Ferg Babies, BNO, Sunny and Shredding Gnar - Queenstown Boarding Trip (Feat. Ping)

Hello again dearest readers, I've missed you all greatly over the past few weeks. I feel like I haven't been giving you enough attention lately (just one post in July? Unacceptable!), but I'm back now to rectify that situation.

For loyal followers of the blog, you'll likely be wondering "Where is Beer Friday!? I need that post to get me geared for the weekend!" Unfortunately, there will be no Beer Friday! this week, for two reasons. Firstly, I haven't really had a new type of beer lately (I could review some of the Monteith's range, which I am quite familiar with, but I'd like to have it fresher on the palette to do it justice) and secondly, I don't want to have back-to-back Beer Friday! posts - this is, after all, primarily a travel blog.

So with that out of the way, what follows will be a thrilling recap of what went down in Queenstown, where I spent the first part of my school holiday snowboarding, nerding it up and generally causing a ruckus. Read on my intrepid friends, and figure out what that blog title means!


First off, the setup: for the first part of my holiday, I would be travelling to Queenstown and meeting with my cousin Steve and his friend Bryan (flying in from Australia) for 5 days of snowboarding and general tourist activities. I've been to Queenstown before, but didn't really get to spend a significant amount of time checking it out, so I was, needless to say (but I'm saying it anyway), rather excited. I left Dunners on the afternoon of July 1 (Canada Day woop woop) and arrived in QTown around 6:30 in the evening. After picking up my rental boarding gear, the three of us settled down for a few drinks in our hostel room. It was during these drinks that we became acquainted with the person fortunate enough to be sharing a room with us - a clearly out of her depth Chinese woman. I hope that living with us for two days didn't completely spoil her life.

Steve with Sunny (photo courtesy
Steve Reinhardt)

Moving on, we woke bright and early Monday morning (some feeling a little worse for wear than others) to pick up our rental car and head out to the hill. Arriving at the rental car depot, we were introduced to our ride for the week: A white Nissan Sunny. Yes, "Sunny" was the type of car. No need to give it a clever nickname, it already had a great one, and Sunny really did serve us admirably for the entirety of the trip, getting us up and down the mountains with startling ease. After collecting our chariot, we were off to the hills for a beautiful day of boarding and skiing at Coronet Peak. We packed it in for the day at about 4 in the afternoon and headed back into town for dinner at the inimitable Ferg Burger. A true Queenstown institution (with a world-wide reputation), the Ferg is certainly an integral part to any visit to QTown. We waited for nearly an hour for our burgers to be ready, but every second of that was worth it. The beef, bun, toppings and condiments all complement each other perfectly, and eating a Ferg is a like having a flavour circus performing in your mouth. Just the best. It was also about this time that the term "Ferg Baby" was coined - the burgers are so large and filling that we, as a group, were out of commission for three hours while our dinners settled in for a long hibernation in our digestive system. We were, however, able to come out of the food coma and head out for a self-guided bar tour, and got to listen to a pretty good live act at a small bar down one of Queenstown's many back alleyways. All in all, the first day was a rousing success.

Picture of Bryan taking a picture. PIC-CEPTION.

Steve at the IceBar atop Coronet Peak

Looking across the Rees Valley from Coronet Peak

We started a little later on Tuesday morning, not making it out to the hill until just before noon, but over the course of the day Steve and I (both amateur snowboarders) really honed our skills. By the last few runs of the day, we really were shredding the gnar in a serious way - I think I'm pretty much a professional now. Also, Bryan had a hilarious wipeout, which, sadly, I only got to see the tail end of (it involved a jump, not enough speed and a ski skittering away down the hill). Coming in from the hill, we took it a little easier on Tuesday night, going to a pub for a quiz night, where we had the best name (The Binge Thinkers, courtesy of Bryan) but were soundly defeated in the end (our lack of cricket knowledge severly hampering us). No matter, another great day with the promise of another exciting one tomorrow - Lord of the Rings Tour!

Because the tour didn't start until early afternoon, we all took the opportunity to sleep late and grab a solid breakfast before doing some wandering around town. Queenstown is very pedestrian friendly, with the town centre small and quite easy to walk around. Tourist and gift shops abound, pretty standard fare for a town built around the tourism industry. Regardless, Queenstown is a great spot and I hope I can get back at least one more time while I'm in NZ.

Arrow River, aka Isildur's GRAVE

Now, on to the tour itself - clocking in at about three and a half hours, we were driven to some of the sites around Queenstown where filming on the three LOTR movies was done. We started at a bowling alley outside of town which functioned as a temporary studio used in adverse weather conditions (the scenes on the steps to Shelob's lair and on the slopes of Mt. Doom as it erupts were both filmed here) before moving on to Arrowtown. Here, the Arrow River was used as the setting for Isildur's death in the opening of the first movie, and we also got to look at a set of original scripts and a rather humourous calendar (turns out my 14th birthday was "On set 'Eye of the Tiger' Day" for the cast and crew). From there, the tour took us to the filming location of the Argonath and then to the highlight of the tour - the weapons display. Laid out for us to pick up and swing around (as safely as possible) were Gimli's axe and helmet, the swords of Aragorn, Theoden and Sting, as well as various knives and an elven cloak. My favourite part was using the cloak to disguise myself as a rock (a la Frodo and Sam), mostly because I enjoy odd things like that (don't judge). Once we had our fill of weaponry, we hopped back in the van that took us back into town, concluding another great afternoon.

Yes Legolas. Yes they are.

Adult supervision recommended

Nerdgasm

Where's Dave? 

So, if we went all out nerd Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday night would be a totally different story. We signed ourselves up for a "Big Night Out" bar crawl, which would be taking us to six different bars around town (including 5 Below, the biggest Ice Bar in the Southern Hemisphere) for a night of shenanigans and rabble rousing. Reporting to Altitude bar for the start of the crawl, a minor snag appeared in the operation - I was in a different group, and thus would be flying solo for the next two bars. Fortunately, I was able to use my sad story to gain the sympathy of my fellow crawlers, and when I joined back up with Steve and Bryan, was well and truly ready to continue the night. I really don't know when the night ended, but I can tell you that it was quite a time. From the Queenslander Bar (not its real name, but it's where the crawl watched Queensland win the State of Origin) to the Volcano to layering up at 5 Below, the BNO was a raging success (and big thanks to our host Benny - sorry for singing Elton John every time you tried to get our attention).

Due to our activities the previous night, we didn't get up to much Thursday. We did manage to get up for breakfast, but after that it was back to the hostel for a day full of eating (pizza and shakes!) and another round of Ferg for dinner. Friday morning saw Steve and Bryan head off to the airport for their return flight, and me on a bus back to Dunners (but not before I went to the movies by myself. Look, I had like 6 hours to kill, and there are only so many kitschy shops a man can subject himself to. Don't hate).

So ends the recap of a glorious week in Queenstown. Thanks to Steve and Bryan for coming along for a trip that can only be described as "Sweet As". Next up will be a look at what I got up to on the second half of break - a trip through Kaikoura to Nelson and Abel Tasman National Park.

Dave

P.S. There's a new section along the side of the blog titled "Contact." No, it's not a review for a Jodie Foster movie, but rather an opportunity for you to email me feedback on the blog, if that's something you'e be into. Look forward to hearing from the two people that decide to use it!