We drove for about 6 hours today. It was another early start but we left by 7 instead of 6:30 which made a big difference. The car ride itself was pretty uneventful. While people slept (I was in the van during this trip) Brooke and I (a girl from the program) took tons of pictures of the scenery. It was one of the most incredible drives I have ever been on (which is saying something since I've been on quite a few).
The landscape would open up into huge vistas with rolling hills, mountains, and then more mountains in the background. The water was such an incredible blue color that would catch your eye as you drove up one hill and down another. We dodged in and out of the misty mountains (not the same ones from the movie but they were giant mountains covered with a misty fog) and through plains and forests.
The weirdest part for me is that I keep expecting to see wildlife. You know like deer or elk or antelope along the way but there's none of that here. Just sheep. Lots and lots of sheep. And of course the occasional cow. Basically the only native animals to New Zealand are birds and bugs. Funny huh?
We got into Queenstown around 3 and checked into our hostel. Now this is a new experience for me. I have only ever stayed in hotels and the like but when you are traveling through most European countries hostel is the way to go. NZ has adopted many pakeha (European) traditions including this one. For those of you who have never had the pleasure allow me to enlighten you :).
A hostel is similar to a dorm room with communal bathrooms and a kitchen. There is a giant common area on the first floor (which is the floor above the ground or main floor- we would view it as the second floor). Depending on the room you can have up to 8 people in one space with 4 sets of bunk beds. We're not quite that packed in with 4 in one room and 5 in the other. Erika and her cousin have one to themselves as well. The weird part is that everyone loves to mingle and there are girls and guys running all over the place. Our hostile seems pretty popular among people our age, which is weird because it's like I'm having the experience I would have in any other university dorm besides BYU. Ok so not that drastic but pretty close. They are playing a drinking game in the common room right now and I can't believe I'm missing out :).
Our hostile also provides us with free breakfast and dinner based on a first come first serve basis. So after getting our feel of the town we headed back to grab some dinner. It was rice with a choice of spicy or non spicy chile on top (I tasted both and they were both equally spicy). We sat down by some guys who ended up being from Germany. They were on holiday and had just arrived as well. Their English was really good. Once they found out that we were Americans they told us about the American exchange students who came over one time and got completely wasted. Hopefully our brief encounter was enough to connivence them that not all Americans are like that. We also made friends with a guy from Israel with a very thick accent.
After dinner we walked around the town and enjoyed the beautiful water. We even saw a magic show that turned out to be pretty lame in my opinion. But we are here! And we'll be here for the next 4 days. It's interesting though because you can tell by the setup that this part of NZ is dominated by the pakeha (the white people). Tomorrow is Milford's sound and it will be awesome!
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