appreciated in a 2-hour visit. Bad move on our part, I think we had no idea how far away it was. Glad we saw it for sure, but not for long enough!

We couldn't have stayed anyway though, because the next morning we left (minus Amy, who stayed in Q for an extra day of adventure sport) for Auckland for a big dose of rugby, kiwi-style!

First we saw a celebrity match which was organized by the local rugby community in aid of Samoan tsunami relief efforts. It was really cool to see old rugby 'has-beens' (retired all blacks players mostly) and other NZ celebrities (including a pro cricket player who had never played rugby befiore) play each other on the field. One guy's credentials in the program said he was on NZ's top model, someone else was a New World meat dept trainee. It was pretty obvious that some were very out of shape, and others were in great shape but had no idea what to do if the ball actually happened to fall into their hands. In all, an entertaining game! Then we saw an Air New Zealand Cup game between Auckland and Counties Manukau. Auckland won by a fair bit, but it was an intense game! I was pretty much the happiest kid ever to be watching my fave international rugby player, Joe Rokocoko of the All Blacks, playing in real life! Then after the game they did autographs and Jules and I waited patiently behind a mob of kids (big kids that we are) for autographs and a photo! BEST DAY EVER.

Now we are back in Bondi Beach, planning our next move. Wine country maybe? Surfers paradise? Who knows! Keep ya posted :o)

xoxoxo
love and superfluous sunshine from Australia,
Shanna