The next few days however were extremely unremarkable. First we visited Greymouth, the town where the New Zealand mining tragedy took place. With the exception of a visit to the Monteiths Brewery there was literally nothing else to do in this town and you would wonder why Magic Bus deem this place worthy of being included on their itinerary. After this we visited Franz Josef, the site of the Franz Josef Glacier. The weather was gloomy and to be honest the glacier did not look extremely impressive with it being quite dirty in places, unlike the incredibly clean white and blue coloured Perito Moreno Glacier I visited in Argentina. I made a judgment call to save my money rather than hike on a glacier that is less impressive than the one I have already seen a couple of months ago.
However upon arriving in Queenstown things were about to liven up in the most spectacular fashion. This little resort town situated beside Lake Wakatipu is the self declared Adventure Capital of the World with numerous high thrill activities available such as skydiving, bungy-jumping, white water rafting and so on. However despite the fact that there is so much to do the prices for said activities are extremely inflated, even by New Zealand standards and I took the sensible decision to bypass most of these.I did however attempt the luge. Usually when one thinks of a luge the Olympic Winter Games come to mind with hardcore lunatics sliding down an ice track at stupid speeds of 150 kilometres per hour. However the luge that Queenstown has to offer is very different and thankfully much safer... most of the time. Basically it involved sitting in a tiny little sled with a sort of bicycle like handlebars that controlled both the steering and the braking and sliding down a downhill track with some sharp turns and steep slopes. You have full control over how fast or slow you want to go and it can be quite exhilarating when you gather a lot of speed. Unfortunately such an activity attracts some people from the idiot population of the human race. As I enter the narrowest part of the track, through a short tunnel this absolute clown from England smashes into the back of me, almost causing me to fall out of the luge, something which could have led to a bad injury. After shouting vicious verbal abuse at this reckless chancer he merely looks around at me and laughs and starts making boo-hoo signs at me and tells me to man up. Some people are a liability to society and are better off stranded on Antarctica!
Queenstown is also the Party Capital of New Zealand with an endless amount of bars with numerous backpackers settling here to work. There is literally not a New Zealander in sight and the town has been taken over by people from all parts of the world, with everybody appearing to know everybody. In Queenstown there is no such thing as a weekend, every day is a Saturday night. There is always something going on around the town at night time. It is a cracking holiday destination to let loose and have some great nights on the beer before continuing traveling around the country. One memorable night was had in Fraisers bar where a good mate from back home now works. Here beers were practically being given away for the charitable price of 2.50 NZ dollars each (about 1.40 euro) with spirits sold at 4 NZ dollars (About 2.30 euro). Such pricing is dangerous and a hazy night was the end result. I don't think I could live here however. My liver would not be able to survive the level of hardcore drinking that goes on 7 nights a week.
While in Queenstown myself and four people from my Magic Bus tour group rented a car and visited Milford Sound, located in the spectacular Fiordland National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The national park has a number of stunning lakes surrounded by snow peaked mountains. The famous fjord Milford Sound is the undoubted highlight of what I saw however. Here we took a 1 hour 40 minute cruise ship which brought us deep into the fjord offering spectacular views of high steep cliffs, and powering waterfalls. The weather was absolutely beautiful which enhanced the scenery the place had to offer. We were extremely lucky however as supposedly Milford Sound gets 180 days of rain a year and a cloudless day is about as rare as an England rugby victory over Ireland these days.
There was an unfortunate tragedy however while I was in Queesntown. Two young French men drowned while kayaking in dangerous choppy water in Lake Wakatipu. Advised by coastal guards that the water conditions had reached unsafe levels these two men ignored advice and insisted they knew what they were doing and refused to come back to shore. A tragedy that could easily have been avoided!
Tomorrow I begin my journey back up towards the north of the South Island, with the first stop being Dunedin. But before then there is still time for one more night, a chance to say goodbye to Queenstown in style.
Talk soon
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