All you need is a destination and the details will work themselves out. And that is how our adventure began. We headed for Queenstown, two cars full of four boys, five girls, three loaves of bread, one bottle of peanut butter and a large bag of oatmeal. Off to a late start, we decided to camp by a lake that was between Christchurch and Queenstown. The sun had set hours ago, and we drove along the lake, pulling over and by means of a headlamp, attempted to scout out a flat, grassy area in which we could camp.
At 1:30am, the wind began to pick up and we were ready for bed. We saw a large hut off the side of road, Erik ran out and the large living room area was unlocked, we decided to camp out and see what happened in the morning.
The morning came quickly as we found half a dozen adults fixing breakfast for the fifty high school girls sleeping in a smaller cabin, who had come to the lodge for a biology field trip. The sun began to rise, we looked outside and realized we had driven to the base of Mt. Cook National Park, home to New Zealand’s tallest and most stunning peaks that were embraced by passionate crimson as the sun began to crawl up their snowy peaks.
We left the lodge, continually impressed by the friendly and generous nature of all the people we have met in New Zealand. We found a picnic table, ate oatmeal, then hiked across swinging bridges, alongside glaciers, feelings as small as pebbles beneath the awesome peaks constantly spilling waterfall into the icy river below.
(This story is a prime example of life down here, if you just going with the flow, a million crazy things are bound to happen...)
After our hike, we continued on to Queenstown, the “Adventure Capital of the World” where you can get your adrenaline rush over a dozen ways (bungy, skydive, canyoning, river-surfing, whitewater rafting, the worlds largest swing, etc..) The stunning city is placed alongside a lake at the foot of mountains.
Our first night in Queens- town, the worst night of camping of my entire life. Huge wind and rain storm that lifted the side of the tent off the ground and soaked us all. I moved into the car, were I heard the rain pounding on the roof and was just waiting for the girls in the tent to surrender. They never did, but if you were keeping score; wind and rain-one point, five girls (with wet sleepingbags and two hours of sleep)-zero.
Our St. Patrick’s Day looked up quickly. Our adventure of choice was River Surfing, a 
"pro-active" adventure invented in New Zealand. It involves a wet suit, buggy board and two guides that led us down beautiful river, barral- rolling of the tops of waves, taught us to surf a standing wave, beneth the worlds first bungy jump, alongside film sites from Lord of the Rings and through Class 3 and 4 rapids. It was a BLAST!
St. Patrick’s Day continued as we dressed in costumes, went out to dinner, then dancing in the town. We ended up getting invited to a Brazilian birthday party, free cake, drinks and even some dance lessons! The city was alive and dancing! It was another random night, with unexpected new Brazilian friends, and lots of new memories!
We surrendered to the weather and forked out the funds to stay inside for the night, we stayed at the backpackers part of a beautiful lodge, meaning we paid little, but got to use the Lodge spa, deck that looked out over the city, sleep in sheets, flush toilet, warm shower and, best of all, hot delicious breakfast in the morning.
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