Queenstown 2010

For those of you who don't know, I study Tourism at The Sir George Seymour College of Tourism & Travel. Part of this, is going on famils (Familarisation Trips) which is basically feild trips in course. On Monday we had our first one which was a 3 day trip to Queenstown. There were 41 students and 3 tutors who all got on a bus and made the journey through Central Otago to the Tourism Centre of the South Island.

DAY ONE

I woke up and had a mad rush to find all the last minute things to pack (hair straightners, shampoo, tooth brush etc etc) before calling a taxi at 8:30am to be at campus before 9:00am. I thought it wouldn't take long, because course is less than a 2 minute drive from my house. I would've walked if I didn't have my large duvet and bag to carry! At five to nine, the taxi finally arrived!!! I was so annoyed, but just smiled to the driver and asked how his morning had been.

I arrived at the campus and loaded my stuff on the bus, and at bang on 9 O'Clock, we were off to Queenstown. First stop was Alexandra. It was a rather long and boring drive, with a few people getting car sick, luckily not me. We arrived in Alex, and picked up some fellow students and were off to Cromwell. We stopped and got our photo taken with the GIANT FRUIT! and then got some food into us. After half an hour we were off to Arrowtown for a short break before going to the Millsbrooke Resort for a look around.

Arrowtown was so  cute and little. I fell in love with all the cute little shops on its cute little street hehe. We then went to the Millsbrooke and got the grand tour from a worker. Unfortunately we weren't staying there as it would cost $300 + a night. It was so fancy, it had its own golf course, spa, four restaurants, gym...EVERYTHING! After that we finally made our way to Queenstown (woohoo!).

We arrived at our accommodation (Lakeland Christian Camp...Dorm style accommodation) and settled in before going to get dinner in town.

DAY TWO

I woke up at 7:00am (out of habit) and laid in bed wondering if anybody else would be in the kitchen getting breakfast. When I finally got up half an hour later, there were alot more people than I expected. Sadly for me, I felt like cereal but we only had toast! So it was just a Milo for me! At 9:30am we were all on the bus into town to go do our own activities. Myself, along with half of the other students chose to do the Kawarau Jet Boat.

It was fun, but I thought I had been on better jet boats up in the North Island.

The only good thing, was the hot driver hehehe.

After the hour long boat ride, we had 2 hours to waste in town...rather broing really. My friends and I spent most of the time going into shops (not buying much because everything costs an arm and a leg) and then sitting in starbucks soaking up the sun (out of the cold). We then made our way to the Copthorne Hotel for another "inspection"....There's not much to say about that.

We left the hotel and went to the Skyline Gondola to go Luging, see a haka show and have dinner. The gondola was a little scary for me at first (I have a slight fear of heights) but soon adjusted to it and enjoyed myself. It kind of helped that a girl in the same gondola was more scared than me!!!

Queenstown from the Gondola

Once Again (a little higher)

Once we were up the top we had our 2 rides on the luge, in my opinion they were fun, but not as good as the ones in Rotorua. Afterwards we went to the Kiwi Haka Show inside. It was so cool, I wanted it to last longer. They did alot of singing and spoke about the culture and made it entertaining. The performers got a heap of us onto the stage to teach us how to use a poi. I was one of the selected few to make a dick of myself!!!

After the show we went back upstairs, and had an AMAZING buffet dinner!!! I had nearly everything there was to offer, and when it came to dessert...OMGOSH!!!!!

On the way down, I tried to get photos of Queenstown at night, but my phone just couldn't do it justice. It was so pretty!

DAY THREE

So today, we packed and left Queenstown (boo hoo) and made the journey back home to Dunedin. We got to Alexandra and a friend from course offered to drive me home in her car instead of sitting on a bus for 4 hours. We took the short way home and got back in 2 hours!

So since there was nothing amazing about today, I'll finish off with some videos and photos!

Outside my room this morning

Queenstown at night (like I said, it doesn't do it justice)

Check these guys out!!!

Hey people!

