Queenstown

Queenstown started out as New Zealands own version of Aspen. It was born to cater to the skiers but soon became much bigger as a summer destination full of "extreme" activities like Bungy Jumping, Skydiving, Jet Boating and a whole bunch more variations on the theme. Of course with that comes the night life and so Queenstown has basically become a 24 hour party. I spent 3 nights there but only one day because we arrived late on the first day and I was in Milford Sound during the second day.The one day I did spend in town was somewhat uneventful because it was raining. I had planned to go jet boating which consists of piling a group of people into a very fast speed boat and having a pilot zip us down a river. A nice combination of excitement with a lack of personally assumed risk. I wanted to take it back down a notch after the bungy jump, but the rain was bad enough to cancel most outdoor activities for the day so jet boating was out.

(A Tuatara)
None the less I did manage to accomplish one of my goals. I finally saw a Kiwi Bird. They are extremely hard to see because they are skittish, nocturnal and ridiculously endangered due to the fact that they have almost no defense against any form of predatory mammal. Obviously the arrival of the Europeans did not go well for them. At the wellington zoo the Kiwi was was impossible to see under a single red bulb where it was likely hiding in it's burrow. And the bird sanctuary I had toured a week earlier had been fruitful for seeing every local bird except the Kiwi. I do have to wonder how many actual New Zealanders have ever seen a kiwi at all, never mind in the wild.Lucky for me, just up the hill from my hostel there was a Kiwi Experience reserve. They raise Kiwis to release into designated safety areas but they also have some there to be seen. It is also a darkened room with a red bulb, but they had done a much better job building a habitat that allows the audiences to see them while being considerate of the animals comfort. It was a bit pricey but the admission also included a show which consisted of a talk by some of the handlers followed by a Maori Culture show.The handler talk was fantastic although some might have found it a bit academic. I liked it a lot. The handler brought out some lorikeets (a lot like parakeets) and a live Tuatara, which I got to check out up close. If you don't remember the Tuatara, go back to the last part of the entry "Wellington prt 3." The Maori culture portions was unbelievably sad and cheesy. I wanted to bail but I was sitting in the front and the audience was small. I would have been noticed. By the time they tried to goad us into a Maori language version of the Hockey Pokey I had become embarrassed for the performers and all the more grateful for the show I had seen in Rotarua.

(A Street Performer on the Boardwalk)
So of course the more eventful part of my time in the big Q was the night time activities. The evening we arrived our bus driver for that leg, Trent organized a pub for us to meet up at. So at 8:30 we gathered at the Red Rock. There were many Magic Bus riders from my coach as well as several who had arrived in the past few days. The Red Rock was apparently the "IT" place to start the evening. Of course the evening never ends where it begins and a whole passel of us ended up at the Altitude Lounge for karaoke night. Allan a Scottish business student immediately signed up for a song and with admittedly very little goading I committed to a song myself. I pulled out the one song I know I can do well, Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World. I do it well because I have a surprising ability imitate Sachmo's voice. Laugh all you want, I killed. Kris was at the back of the bar when I went on and when i saw him later he had to ask if I had sung at all or if they had played a vocal track. For my efforts I won a free beer and a Malibu Rum mini skirt. I immediately made use of one and gave the other away. You can figure out which for yourself.For some reason Allan's song came up four tunes after mine and by then he had rounded up a contingent of seven, including myself to help him sing the proclaimers "I would walk 500 miles." For those who don't know it it requires a thick Scottish accent to be sung properly. So I never used my own voice on stage that night.Night Two also started at the Red Rock just as Night Three would.

(The Queenstown Waterfront at Dusk)
Night two started after my return from Milford Sound. I met up with everyone at the the Red Rock again. My timing was good because I had just missed out on some games between the Magic Bus riders and the competing Kiwi Experience passengers but I did arrive in time for the free drinks that followed. From there it was off to the World Bar in the center of town. It's a basic bar with an area for dancing and some loungey areas to kick back in. Their one big hook is the teapots. You can get mixed drinks served in a teapot which makes for easy sharing. A few teapots made the rounds between me, Maaike and Sue. I struck up conversations with some more new people before going dancing for the rest of the night

(The World Bar)
The third and final night started the same way. I met up with Allan the Drunken Scot (as we had now dubbed him) as well as his mates Aron and Marcus, an Aussie named Sonya and two dutch girls including a painter with the very cool name of Maria Mink and an even cooler blond afro. We headed out to a "salsa" night at a bar which I never got the name of but it was over crowded and the music wasn't salsa. They were playing Ricky Martin and Shakira. I'm sorry but that simply will not do. So we went back to the world bar were we stayed much to late while the Scottish contingent was fairly unsuccessful and chatting up the girls.
I squeezed in just a little sleep before hoping the bus for Dunedin the next morning. Three wild days was incredibly fun but I was glad it was time to switch the pace again.

(A Drunken Teapot)