At the end of last
week, I said goodbye to one of my really good friends here named Lorenzo. Well we said goodbye multiple times thinking
we were not going to see each other again.
But he is headed to UNC for the semester (basically switching places
with one of the UNC girls here) so look out Chapel Hill! I am expecting
everybody from Carolina to take good care of him and teach him how to love UNC
just as much as we do J I am super excited for him!
Early Friday morning,
a group of 10 of us loaded into 2 rental cars and headed to Queenstown for the
weekend! After a little detour through
town after getting lost in Dunedin, we were on way. Queenstown is about a 4 hour drive and my car
went crazy with singing along to every song on the radio. Marvin and Wynton (the guys from Germany) had
a CD with Wagon Wheel on it so that kind of became our theme song and it’s
still currently stuck in my head. Such a
good one! Anna and Emma were also in our
car and Wynton and Marvin were such troopers driving the whole time. Once we got into Queenstown, we dropped off a
group of people who had booked to go bungee jumping. (Don’t worry mom, I was not in that group). The rest of us hiked up to a viewpoint where
you could see the lake and snow covered mountains. It was chilly but so worth it! Afterwards, we checked into our backpackers
and went to grab dinner with the rest of the crew. We ate at a famous burger joint called Ferg
Burger and I’m pretty sure the burger was about the size of my head. We had to wait about a half hour for them,
but it was delicious! After dinner, we
rested for a while and then went out to a few of the famous clubs in town
called Winnie’s and World Bar. They were
lots of fun, even though I ended up losing my cardigan (but I found it the next
day when I went back) and earrings! 
The next day, we woke
up and got some breakfast in the backpackers.
The lady that was working the breakfast station started talking to us
and it turns out she is from Maryland and knew where my hometown, Frostburg,
is, which is kind of a big deal considering how small of a town it is. After filling up on toast and hot chocolate,
we headed down to the lake. On our way
there, we ran into a boy who was wearing a Carolina sweatshirt with his
family. So of course we had to talk to
them and it turns out they are from Carrboro, right outside Chapel Hill! Small world again! Down at the lake, we rented some kayaks and
were able get onto the beautiful crystal blue water for a while! Rachel and I rented a double kayak and it was
so much fun to be in the middle of the lake surrounded by the mountains! Afterwards, we grabbed a quick lunch, played
around on a random rope swing that went out over the water for a while (even
gathering spectators to watch us make a fool of ourselves), and took a drive
down the road beside the lake. We were
looking for another lake, but never ended up finding it. Instead, the road took us to some spectacular
viewpoints a little ways away from town.
Afterwards, we walked around quaint little Queenstown exploring and then
grabbed pizza at Winnie’s (yes the club we were in the night before) and then
headed to Wanaka, an hour’s drive away.
Halfway there we stopped on the side of the road to look at the stars. I forgot to mention this in my last blog, but
the stars from the hut on Mt. Somers were absolutely amazing and I don’t think
I have ever seen any so bright! And the Milky Way was incredible. They were beautiful that night on the side if
the road as well. 
We made it to Wanaka
around 9pm and that’s when things started going wrong. When booking the week before, we had to split
up into 2 groups because we could not find a backpacker’s that could hold all
10 since we booked pretty late and Wanaka is a popular ski destination. So Rachel and I ended up staying somewhere
different from the rest of the group.
When we arrived at the place we were staying, they looked at the two of
us and said that they only had one person booked and only one bed. I then proceeded to show him my receipt that
explicitly said two adults booked. So we
got into a, “stern conversation” with each other with me basically telling him
that this is not my fault and not my problem to figure out. I was little short, but I knew the rest of
the backpackers were full and we needed a place to sleep. At the same time, I told the rest of the crew
to head to their place while I sorted things out. Finally, the guy agreed to break fire code
for us and bring in a mattress into the bunk bed room. So we settled for that and figured we were
set of the night right as I got a text saying that the other group checked into
their backpackers with only 2 beds, after booking for 8 people. It was a mess! They ended up getting a motel and the
backpackers paid the difference for it.
After that, we were all pretty exhausted and while some people decided
to go out, Rachel and I went to bed. But
before, we got to watch NZ win a gold medal in women’s single kayaking! Yay! 
We woke up early
Sunday morning and decided to hike Rob Roy Glacier track. So we packed some lunches and after a mini
freak out where I thought I lost my wallet and passport (it ended up being put
in the other car after the ordeal the night before), we headed out to the
trailhead. I guess it was just the
weekend of losing/misplacing things. Not
many people had backpacks, so I ended up carrying most people’s food and water,
but I didn’t mind. It took us about an
hour and a half to get to the overlook, but the hike was beautiful along the
river and valley. And once at the top,
the view of the glacier was amazing! And out of nowhere, we hear a rumbling
sound and turn around just in time to see an avalanche! I’m serious! It was
crazy. Also, at this point we were about
2.5 hours from Queenstown and we ended up running into the family from Carrboro
again on this trail! It was hilarious. We
made it back down the mountain just before it started raining. 
So we headed back into
Wanaka, gabbed some dinner (I had fish and chips) and headed back to Dunedin
arriving here at about 10pm Sunday evening.
It was a packed and tiring weekend, but lots of fun exploring the small
towns we went to and the sights around them!
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