Here's some things from the wonderous world of youtube that I have come to like.... click the title and it will take you directly to the site.

ENJOY!

Jacob Caraballo - A Dream

This guy is amazing, he has such a nice voice. This is only one of his songs, to listen to the rest of them, click on them in youtube.

Super Junior - Sorry Sorry

These guys are the equivalent korean verson of Justin Timberlake. They're a group of 13 people, who I now hear have moved down to 10.

The Voca People

Haha possibly the most creative people out there! You will love them, such a good laugh

Joe Brooks - Superman

This song is so cute!!! His voice reminds me of another artist, but I can't quite put my finger on it, can you?

No More Procrastinating!!!!

A few months ago, I set a mission for myself to get healthier and back into shape...however I failed...BIG time.
So last week, my friend Nikole, decided she would join swimming lessons seen as her dream job was to be a flight attendant and it's compulsory for them to know how to swim. So we made the big walk up Stuart Street and got an enrolment form for Moana Pool.

On the way back to course, we walked past my house, and we came up with a genius idea. I would sign up to swimming lessons too, and we would go back to my place after course, have dinner together and then go to swimming lessons!!!

I know how to swim, but only the basics, and I figured that if I do these lessons, I can get fit in the progress and keep swimming during the week, because the lessons also give us a membership of 5 weeks. This means we can go to the pool in our own time whenever we want to.

I'm so excited....bring it on.

Fingers crossed we go through with it right???

The Past is the Past & Now is Now (Part 2)

A crazy thing happened to me this weekend. The next day after my last blog (The Past Is The Past & Now Is Now), I got a friend request from Porsha on facebook!!! I was a little skepticle about her reasons for doing so, so I accepted her and emailed her straight away, asking her why she was adding me again and that I didn't want to be friends if we were going to keep fighting.

I went to Ben's that weekend, and there was no internet there so I couldn't get her reply. I arrived home tonight to find that she had replied, saying she didn't want to fight anymore and just wanted to talk. So all night (and even now) we talked about what happened and why she wanted to talk. Turns out a mutual friend (now my ex-friend) Jayal was typing all the messages. Porsha didn't know what she was saying and didnt really care because she was mad (having a bad day i guess). So now we have put it behind us, and things are back to the way they use to be (or at least on its way to being like that).

I have missed her, so so so much. My life went downhill after our fight. I had never been so lonely. And also more good news, Hamish saw my previous blog and Porsha said he might not be that mad or angry at me like I thought. So fingers crossed another happy ending is about to happen.

I miss you Porsha xox

The Past is the Past & Now is Now

So tonight I was sitting on facebook looking at some poeple's pages from home (the Chatham Islands) and I felt a rush of home sickness. It's not the island that I miss, it's the people. Over the summer (2009) I went on an emotional rollercoaster! I managed to get through it with the help of some friends...one of which was a big help...Her name was Porsha... The sad thing about it is that we are no longer friends now.

February this year, Porsha accused me of stealing one of her dresses!!! I didn't do this, I just happened to have the same one. I saw it on Trademe and purchased it. A guy from home (Hamish) could back me up on this. I talked to her online (MSN) trying to sort it out, but she wouldn't tell me why she was mad at me. She just told me to get over it and she didn't like me anymore. So I eventually left it at that (due to the fact that alot more harsh words were shared) and moved on. I had never been so mad! I thought we were the bestest of friends. But obviously I was wrong. We grew up together, right from when she was born (our parents were best friends).

My other friend...Hamish... well for some reason he has stopped talking to me. I think it's because he's going out with Porsha now. Accepting the fact that we aren't close anymore, nearly makes me cry (every time). We were closer than anybody else on that island...even though alot of people on that island thought him and his twin brother were a bit cocky and not many people liked them. Hamish and I spent so much time together. He would drive to my house and we would just sit in my room and talk. Or we would go cruising around the island. He would even pick me up and take me to the Touch game. One thing I will remember is spending Christmas together. Both of our families had gone to the lagoon so we decided to drive round and visit everyone and have fun of our own!

