After surviving a night in a campsite with yellow eyed penguins and the disappointment of not seeing a kiwi we thought we were safe. We enjoyed the
As you may have already guessed we were in fact at the start of a tramping track and had arranged the drop off ourselves. We couldn't do the Routeburn because the huts and campsites were fully booked. This wasn't a problem for the Dutch guy who hadn't booked a thing and was planning to pay at the huts. He didn't even have a tent but did have six days of food. He strode off along the track before we'd even got our bags on our backs. I asked Marielle how she knew he was Dutch. "I can tell by his accent and he's not German because Germans are organised and book everything in advanced." With the fate of the (probably Dutch) guy in the balance we finally got moving onto the greenstone track. We had a detour up a small mountain to drink wine and eat strawberries. This was the summer solstice and we were intent on celebrating it in style. We put up our tent on the campsite and failed at making a fire as the wood was wet. We still jumped over it because certain traditions must be observed.
The Greenstone is a two day tramping track following a river through a spectacular valley with snow capped mountains in view. The weather was glorious and we did some river swimming. It is also very isolated as almost everyone is one the Routeburn. We met a ranger at one of the huts and he had only three trampers staying the previous night. We also finally managed to make a successful fire with dry driftwood. We started it with lichens we found on the moor. "I've found the purpose of Lichens". Marielle is into lichens so this was a big moment for her.
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| Where we swam in the river. |
We celebrated Christmas in Queenstown with a big hostel Christmas meal and a jump in the lake. We also met up with Andrew and Emily again to share our tales and experience Queenstown's overrated night life. Ok so it does have lots of drunk people on nights out which apparently is a good thing I'm told. Plus we finally had a place in New Zealand with reasonably priced beer. The first place had good beer at 5 dollars and was perfect apart from feeling the need to play some ridiculously loud music. So we were forced to leave and go to Rhino bar whose house beer is the most disgusting beer I've ever paid for. Then we went to a cowboy themed bar which apparently is amazing but Marielle didn't get let in because she didn't have ID. We could have walked 5 minutes to the hostel to get it but since we are all blatantly over 18 I don't see why we should and it was a good time for going to bed anyway.
While in Queenstown we had the pleasure of staying in adventure lodge which had free hire bikes which are actually really high quality. It also had the perfect kitchen for making carrot cake. We were planning to leave after 2 nights but then Marielle's German friend who she met in Australia was arriving in town so we had to stay longer. Every hostel was fully booked for new year so we moved to an overpriced holiday park which despite charging us 25 dollars each per night just to pitch a tent still felt the need to charge for showers. Top 10 holiday parks are basically greedy corporate scoundrels. We did at least get to meet the lovely Katrin. We had a walk next to the lake with wine and swimming in the full heat of summer. We then departed and were out Queenstown just in time before it got really ridiculous at new year.
So Queenstown is basically crowded and full of drunk people. But it is a good place to met old friends as everyone goes through here and is in very beautiful surroundings. It would have been a great place to fly into New Zealand and be immersed in Beautiful scenery from day one. The real attraction is of course the tramping tramps where you can spend a few days in splendid isolation away from stress and pressure of the modern world.
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