NZ trip - Day 9

Today we woke up about 640am...Elena was leaving Queenstown for Auckland...she wanted to walk around the lake before taking the bus to the airport...as we were walking towards Queenstown Garden, we heard the blaring of siren...there were a lot of ppl walking out from the Nomad's Backpacker (looked like a really classy backpacker)...within minutes 2 firetrucks were parked in front of the backpacker...didn't see any smoke though...probably some idiot decided to smoke under the fire alarm and caused a false alarm...saw some cute guys in their t-shirts and boxers walking barefooted....what a sight to greet us on a lovely morning...:P

Anyway, we walked around the garden a bit...took some photos...and it was time for Elena to catch the bus...so we sent her off at the bus stop and Cam and I went back to the Alpine Lodge...had bread and kiwi for breakfast and met a Taiwanese girl, Kay who was sharing the dorm with us...there was another person who checked-in the night before and we found out that the person was a guy...Cam and I were pretty shocked coz we were changing in our room....thank God the guy was still sound asleep...else it would have been an awkward situation if he woke up while we were changing...

We checked out and put our bags at Absoloot...we paid for our room and headed for the Snow Centre where we got a return ticket to the Remarkables at NZD5...took a 45 mins bus ride up there, in which i was asleep most of the way...when we arrived, i was almost blinded by the whiteness of the snow...i've never seen so much snow in my life...it was everywhere....we took a travellator up to the guest service building....watched people ski and snowboard...even kids about 4-5 years old learn how to ski...but the beginner's class cost about NZD129 or so...we decided to just build a snowman...while we were hard at work, a guy (probably French due to his accent) came and chat with us...he told us we could actually walk up the ski slope to have a look up there...

So after we've completed Frosty and taken enough photos of it (there was one of me kissing Frosty), we stupidly followed the guy's suggestion and tried walking up the ski slope...Cam was slipping on the snow every 5 steps thanks to her shoes...but it was quite an adventure...Cam said she felt like she was on an Everest expedition...when we finally reached, a couple told us we could snowtube for NZD19 an hour....but we had to go back down to the guest service building to buy the ticket...dang!!! decided to just lie on the snow for a while and made my snow angel coz the prospect of walking down a ski slope wasn't exactly the most thrilling...

We decided to ask the guy at the chairlift if we could take the lift down....thank goodness for New Zealand kindness...unfortunately, while on the chairlift, i accidentally dropped the left side of my glove....another dang!!! so we went to the guest service and bought our chairlift passes and tickets...had hotdog for lunch and took the chairlift up the slope again...but i had to walk down the ski slope to retrieve my fallen glove...gosh!! that was quite an adventure...i kept slipping and sliding down....eventually i got my glove but somehow walking back up this time was far more difficult...i guess the slope near the chairlift was steeper...once i slipped and slid quite far down...thought i wouldn't be able to stop but somehow i managed...so finally made it back up the slope...

So we started our snow-tubing...sat on our tubes and this guy hooked our tubes onto the rotator belt which pulled us up the slope....then we slid down in whatever style we wanted to...sitting, lying prone, spinning (while sitting and lying prone)....WHHEEEE!!!! it was totally awesome!!! and Cam had an even better time thanks to the cute guy at the rotator belt...and the fact that it actually snowed while we were snow-tubing...this was Cam's first experience of falling snow...after an hour of snow-tubing, it was time to go as it was snowing heavier....so we took the bus down...

We shopped for souvenirs coz we did not have much time left in Queenstown...then we checked-in at Absoloot...there was another girl in the room and she had tons and tons of luggage...i guess Cam and i weren't the only ones who weren't really backpacking...then we continued shopping for souvenirs till almost dinner time...dinner was at Speight's Ale House where we had Porter Sausage with mash and Shearer's Shank...yummy!!! the ambience was great...and so was the food...i guess our little expedition up at the Remarkables helped with our appetite as well...

After that, we went up the Skyline Gondola...it cost NZD23 for return ticket...actually it would have been good to spend more time up there as there were many activities that can be done up there...but we went up for the night view of Queenstown...only the restaurant was still opened...the other attractions such as the Luge, Bungy etc were closed...so we amused ourselved by taking photos at the fireplace outside the restaurant...and at Cam's request, we took the gondola down and up and down again...to make our money worth...hehe...we initially wanted to get a drink before we called it a night...but we were both tired enough after our snow hike today so we decided to skip the drink and headed back to the backpacker....after a good warm bath, Cam was asleep in no time...after i wrote my travel log (and managed to say hi to the other girl who was sharing our dorm), i fell asleep too...