Winter Festival
Trip Start
Jun 03, 2010
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71
129
Trip End
Feb 04, 2012
Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Unfortunately, we got to QT just after the festival parade had ended. Not much else was going on that day, so I wandered around town window shopping and checking out the festival booths by the lake. Ingrid made it to QT in the afternoon, so we checked into a hostel, got some dinner at Fergburger, and then met up with our friend Hayley to go out for the night.
The next day, we were planning on leaving town early, but decided to stay to watch people wearing costumes jump into the freezing cold lake for a $500 prize. Then we watched some more people do a swim race in their underwear for another $500 prize (this was called the Undie Five Hundy). Ii got really scared because suddenly my camera wouldn't turn on, no matter what I did. But Hayley gave it a little shake, Ingrid blew in the battery compartment, and then it worked again! Technical geniuses, my friends are. By this time, it was too late for me to try to make it to Te Anau, so I decided to stay another night We chilled by the lake, then went and watched movies in some hostel that wasn't ours. I slept through both, oops. Ingrid got a ride back to Wanaka with some friends, and I stayed at Hayley's hostel. The Queenstown festival is ten days long, with different events each day. It wasn't spectacular, but it was something to do while waiting for snow.
