I don't even know where to begin. The past ten days was so much fun! I want to go on my honeymoon to Queenstown, New Zealand- any sponsors? haha. Queenstown is the most beautiful place I have ever been. The South Island was all so beautiful. We spent many hours in our two 10 passenger vans traveling all around the South Island. But it was all so fun! I love our group- we are all becoming such great friends- and we still have two more months here together! And still lots of traveling to do! I am realizing how lucky we are not only to be here, but to be able to travel around the country so much. By the time we leave NZ, we will have seen more of the country than many of the locals. Last night driving home, our taxi driver who lives just down the street from Alice told us how he hasn't even been to the south island before- we are so lucky! But I really would love to go back there someday.
Here we go- so Monday morning, January 31st, Katie and I finished up our packing, and were out on the curb right as our taxi van came to pick us up. We were the first of the group to be picked up at 5:35am! The van slowly filled up, and we headed to the Auckland airport. I slept the entire flight, which was also one of the coldest flights I've ever been on! I even had to break out my tennis blanket from my backpack! haha. Anyway, so we flew into Queenstown around 8:30-9ish. Everyone got their luggage and everything, and we met Reggie, the man who rented us our two vans for the trip. James, the man who lives in Auckland and always drives the other van when we have group activities in Auckland, came down to Queenstown with us! He is so kind, and so funny. Also in Queenstown at the airport we met up with Johnny, another man who arranged all our hostel/motel arrangements for the time we were in the South Island. He is an accountant for a hotel in Queenstown, and also a member of the church. Johnny loved to listen in on all our conversations in the van! haha. But he told Dr. J how happy he is to now have '16 new friends!' :) We all loved James and Johnny!
We drove right into Queenstown, which is actually much smaller than I expected, but SO incredibly beautiful. Here is the first picture I took of Queenstown:
When we got to Queenstown, we dropped off all our stuff at base X, the backpacker/hostel place where we stayed. It was definitely an interesting experience! There were 8 girls in one room, and 8 girls in another, with a bathroom per room, that was also shared by many other strangers! haha. But hey, it's all part of the experience! We had fun with it. Kind of a funny story--one night I was about to go to sleep, and had just finished reading, and was flipping over to get to my knees to say my prayers. Well, I slept on a bottom bunk, and as I kind of jumped to turn around, the back of my pajama pants got caught on a sharp end of a spring from the top bunk- and totally ripped my pajama pants!! haha. Half of the room was already asleep, but once Christine and I started laughing after realizing that I had a huge hole at the top of the back of my pants, everyone pretty much woke up. It was so funny, because I had gasped after I heard the rip, which kind of made everyone wonder what had happened...and therefore...all eyes on Rebecca! haha. I had a good laugh. But then I was so bummed (no pun intended :) ) because those polka dot pajama pants from Victoria Secret were my favorite! haha. It's ok though. I think it will be one of those little memories I will never forget from the trip! And I had to get a picture before we left Christchurch- I just threw the pants away before we flew out yesterday.
Anyway, that was just something funny that happened. But back to Queenstown- so Monday we dropped off our luggage, then we had a few hours before we rode the Shotover Jet. We all walked around, looked at the shops, and walked along the wharf also. There are so many cute shops and restaurants all over the little city. It was pretty chilly that day though, which surprised us all. I should have packed more pants and jackets, but we left Auckland in like 75 degree weather! It all worked out though. And we were so blessed- the night before, everyone checked the weather, and it was supposed to rain ALL week while we were in Queenstown- which would be no skydiving for sure! I was pretty bummed Sunday night, but we flew in Monday to sunny Queestown! We brought the sunshine with us! :) And we had wonderful weather all week.
After getting to know the city, we piled in the vans to the Shotover Jet!!! Oh my goodness, it was a BLAST. It is Dr. Jacobs' favorite thing to do in Queenstown, so he treated us- with our money of course! But it was so fun. You should just youtube it and watch a few...I don't even know how to explain it. It's pretty much a huge jetski that holds like 10 people and skims over the water at super high speeds...and does sharp turns, 360s...it was twenty minutes of pure FUN. I was sitting next to Diana and James, and I could not stop laughing. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, it's like when I go tubing and just giggle the whole time because I'm having so much fun- I could not stop! I loved every minute of it. I wish I had pictures...but tomorrow we have one more day of class, where we're just going over our practicum assignments, and afterwards we're doing a camera swap with everyone, so I should be able to get our group pictures and everything. So tomorrow or this weekend I'll put up a big post of pictures from everything I don't have already!
After the Shotover Jet, we went to this little town called Arrowtown. It was really cute! And nearby we visited this old Chinese mining village where people used to live and mine gold from the Shotover River.
When we got back to Queenstown, we went and booked our skydiving for the next day! We were planning to do it on Friday on Nicole's birthday, but decided to do it while we knew the weather would be nice. Afterward, we all got back in the vans, and drove probably 3 hours round trip to Glenorchy. It was such a gorgeous drive though. We got to see the forests and fields where apparently much of Lord of the Rings was filmed. I wish I would have watched the movies before I came here! But we saw lots of sheep again too! I really should add up all the hours we spent in the car. But every hour was so worth it- we got to see so much of the south island while we were there. And with 8-9 girls in a van, there was always something to talk about! :) Here are a few pictures of Glenorchy:
We had a busy, fun-filled first day in Queenstown! I have so many pictures, so I'm going to do a bunch of different posts!
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