-Hamish-

So now that my closest friends are no longer my "friends" I came to the conclusion I don't have that kind of relationship with anybody else on the Chathams (well not including family members).

As for my family...I miss them immensly!!! My parents and I were never really that close until this year. I spoke to them over the phone tonight and it was so funny. My dad attempted to give me the "sex" talk because I told him I was going to Ben's again this weekend and that Ben wanted to come to the Chathams this summer. But the highlight of this convo...My mummy darling is sending me a nice yummy pack of fresh Chatham Island Blue Cod mmmmm and dad is going to send me some BIG scrumptiouse PAUA!!! My tummy's grumbling already.

Anyway, after nearly having a big cry over how much I miss my family and friends, I pulled myself together and thought about my amazing family and friends I have now...here's some photo's...I'm sure they'll love me for adding this pictures =]

My House

My Dad

My amazing cousins Tessa (left) & Trisha (right)

-Their places are my sanctuary when I need to get away, they always know what to say and do-

My friend Kayla (hostel buddies...and childhood friends)

The legendary Jack Moffett, this guy got me through some hard times in Timaru

My messy cousin Arron (one of the best guitarist I know)

My CRAZY new besty; Missy.

We had some outragous moments together hehe

Beau-Boy....He's like a brother to me...One moment we're getting along fine, cruising the streets in his beaten up truck, the next; we're play fighting on the living room floor

And finally, my extended family - cousins, in-laws, great aunties, uncles, etc etc...

Movie Mania!!!

Well it has been a while since my last (and only) movie blog.
So here's the not so mega list of movies I have seen since then...

The Most Recent Of them...

ECLIPSE (the Twilight Saga)

I LOVED this movie!!!! More than the first two infact...When I saw Twilight for the first time, I hadn't read the books yet, and I hated it...I thought it was so silly how they could hate eachother then fall in love...I decided that because I clearly didn't understand the movie as much as the other "Twi-Hards" I should read the books....and OMGOSH did I fall in love!!!! I read all 4 books before New Moon (the second movie) was released. When New Moon came out, I was determined to watch it the day it was released (which just so happened to be the day of my NCEA Level 2 English Exam). I rushed through that exam to only be slightly bored and disappointed. So both movies failed to give me a good first impression...so I didn't know what to expect in Eclipse...But I was blown away!!!! It was action packed, full of creepy thrilling bits, cute, funny, sad...it was just EVERYTHING!

Movie number 2 - Shrek Forever After

This movie was actually pretty good for a kids movie...and also considering it is the 4th sequal!!! The 1st Shrek was good, the second was "meh" and the third...thumbs down. But this was farely good....oh and I forgot to mention...it was in 3D so that added to the excitement.

Next....The Prince Of Persia

Ben and I went and saw this together, and he went in with a fair idea of what was going to happen in the movie due to the fact that it is a video game of some sort (I did not know this!). I went in thinking that since it was made by the same people who made 'Pirates of the carribean' ; it would be a good movie.

I thought this movie was good...but not good enough to see twice. It had its moments...but it didn't really tickle my fancy...Oh well.

Last but not least... The Blind Side

Ok, confession... I didn't go to the movie's to watch this...I went to Stacey's (Ben's older sister) to see it with Ben, her and her flatmate Tereinamu. This movie is a definite tear-jerker. It was so sad and is based on a true story. It's not like all those other movies out there about American Footy...It has so much more heart involved in it. And Sandra Bullock did a great job playing the main role in this movie...As for the BIG guy...You just wanna hug him and never let go!!!!

A Cosy Little Place to Call Home

Click Here to refer back to my previous blog about my possible "future home"


So if you did take the time to go back to that blog, you would've read about Ben's new TEENY, TINY, ITSY, BITSY cottage that we both now call home... I said I would take some photos...and I did, however not very many...All due to the fact that I stood on a stinging nettle taking one outside...and inside was a complete PIGSTY!!!!

The Front

Inside...excuse the mess hehe

Outside