1/26/2002 Queenstown, New Zealand Phillip
That's right, I'm on this trip too! Since Kelly's gotten all the limelight I thought I might post a quick entry. Kel's far more religous in keeping track of our trip than I am. In fact, my paper-journal is weeks behind. I spent an hour updating some of it today. I suppose that's procrastination for you!
We drove from the very scottish Dunedin to Queenstown today. I drove half of it. Rob and I are splitting the driving. What's funny is that the main highway of New Zealand is only one lane in each direction. There's quite a few trucks and so you get to be a bit of a rally-driver and overtake cars. I like that bit! :)
Dunedin was nice. The hostel we stayed in was very Scottish. Old creaky floorboards and low ceilings. Reminded me of my old house in Scotland. Today we drove to the world's steepest street and Kelly even managed to convince me to walk down it. I initially resisted (we're paying for the car, why not use it?), but her charm managed to sway me. We also went to Dunedin Castle. I was pretty dissapointed when we drove up, wasn't very big. I think I'm spoiled since Scotland has such fabulous castles, but once we went inside US$6 each) the tour was actually very interesting. The view from the top was fabulous.
The scenery is definately what I'll remember most about New Zealand. The views are simply awesome. Also, there's such variety. From Glaciers to white sand beaches they have it all. Amazing becuase the country is similar in size to the uk (or Florida for you Yanks). NZ barely has 6 million people, but it manages to fit in 48 million sheep! No Scottish jokes there.....
Queenstown (where we currently are) is the home of Bungee Jumping. We're all considering doing it, along with White Water rafting. It's a very high energy city, lots of dangerous things to do and for once we're spending two days here. We've literally been switching cities every day for what seems like weeks and that means getting out of bed and checking out of the hostel by 10am! Much harder than it sounds! I know we're spoiled but the beauty of Queenstown is that tomorrow we get to sleep in! You can't understand how excited I am. To have the same bed for two nights is a first in New Zealand.
Kelly and I have been discussing getting a camper van for Australia
so that might solve the problem.
Wish you guys were here to see all the amazing stuff!
Posted by Admin at January 26, 2002 01:52 AM