Friday after school we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Queenstown. We were all in shock because the airport security was so laid back. We were not sure how long it would take to get through so we got there kind of early. Well, it ended up taking no longer than 15 minutes. There was nothing around our terminal to do, so we were actually able to go back downstairs to walk around and check out the shops and then go through security again once it got closer to our departure time. The guy working TSA was shocked that we were so surprised at how relaxed their security was.
Oh my, I do not even know where to start with our trip. It was absolutely incredible. From the moment we hoped off the plane, I knew I was going to love it. It even got better when we hoped in a taxi and Eddy our driver had Justin Bieber playing… I knew it was going to be a good weekend. Eddy may have not enjoyed our singing, but at least he pretended too. After a quick ride from the airport we arrived at our hotel. The view from our hotel room was amazing. We were looking right out to the lake surrounded by mountains. We definitely couldn’t complain waking up to that for two days, but we definitely did complain about the gigantic hill we had to walk up just to get to our hotel every time we left. After we got settled in, we took the quick 5-minute into town and checked it out. We ended up listening to live music at one of the restaurants and had a relaxing night since we had to be ready to go at 545 am on Saturday.
We woke up early Saturday to catch our 545 am bus to take a cruise around Milford Sounds. This cruise stole my heart. Being obsessed with the city and always going places where I can just lie out and relax on a beach, I did not know what I was getting myself into knowing that we were going to just be surrounded by mountains. That changed very quickly, they weren’t “just” mountains, Milford Sound completely stole my heart. I was in awe the whole time. It was by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Words cannot even describe what was going on in my head because it was so incredible. I could’ve taken a million pictures and no picture would do this place justice. This was by far my favorite thing we have done on this trip. I immediately texted my family and told them to start saving their money because we are taking a trip back to Queenstown. After our cruise around Milford Sound, we headed back into Queenstown. It had been a long day after getting up so early and driving 4 hours one way to catch the boat, but it was definitely worth every second because even the views on the drive were amazing. Once we got back to the hotel we all had to relax (and catch up on social media) for a little bit before heading to dinner. We found a cute rooftop restaurant to eat at and of course, it looked right at the mountains. After dinner, even though we were pretty exhausted, we spent the rest of the night enjoying the city and ended up meeting quite a few people too, which is always fun!
Sunday was another fun day. We were bound determine to make the most of our day before catching our flight later that afternoon. We caught up on some sleep and slept in a little before heading out to brunch. We went to another cute little breakfast place called “Halo’s.” The food and tea was delicious! After brunch, we decided to take the gondola up to the top of the mountain that overlooks the city. As we were riding the gondola up, coincidently we had a perfect view of one of our friends that we met on Saturday, bungee jumping. We were yelling out the windows cheering him on and couldn’t stop laughing that we actually witnessed it because what is the chance of that?? The gondola ride was kind of freaky at first because it was a straight shot up, but of course we had a blast riding up as we blasted music and sang. Once we got to the top we walked around and just enjoyed the incredible views. We also ended up meeting people from Madison…what a small world really! After we spent some time up top, we headed back down to enjoy some time at the beach before we had to leave. Of course, no one should be surprised, I didn’t think I’d get burnt sitting out for an hourish, so I didn’t put sunscreen on and got burnt. Whoops! The time just seemed to fly by. We definitely did not want to leave Queenstown one bit because there is just so much to do! We wanted to do a lot of things while we were there, but time did not allow for much. It was an incredible place to travel to and I really hope I do make it back someday so I can explore it a bit more! I never thought a person like myself would fall in love with the mountains as much as I did.
It was a busy weekend filled with lots of fun! I am ready for another school week ahead filled with lots of practicing for our Christmas concert, doing Christmas projects and finishing up end of the year work. It will be a crazy week of school!
