NZ - Wanaka (Vine, Camera, and Dancing)

Another early morning - up, packed, and ready to get on the bus for the drive to Wanaka. I ate breakfast with the group, said bye to Bully, then we claimed our seats on the bus. I sat in the back with my new group of friends. Unfortunately there was one empty seat on the bus and Rom (the guy from the previous night) got to get on, but everyone made sure he kept his distance.

Our main stop on this drive was Lake Matheson where the iconic, famous reflections of the mountains in the lake happens on a clear, sunny day... unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy so we didn't get to see it. However, this stop was full of memories for a couple other reasons. We were walking along the trail when the guys came across a vine. They tugged on it and it seemed pretty sturdy, so they went for a swing. 3 guys swung, 1 went again, and then Dan took a turn. Well, half way through Dan's turn the vine snapped and he hit the ground with a thud losing a flip flop and scraping himself up pretty badly. We were all shocked, made sure he was okay, found his flip flop, and then laughed our heads off. It was just one of those surreal moments where you can't really believe that just happened and it was too freaking funny. Luckily, I managed to catch it on my camera. That was memory #1. Memory #2 starts with the fact that on the way to the lake, Max, the French guy, fell asleep so Dan (one of the guys from Essex) drew on his face with permanent marker. When we got to the lake the guys said that they could hold Max upside down over the lake so he could wash his face. Max took off his shirt and the boys held him by his ankles over the lake next thing you know there is a bunch of commotion and us girls gathered what had happened... Max didn't empty his pockets and his camera fell out of his pocket and into the lake. Max immediately stripped down to his underwear and jumped in the way too cold lake to look for it. He was in the water for quite some time, freezing, going under again and again with no success. The guys eventually pulled him out and piled their jackets on him to get him warm again. While they did that us girls walked the rest of the trail ahead of them to let Motors (our driver) know what had happened and that the boys would be along shortly.

No Reflection

How to Properly Vine Swing

How to Fall Off a Vine Swing

How to Lose a Camera

How to Look for a Camera

As we walked we couldn't stop talking about how sad we were for Max. My heart was breaking for the guy. You could see how upset he was. He couldn't have cared less about the camera, but it was his SD card that he wanted. The girls and I were talking about how as travelers we would let anyone take anything - our laptops, cell phones, money, clothes - anything... just don't take our pictures. Unfortunately the fun and games from Dan's incident earlier was over and we were all just heart broken for Max. The girls and I came up with a plan for our whole group to get together one night and give Max all of our pictures from when we met up with him until the point when he purchased a new camera. He was so grateful for this solution. One of the guys bought Max a coffee to warm him up some more and his spirits seem to be lifted with our solution, so we went back to talking about the vine incident and laughing about that. 

On the way to Wanaka we stopped for a photo op of the beautiful scenery. Since Max didn't have a camera we talked it up saying that he gets to just sit back and relax on the bus while we all do the hard work of getting on and off and taking the pictures. At the hostel in Wanaka the girls and I got a dorm together, but there was one empty bed. When we were coming back with our big bags Dan was walking out of our room. It turns out that he and Rom were the last two at the booking counter and either one of them would have to be put in our room so Dan spoke up and claimed the spot. I've never been in a mixed dorm/hostel before, but after I heard the options I was so grateful to Dan. And honestly, I wasn't uncomfortable or concerned at all. These guys in our group looked at us girls just as really really good girl friends, almost like sisters. Dan was respectful, saying things like, "I'll turn around so you can change", and he gave the room some more personality by making us all laugh and having a pretty deep conversation with me and Sophie (one of the girls from London) as we lay in our beds in the dark waiting to fall asleep.

