To the point......

Hi blog fans, and those that are not so keen on the blog.....

I've got wind of a vicious rumour that my blog posts are too long, with me writing too much....... I believe the phrase 'you can write for England' was used.  To protect their identity, I will keep the source of this rumour anonymous, and I will endeavour to keep this one as 'concise' as possible.  It is a lucky co-incidence that it has been a pretty quiet week, so there isn't too much to report anyway!

I have spent the last week in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world and the party capital of New Zealand!  I have certainly participated in the later, but not so much the adventure side of QT. The most adventurous thing I have done in QT is a game of 'frisbee golf', (which did unexpectedly have some risk associated with it!).  I know, I know, how can I be in QT and not throw myself into a Canion on an elastic band?  Well as I have said before, a bungy jump does not appeal to me at all, and having already done a sky dive etc, I have kept myself busy with the tamer side of QT.  Although there must be something about QT which I have fallen for, because I was due to leave of Sunday, and on this sunny (but cold) Wednesday afternoon I'm still here.  I am leaving tomorrow though, after a week in this glorious town, having only planned to spend two days here.

So what have I been doing to keep myself busy here?  Well after a long 4 days apart, I met up with some of the girls from my previous bus (plus Rocky who is an honoury member of the 'bimbettes'), so of course we were obliged to have a reunion night out to celebrate being together again.  QT did us proud and really did provide us with an awesome night out in the party capital of NZ, I particularly like the 'tea pots' served in the World Bar...in Asia drinks were served in a bucket, but a tea pot is just so much more refined!  I also dragged a couple of people out who I had met at my hostel, who will be referred to as 'Essex' and 'German' (they are ok with this!), I'm not sure they knew what they were letting themselves in for when they agreed to come out with me, but a good night was had by all, which was rounded off nicely by the legendary 'Fergburger' on the way home.  Pictures of face book.

So back to the adrenaline activities of QT, myself, Claire, Gemma and Essex participated in a game of 'frisbee golf'.  Yep, as it says on the tin, a 18 'basket' course, set within the beautiful QT botanical gardens, each basket has a par, in which you need to get the Frisbee in.  I not sure it was supposed to, but for us it provided hours, literally, of entertainment.  The course should be completed in a par of 58, I got 115!  Myself, Claire and Gem were all in the region of 110-120, and Essex improved on this taking the game with 87, but still quite an abysmal performance all round I would say!  We had to keep stepping aside to let the more able play through!  It was a lot of fun, and one of the highlights was Claire chasing her Frisbee down the hill towards the lake as it just keep rolling and rolling further away from us.  My sides were hurting I laughed so much.

I have also taken a trip up the 'Skyline' Gondola which provides amazing views of QT (pics on Facebook), and I am embarrassed to say, this sedate journey which does not count as one of QT adrenaline junkie sports, did make me a little nervous!  I know, I have thrown myself out of plane, but the cable car, did give me a funny feeling in my tummy.....in my defence I did go on quite a windy day so it wobbling around quite a bit!

I have also been on a couple of walks/hikes as well, one to the summit of one the mountains which QT is nestled beneath, and one along the lake to the next town.  You can walk anywhere and be presented with stunning scenery, particularly this time of year where the trees are turning for Autumn, so there are so many different colours, the sun is shinning and the mountains are all snow capped. 

QT has also been the venue for karaoke event number 2, yes, that's right we did it again!  I am embarrassed too, particularly when we put our next request in and the DJ said "are you sure you really want to sign again?" and encouraged others to perform by saying "you can be any worse" than us!  How rude!

So I have stayed here for 6 nights and that is the longest I have stayed in one place since I left Southampton(well there was one room change involved, so almost the place same for 6 nights, which was caused by a high tension incident between myself, 3 Chinese ladies and a lot of plastic carrier bags, but I won't dwell on that).  It has been really nice to spend a bit longer in one place to feel the atmosphere in the town and get to know people and make friends in the hostel etc.  Although you know you have spent too long in one place guy behind the counter in the off license says, "you have been in a few times now, do you want to get a 'locals' card?".  Time to leave QT I think!

Lots of Love

Katrina x x x x