For the next 4 nights, we would be making our home in Queenstown, the Adventure Capital of the World and also party capital of New Zealand. On our way to Queenstown, we made a stop in Lawrence for a bathroom/wifi break and Cromwell to grab lunch and take photos of their giant fruits. We also ate a meat pie in Cromwell, but the place wasn’t worth mentioning.
The first extreme sport excursion was the next stop: Kawarau Bridge – the original bungee. It was fun getting to cheer on the others who did the jump. This was our new friend Shawn! Go Naked Man! We became instant friends when he made racist asian jokes and gave us the middle finger.
Afterwards, we made a quick pitstop at Arrowtown where we had the opportunity to see a backdrop of a Lord of the Rings scene and stop in at Patagonia Chocolates. We tried the award winning raspberry gelato – so good ! We kept eyeing the chocolates but never ended up getting any. Apparently the chocolates are to die for, so now there’s one more reason to go back.
We ended the evening exploring Queenstown and having dinner at the Skyline Buffet to fill up our bellies then drinking and dancing at Buffalo Bar until we threw up all the food we just ate. Well, only one person threw up and thankfully it wasn’t us! haha :) It was a good time hanging with new friends!
Food photo from instagram
Timeline of our day:
- 10:10-10:40 AM Lawrence for bathrooms & wifi (pretty useless with a bus of 50 ppl trying to get on at once)
- Pass through Alexandra (see the Alex Clock on the hill)
- 12:15-1:00 PM Cromwell for lunch
- 1:30-2:45 PM Kawarau Bridge – Original Bungee (180 NZD)
- 2:50-4:00 PM Arrowtown. Had Raspberry gelato (7 NZD)
- 4:25-4:50 PM Explore Queenstown. Shotover and Camp Street are the main streets.
- 5:00-7:30 PM Drop off bags at Tanoa Aspen Hotel and get settled in
- 7:40-7:50 PM Take the official contiki group souvenir photo for purchase (~38 NZD can’t remember exact price)
- 8:00-9:30 PM Eat at Skyline Restaurant Buffet (75 NZD which includes 2 gondola rides)
- 9:30-ZZZ PM Buffalo Bar & Club! World bar for 5 mins in between. (Drinks are $5 with your contiki wristband)