Queenstown and Captain Cook

Queenstown is great. It's contagiously energetic and full of random stuff to do. Our first morning while Fabian slept in, Ben and I took a cruise that toured the entire Queenstown area.

We frisbee golfed, which was hilarious because we had to give me a handicap of halving my score just to be competitive. It shattered all my hopes and dreams of playing frisbee in college. The course is beautiful, though, right on the water in the Queenstown Botanical Gardens.

We took a gondola up to a luging course, which was surprisingly enjoyable despite the ridiculous pricing.

We mini golfed twice and had a day of wine, cheese, and chocolate tastings. All this was topped off by awesome nights out with fabulous fellow backpackers, dancing and drinking and making new friends. I even ran into two people from Waiheke (what?!?).

After a few days we packed up and headed out to Mt. Cook National Park, or Captain Cook, as Ben named it. Mount Cook Village is basically a ghost town, with a few expensive hostels, lots of Asian tourists, and a complete lack of grocery stores. The one restaurant in town opens for approximately two hours each day, so we had to leave after one night because we literally ran out of food. Our one day there we hiked (more like strolled) the Hooker Valley track, most of it heading straight for the beautiful, snowy Mt. Cook.

We escaped the creepy village, taking refuge in the much more inhabited Wanaka. This town is beautiful and even has a supermarket. Life is good.