Where is Darran?

Even though we had a light night the day before, today we took some time to recover. A nice breakfast, some grocery shopping, and laundry helped to get things back up to par. By day 25 of touring with Contiki or Kiwi, taking part in the festivities gets harder and harder. Contiki is different, but on the Kiwi tour young blood continues to come around because the bus is hop-on/hop-off. The fresh troops are gung-ho, while the seasoned troops are trying to hang on.

Vincent and I played some frisbee in the park and I think threw the rugby ball around. Later that night we decided to do the Big Night Out. The Big Night Out is an organized pub crawl that includes free drinks, free food, and drink discounts. One bar had $1 beer on special for the pub crawl. The pub crawl started at The Buffalo Club which is a great bar for drinking beer, chatting with friends, and listening to some good music. The bar tenders are easy on the eyes and Jagermeister is the drink of choice.

Vincent and I starting off at Buffalo Club

After The Buffalo Club we went to visit a few lesser known bars that were quiet. Eventually, we got to the World Bar where we were able to get $10 teapots and then to a bar next to Winnies that had $1 beer. Finally, we ended up at Winnies. By this time people were pretty faded. Winnies was packed and it took about 10 minutes to get a drink. At each bar you go to you get a free shot and at Winnies we got Black Sambuca shots. Winnies was where the party was at that night. There was live music and the crowd was jumping. Winnies has a unique roof that is connected to hydraulic lifts that open the roof to let in fresh air. Very sweet. We ended up shutting Winnies down. Was a good night, but we didn’t get too sloppy.

The DJ at World Bar was pretty good.

The Milford Sound bus operated by Kiwi Experience departs from Queenstown in the morning. Because we spent the night just outside Milford Sound in Te Anau we got to sleep in and catch the bus headed from Queenstown. Vincent and I had breakfast overlooking Lake Te Anau.

On the way to Milford Sound

When you gotta go….

Some pictures from Milford Sound

You can see a plane viewing the sound in this one.

Relaxing while waiting for our boat to return.

We also go to visit an underwater observatory in the sound. This gave us an opportunity to see some of the underwater wildlife up close.

Vincent and I went out with a few others, but had a quiet night for Queenstown.

I arrived back in Austin on February 8th, 2010 around 6 PM CST. Everything was very smooth and I have been settling back in. Currently, I am residing at my parents house in Northwest hills. There might be a post on how/why I ended up leaving New Zealand, but for now I am going to carry on writing up the daily travel log from the New Zealand tour with Kiwi Experience. It has been dragging out and I would like to finish it before things get busy. It’s good to be back.

-darran