Queenstown. Definitely a must-see if you’re going to NZ. It was absolutely beautiful. It was a bigger city, similar to Estes Park that clearly made its money by being a tourist destination. Downtown was filled with souvenir shops and places where you could book your skydiving/bungy jumping/paragliding adventures. Because it was Easter weekend and we hadn’t called ahead, we ended up having to call about 10 hostels before finally finding one that was available. Which turned out to be absolutely perfect. It was called the Hippo Lodge and while I didn’t understand why they chose to be branded by a hippo, it was easily one of the better places we stayed. Our window opened right up to the parking lot so we just opened the window and tossed all of our stuff into the room, firefighter style.
We walked downtown (down another giant hill that our hostel was located on top of) and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day and all the nice cafes that lined the streets. We ate dinner while watching My Best Friend’s Wedding and met some of the other people that were staying in the hostel (more on them later as well). We all went downtown that night (it was Friday after all) to the World Bar which is this really cool place (there’s one in Sydney as well) with a great dance floor and drinks served in teapots. We came back that night and crashed, only to wake up the next morning to…
Free pancakes. I’m not joking. I don’t know WHY I thought it was such a big deal, but the hostel provided free pancake mix every morning which I loved. We didn’t have any syrup and they were more like ‘butter cakes’ with all the butter I had to use to make them not stick but they were so delicious. And free. After breakfast, Lauren and I went on this hike (they love their steep hills in NZ) up to the top of this mountain where you could see Queenstown from up high. Once we got back, we walked downtown to visit the weekend craft market as well as Chocolate Patagonia: only the greatest dessert place ever. Actually, let me just digress and tell you; Saturday was a great food day. Breakfast: free pancakes, Lunch: Delicious chocolate mud cake and homemade cookies and cream gelato from Chocolate Patagonia, Dinner: Fergburger. Fergburger is this place which kind of reminded me of Blimpy Burger and had been recommended by literally everyone we had talked to, so of course we had to go. It was pretty good and definitely a step up from the PB&J and grilled Cheese I had had every day until then. (And when I say every day, I mean I had a grilled cheese every day. Good thing, I love it… :) OK, enough about food, I’m making myself salivate.
We went out again that night with the guys we met at the hostel and woke up to (yet another) amazing pancake breakfast. Lauren gave us makeshift Easter presents including a NZ pencil and Cadbury chocolate. :) It was the cutest thing. We had to move out of the Hippo because they were booked but we stayed in the YHA down the road. By this point, Anja had split up from us and was going back down south to Milford Sound with Antje, another girl we know, so Lauren, Daniel and I walked down the riverside while Emma went paragliding in the morning. I spent the day walking along the harbor and Lauren and Emma and I spent the afternoon going to this winery where Emma’s mom imports their wine so we got a free tasting which was a great end to a relaxing day in Queenstown. So that was Queenstown… definitely a favorite weekend thus far (and don’t tell, but I stole some free pancake mix and took it with me for the road. What can I say? I’m a sucker for free food…)
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