Makarora. After Franz Josef, Makarora was our next destination. It's a town with 25 inhabitants (!) and one of Kerry's favourites. I do not understand why he liked it so much. I didn't like it at all! It was raining when we arrived, but that didn't stop some of us from going jet boating. They reasoned they were going to get wet anyway. Marianne and I didn't feel like it, so we decided to go for a walk - and get wet that way. The walk through the forest was fine, but it was just a bunch of trees with yet another waterfall... Someone told me before I left:'New Zealand is great - if you like landscapes and sheep'. He was so right! After our walk, it was dinner time. We all had dinner together at the gift shop - slash - bar - slash - restaurant - slash - reception. And it was still raining. And what do people in New Zealand do when it's raining? They get drunk. Some of our group were already tipsy before dinner and they happily helped themselves to more beer and wine during and after the meal. After dinner - oh horror! - it was time for karaoke. Karaoke is the only 'event' in Makarora, so the locals do it every night. Marianne and I watched while we enjoyed our gin-and-tonic without gin. After a while, the karaoke show started to turn into a peep show... Time to go to bed! Marianne and I went back to our chalet - a wooden hut in the shape of a triangle with four single beds in it. No bunk beds this time, thank God! We shared our chalet with Martin and Fabian, who were still singing, drinking and having fun when we left. Marianne and I must have been in bed for about an hour when Martin and Fabian showed up. They tried to be quiet, but Fabian was so drunk that he ended up on a pile of backpacks and clothes next to his bed when he tried to sit on it.... I was still awake and I turned around to see what was happening. Upon noticing that I was still awake, Fabian come over to me, sat down on my bed and started going off about my alarm clocks. 'I don't want you to set your alarm for tomorrow morning. Your alarm makes a horrible sound!' We'd had this conversation during dinner as well.... Grrr! I told him I wouldn't set my alarm - it was already set and hidden under my bed!!! - and that seemed to please him. At least, he left my bed, hehe! It was really cold that night and Martin saw that I was too cold to fall asleep, so he offered me his jumper. I gratefully accepted it and put it on over my two tops and sweater (!). Because I was still cold, he also offered me his duvet, but I refused it. How was he going to sleep if I had his duvet?!? Martin wouldn't hear of it and put his duvet on my bed. When I woke up the next morning, Martin was sleeping under his duvet. He told me he'd fallen asleep without it, but half way through the night, he'd woken up feeling cold....

After breakfast, we left exciting Makarora (not!) to go to the adventure capital of the world: Queenstown. It's also known as New Zealand's party capital. I couldn't wait! On the way to Queenstown, we stopped in scenic Wanaka where we were given time off to wander around. Marianne and I went for a walk on a mountain, but on our way back, we got hopelessly lost - again! Luckily, I'd Kerry's mobile phone number with me, so I called him to tell him where we were - not at the place where we were supposed to be... Kerry, always happy and cheerful, said:'No worries, I'll come and pick you girls up'. Great, thanks! It had started raining as well, so we were happy when the bus arrived (with a few annoyed looking passengers...). We continued our journey to Queenstown. We were going to spend 3 nights in Queenstown and the accommodation included bunk beds... Marianne and I looked at each other and both moved our heads from left to right. Not again! We certainly didn't want any more drunks in our room. As soon as we arrived at the hostel, Marianne jumped out of the bus and marched to reception. It took a little bit of patience, but she managed to get us a room for two. Hooray! And what was even better: she let me sleep in the double bed! The group went for a bbq dinner, but because they didn't have anything for me to eat, I went to an Indian restaurant and had a meal there. Afterwards, I went back to where the others were. Kerry took us to a bar next door. There was a toga party going on, which meant that if you wrapped a white sheet around you, you got cheap beer andalso a discount on otheralcoholic beverages. I wasn't interested in the booze. I'd spotted a dance floor! I didn't care that I was the only one on the dance floor. I knew that once I started dancing, others would follow soon enough. I ended up dancing way past bedtime and I had heaps of fun! Most of the people left around midnight, but Kerry, Carl, Mark, Martin and I just went to another bar. I went to bed late (or early, hehe!) and I woke up late the next day as well. Queenstown was 'sweet as'! :-)

Talk to you later!