Q'town

On November 9, yes... after a full (last) day of camp, I flew down to the South Island with Gretchen, Ben, Bri, Heather, and Jessica! Monday of the following week was a scheduled strike day for the teachers since they are in contract negotiations, so we decided to head Queenstown for our long weekend. Queenstown is an incredibly beautiful city nestled right in between a mountain range called The Remarkables.

For those of you reading from Wisconsin, I kind of found it to be like a Lake Geneva/Cedarburg-type city with plenty of walking only streets, shops, restaurants, and a crazy night life. And everywhere you look, you see mountains, the lake on one side, beaches... it was such a breathtaking place. Our weekend was jam-packed, but all the traveling was worth every second with these pals!

Here we go!

We flew in by 9:30pm and headed to our hostel. This was many of our first hostel experience, and it was an interesting one to say the least!

Saturday morning, bright and early, we left our hostel at 7am to head to the pick up spot for a day trip to Milford Sound. Milford Sound is about a 5 hour drive away, and as we headed onto the bus, I don't think we were ready for the gorgeous sights we'd see on the cruise we were taking later that day. The drive there was filled with many twisting, turning roads and a few stops to admire the beauty around us.

Below is one of the several stops we made along the way. I had a Sound of Music moment... haha.

The hills are alive

Squad:

When we arrived at Milford Sound, we headed straight for the ferry boat and boarded to find our buffet lunch waiting (yum). We headed out promptly at 1pm and instantly fell in love with the whole area. We decided to book the 'nature cruise' and I think we made the right choice!

Here are some initial views:

It was so hard to take out my phone and capture pictures because I just wanted to experience every second of the 2 hours we had! So I'm really thankful for those that took these stunning photos.

More of the SQUAD:

LOL Ben and I living our best lives.

We saw penguins and seals IN THE WILD for the FIRST time. It was amazing!!!

The first mate even drove us directly beneath a waterfall shooting off the side of one of the mountains. I stood on the front deck and got SOAKING wet and it was worth every second!

Post waterfall!

Hair: wet

Birks and flannel: on

Milford: Sound

Yee: Haw

After our cruise, we made our way back to Queenstown, stopping at a few new places on the way home.

When we arrived back, we headed out for a night on the town. We met people from NZ, Australia, the US--all over! It was a great time, and we ended up at Fergburger, a famous 24 burger joint downtown. The burger I ordered was one of the best I've ever had! And it was indeed still very busy at midnight.

The next day, Gretch and Ben went to hike a mountain (casual) and the rest of us went to hike the Queenstown Trail. It was a really fun few hours that gave us a great workout. There were some pretty incredible views at the top along with some fun historical markers along the way up.

Aye we made it! :)

Live, Love, NZ.

I've been learning to love nature so much more since I arrived here. The hike we went on showed me how beautiful it can be and how much fun I can have outside.

So I live in a Bob Ross painting!

Guess this is the pose to beat.

MMMMMMM. SO BEAUTIFUL.

Sunday night we hung out and relaxed after a random dinner at a 'mexican' place (my only complaint about NZ is they don't do Mexican food right, lol). There was a park in the middle of the city that we spent a lot of time in. It was a fun spot and there was free, open WiFi, so ya can't lose.

Here is the insane view of the lake and part of Queenstown at night with the Remarkables in the background.

Monday morning, Heather, Bri, Jessica, and I headed over to the gondola ride up the mountain. And Heather ended up bungy jumping off the side of said mountain shortly after! Later, we found Gretchen and Ben, and after some lunch, I headed out to do some shopping.

We spent our last moments in Q'town on the beach, admiring this beautiful city we had the pleasure of visiting for the weekend.

It was easily one of the most fun times here to date! Although that may not be fair, because pretty much every day here in New Zealand is the greatest.

If you have the chance to travel here, DO IT!

P.S. People can't sue here. Like there is literally no legislation in place for them to sue other people... everyone has so much more chilll than the U.S.