Photo Op Stop

The View Outside Our Hostel

I jumped ahead a bit with that, so now I'll back track to dinner. The boys got pizza so us girls walked to Subway and sat at the window to look out at the lake and mountains while we ate. When we got back we got ready and then all headed down to the onsite bar for bus wars night. We were traveling with Stray (the best hop on hop off NZ bus tour company) but another bus, Kiwi Experience, was staying there as well and they have a reputation as partiers so the bar hosts bus wars when the two companies stay there on the same night. Well, we got there and no one was there but our group so we played pool - Hayley (one of the girls from London) and I beat Sophie and Poppy (one of the girls from England). Iki (the German girl) and a couple other girls from our bus showed up and played some Foosball. We kept waiting around for the Kiwi bus to show up, but they never did. For the whole night we had the whole bar pretty much to ourselves. A few Kiwi people showed up, but not enough for bus wars. We were a bit bummed because we were totally pumped to win the wars, but we just enjoyed the night taking over the dance floor for hours on end. We danced to Call On Me (I won sunglasses), Macarena, Cha Cha Slide, Spice Girls, S Club 7, I Love It (our group's theme song), Don't You Worry Child, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and so so so much more!!! It's different than the music and dancing I'm used to back home in bars/clubs from the few times I have gone, but it was a lot of fun regardless. No one is thinking about or cares about what anyone else thinks. It's not about how good you are or how amazing you look doing whatever moves you are doing. It was simply about being crazy, silly, moving, laughing, and having a good time with friends. By the end of the night everyone, but me, had a good amount of alcohol in their system and it was clearly time to leave as the bar turned the lights on and started stacking chairs. Rather than leaving though we went to the outside area with the fire and sat and chatted and laughed for a while until they came out and told us to leave. The whole way to the rooms Matt, one of the Canadian guys, kept trying his key card in every door because he was sure that each one he came across was his room. In the end, Hayley had to walk him to his room. It's funny because my friends are really good about me not drinking. They don't pressure at all. They are more so just intrigued by it - like I'm a rare animal or something. They had so many questions like, "Don't you get thirsty when you're out", "Is it hard watching everyone else drink and you not have any alcohol?", "Why don't you drink? Personal? Religious? Medical?", "Do you think you'll ever drink?", "So you've never even had a sip?", etc etc. 

Call On Me Contest (Had to Follow Music Video)

Call On Me Contest (Had to Follow Music Video)

In the morning I lost my key card to the room twice between showering, packing, and getting ready. Hayley found it in the hallway the first time (while I was in the shower) and thought to try it in our door and when it worked realized it must be one of ours. Luckily, after the second time I mentioned to Lea (one of the girls from Denmark) that I had lost my card and how upset I was and she said she may have it and turns out she did. I was so grateful to both of the girls because when you get the key they make you give a $20 deposit that they return to you when you check out and return the key and as Motors says... It is probably the most expensive, unwanted souvenir. We checked out, claimed our seats in the back of the bus, and headed off to Puzzle World. I was thinking about sky diving here in Wanaka since I didn't get to in Franz Josef, but again the weather was crap, so I'm glad I decided not to. Plus, it meant I got to make more memories with my friends at Puzzle World.

I've been to places like Puzzle World before in Tennessee and Florida and a bigger, better version right here in Phillip Island just a few months ago, but I still had a blast. The first room was a room full of holograms where it just looks like a flat nothing on the wall but when you stand about 3 metres from it the picture (lady, instrument, bird, lion, etc) pops right out at you. A few of the holograms moved or changed position as you moved from side to side. My second favorite portion was the room with the heads/faces. It was an extremely high wall and massive room with face after face and while they were all concave, they looked 3D and in addition the eyes followed you wherever you went. It was cool and creepy at the same time. I'll never forget Calvin (one of the Canadian guys) running around the room in circles covering one eye (for the best effect) watching the faces move and follow him. The rest of the inside stuff was optical illusions I had seen before - like the elephant with too many legs, the Ames room, the running faucet seemingly not connected to any plumbing, etc. Outside was a large timber maze (like the one in Phillip Island) but at this one you could actually climb up the stairs of the tower once you found it. There were four towers - red, yellow, blue, and green - and the goal was to find all four. It ended up being a competition between the boys and girls and in the end, the girls ended up winning of course by finding all the towers the fastest. To officially finish the maze though you are supposed to find the start again. The boys cheated at the end and went through the emergency exit and us girls were determined to do it right. It was raining and it kept coming down heavier so eventually we too called it quits and slid through an emergency exit. Afterwards we all hung out inside playing tons of handheld puzzles - solitaire, mazes, remove the rope, sliding squares, make this pattern or that, etc. Before the bus pulled in we made sure to go check out the Roman toilets and the crazy toilet seats in the bathrooms. Then we all loaded onto the bus. Everyone was pretty pumped about our next destination - Queenstown, the capital of adrenaline!!!