My birthday fell in the middle of break. My friends were pretty much scattered all over the South Island in various groups. Damon and I were in Christchurch, Nicole was with her aunt in Greymouth, and everyone else at Mt. Cook. So we decided that Queenstown would be a great place to congregate and celebrate. I was nervous for sure about if we would all be able to come together at the same time in a place none of us had been yet with minimal snafus, but we were going to try.
Damon and looked at our various options for getting to Queenstown. There was car, plane and bus. Plane was definitely out of our price range. So we turned to cars. Our previous adventure had cost us a pretty penny in gas, so we scoured the internet for cheap cars taht we could get for the next day. The prices were outrageous of course. But then we found it. The cheapest car rental ever. I couldn’t believe it and had to call the agency to make sure. Can a $1 car rental really exist?! Yes, yes dear reader, it can and it does. At least in New Zealand. Apparently what it was, was a ‘relocation’ rental. Basically someone did a one way car rental from Christchurch to Queenstown, and the car people needed that car back in Churchurc by t he 17. That is where we came in. For a dirt cheap price, we move that car for them, paying only for gas. It was beautiful, oh so beautiful.
But a few problems popped up. First you had to be 21 to rent a car. BINGO! Guess who would be turning 21 when she rented the car?? Yep. Lined up perfectly. But new problem, the car was a manual (stick shift) and I didn’t know how to drive one of those. But luckily Damon did. We just had to figure out how I was going to get the car out of the lot. But we would figure that one out when we got there. For now we had to find a way from Churchur to Queenstown. What’s up Atomic Shuttles. Getting you from A to B for 50 bucks. We were good to go.
The next morning we woke up bright and early to catch our bus. When we go on, there were hardly anyone on the bus and we could really stretch out. It was wonderful. The ride was very nice, I could just sit there listening to music and enjoying the country while we drove on (the bus ride was about 6 hours long). Damon and I played a lot of Cribbage, Uno and other card games. Before we knew it, we were in Queenstown!
Driving
We had a few hours to burn until the others got there. They had done the Mulluer Hut tramp at the base of Mt. Cook. Queenstown is a really great little town. It reminded Damon and I of Colorado, Jackson Hole for me. There was a spectacular mountain range called the Remarkables behind the town and Lake Wakatipu in the front. Pretty amazing to look. Always a view. A majority of the stores were really nifty as well, cute and artsy.
Founder of QT
Hopefully, if all went well, everyone would meet up at a famous restaurant called Fergburger. This was a crazy hole in the wall place recommended by everyone you talk to. It started off a bunch of years back, literally in a crappy alley way. But the building was condemned or something along those lines and moved into a much nicer location. The hours are bananas, and definitely cater to the younger drinking cliental. They open at 9am (perfect after a night of drinking) and close at 5am (perfect for a night of drinking).
Right about the time we were all suppose to meet up, the texts came in. We’re here and will meet you soon. Beautiful. I still can’t believe that it went off without a hitch. We all came together, tired and hungry to descend upon the amazing deliciousness that was a Fergburger. They were HUGE. Like face sized burgers. They came in amazing flavours too. I went for orginal. But there were types like southern swine (burger with bbq and bacon) sweet Bambi (deer with plum chutney) the Cod Father (fish burger) The Bun Laden (don’t really remember) and many others.
We all finished in record time, and that is when I had my first official drink of the my life. It was just a Speight’s beer. A lager brewed in the Dunedin area. But it was actually pretty good. I was pleased. While we were sitting there, a guy came up and asked us if we were lanning on going out that night. And we loked at him and said “as a matter of fact we are”. He said great and gave us some wristbands that gave us half priced drinks at a place called the World Bar. We were pretty excited for this night.
We started off our Queenstown bar tour and a place called Monty’s where we had some beers and listened to some sweet acoustic music. Then we moved on to the World Bar for half price ‘teapots’. The World Bar has a pretty distinct hipster vibe to it. It was pretty fun with some electro dance music playing on the dance floor. Their gimic is that they mix the shots in a teacup. Then they give you this teapot with a few shot glasses and you go from there. It was actually a lot of fun and really good. We had some called Ginga Ninja (which ended up tasting like alcoholic L&P or really gingery ginger ale) Smoochable (a butterscotch apple, very sweet) and Illusion (a fruity punch one). Sad days though, no one really got drunk properly as should be done on a 21st because we had just consumed a half a pound of fresh greasy burgers. But that didn’t matter. We all had fun dancing. The last bar was Winnie’s. There was another really nice band there, and every few minutes, the roof would open up and allow the smoke from the fireplace to clear out and cool the bar down. So much fun.
After a while though, it was time to head back and find a place to crash. We ended up camping outside of Queenstown at a place called Lake Hayes. Turns out there was a no camping sign there, but we made out just fine. Sadly we had to part ways because the boys and Emily were going to Milford area, and Nicole and her aunt were off to some other awesome adventure. Now it was time to figure out that whole car situation. But lady luck was smiling upon us. The Budget lady said that they had upgraded us and if this was okay with us. Of course it was!! And the car we had was awesome, it was a sweet as SUV. That car drove really nice if you were wondering.
The drive back was really nice. We stopped by the place where people bungi jump and the LOTR shooting location of the Anduin River. It was from the scene when Frodo leaves the group. We also saw Mt. Cook which was AMAZING. Mt. Cook is the mountain the Sir Edmund Hilary practiced on before he climbed Mt. Everest. Badass point for New Zealand. It’s the tallest point in New Zealand at a height of 3,754 meters. We really want to get back there and climb part of the mountain to Mueller Hut. Fingers crossed!
So overall my 21st was great. It got to a part of the country I hadn’t been yet, met up with my friends and had a great dinner. That night wasn’t particularly crazy, but who wants to try to sleep drunk in a tent? I want to thank my friends again for a great birthday and my family back in the States for remembering me and sending their love! Thanks guys!
For more pictures, simply place mouse HERE and click!
P.S. I thought that I would link the video that I’ve seen dozens of times when I fly. Its hugely popular and is one of the most viewed videos on YouTube. It’s from Air New Zealand and is their safety video. Its so popular because the people in the video are naked with their uniforms painted on. It took me a few views the actually catch they were naked, but it’s hilarious. Boy do I love New Zealand. Click here for the link!
Well done! We were all wondering if you managed to do anything other than tramp through the mountains. I'm glad you had a memorable 21st birthday sweetie.
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