Across the Ditch: Extreme Drinking Edition

Today's original plan was to drive out to Milford Sound.  Two days before we arrived there was a big landslide and the road was closed off for a few weeks until the damage was cleaned up.  We were all sad as this was something everyone wanted to see.  Instead we thought we'd drive to Doubtful Sound, not as famous but just as picturesque.  Good thought last night, but not so much in the morning when everyone wanted to sleep off their booze!  Alana and I sort of got up when the alarms went, but decided we should just stay in bed longer instead. 

 When we did get up, this is the view we were greeted with.  How beautiful!  Our room overlooked Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkable Mountains.  We had a warmish, sunny day today with no clouds.  I'm in love with Queenstown and New Zealand and hope to come back again in the new year. 

 

We walked into town for breakfast and were able to eat outside.  Then we walked along the pier to find out about a boat cruise on the lake.  While the boys booked it, Alana and I were taking pictures (love that she takes a much as me!).  One of the tour guys offered to take our picture if we went on his paddle boats- for free!  He needed some "publicity".  We had time to kill before our cruise, so we did it.  I dipped my hand in the lake- pretty cold.  Really clean water though.

When we got to our lake cruise, we learned we were the only guests and we had the whole boat to ourselves.  Balla!  It was an hour and a half and we went all around the lake.  We got to sample some of it's freshwater.  Then the booze came out.  Extreme drinking begins...

The boys wanted to watch the live UFC fights after the cruise at one of the pubs.  Alana and I decided to do our own thing.  We checked out the "aquarium" (which sucked) and went to the Minus Five Ice Bar, which is a bar built entirely out of ice.  We were given heavy jackets and gloves before we went in.  I asked the guide if we really needed these for minus five and he said yes, it's pretty cold in there.  Clearly he's never been to Canada.  Anyways, Ice Bar was pretty cool.  We got some fancy Smirnoff drinks in ice glasses, followed by some shots.

We were now feeling pretty good and decided we had some time to kill while the boys were at the fight, so we went into a bottle shop and picked up the cheapest bottle we could find- Fat Bird- then headed to the beachfront of the lake to enjoy it.   We were not alone in our drinking.  Apparently on a Sunday afternoon this is what all the cool kids do in Queenstown.  We sat and talked till the wind got too cool, then took our bottle on a walk around town.  We took pictures with every statue we could find.  We wore bright yellow sunglasses I borrowed from the aquarium.  We danced in the streets and made random friends.  We went into a candy store, bought a bunch of candy, and ate it in five minutes.  When we decided it was time to find the boys we ended up walking in circles for like half an hour till they finally found us.  Dean's best comment of the weekend- "Usually it's us getting in trouble, when did the girls become so wild?"  Normally it is Joel and Dean being rowdy and causing a scene.   Sadly I have no photos of our adventure, but hopefully will get Alana's pics soon.  We went back to Fergburger for dinner, then I needed a nap.

Since Joel's birthday was the next day, some early celebrations were in order!  We found a cool pub to hang out at, got rainbow shots and sang happy birthday, then Joel went back for ANOTHER Fergburger!

Random moment of the night- we found Brutis' Kiwi brother!

In the morning we had a flight back to Sydney, then it was time to go our separate ways.  We didn't get much sleep, but it was such a fun weekend.  

Joel and I were so glad that Dean and Alana were able to fly out here to see us and had such an awesome time with them!  Already making plans for our next trip...