Skiing, Camping & Coughing Adventure in Queenstown

The conversation went something like this:

Tinder: It's a match!

Cam: You are stunning! And look like you love adventure!...

Fräulein Soulfood: Why thank you (I replied ever so humbly & graciously... ;) I do indeed like an adventure! Where are we going? (naturally I had to eliminate any doubt about which kind of Tinder "adventure" we were talking about...)

Cam: Mountain next weekend, come skiing?

Fräulein Soulfood: Are you even any good? At skiing I mean?

Cam: I do alright.

... later turns out Cam used to ski race & win the odd national title...

Fräulein Soulfood: I'm serious about this, but how will I know you're not a psycho and won't kidnap me or something?

Cam: Haha well, why don't we meet for dinner first? Then you can see if I'm a psycho and I can make sure you're not crazy either...

Well in hindsight I would say we're both a little crazy, as after a total of three dates/meet ups, we decided to book a skiing and camping holiday in the South Island together.

Cam was planning to head to Queenstown for a week of skiing and to catch up with family anyway, and I had been looking for someone to have a Winter adventure with - so luckily for me, he agreed to let me tag along, and flights were booked for the following week.

As it was the middle of school holidays, accommodation proved a little trickier at such short notice. So we decided to throw a campervan in the mix as well - because what is life, if not an adventure!

Meet: 'Jucy Jesse' as we lovingly referred to her!

Now in the interest of keeping things simple, we made a pact to go as friends.

Despite the fact that Cam is a Southern lad and has family down there, we knew we would need a car in any case, so we figured we may as well get one we could comfortably sleep in - and apart from a toilet & shower, Jucy Jesse also featured two Queen-size beds!

We knew we wanted to ski at Treble Cone - which worked out well, since Jucy Rentals offers a Ski4Free deal throughout winter, where one ski pass at TC is included for free.

Upon arrival in Queenstown, 'Jucy Jesse' was picked up to be our "home" for the next five days.

Our first pitstop to refuel: the famous Fergburger (which even has its own Wikipedia entry!). 

Now Cam had told me about the epic, hour-long queues winding their way around the pavement outside Fergburger, I just didn't quite believe him. Or that burgers could even be worth such a wait...

But I think this image already gives a pretty good indication of how busy the place is:

Thankfully once we were in and managed to nab ourselves a spot, the wait was pretty harmless and my veggie burger was legendary. 

In fact, so legendary, I devoured it so quickly I forgot to take a picture of it. Oops. 

After a stop at the supermarket to stock up on some essentials (guess which was the "male" choice & which the "female"...) :)

It was time to make ourselves comfortable in each of our beds (naturally I scored the top bunk!), to rest for a wake up at the crack of dawn...

Since we freedom camped the first night (sans-power to plug a heater into = rookie mistake #1), we woke up bloody freezing, as it had dropped to -2 over night! Less than ideal for the tickle in my throat that had started to develop...

But after a hot power-feed of porridge & a cuppa, I was still ready to conquer the mountain as my tea predicted: to infiniTEA and beyond!

However, the fact that I voluntarily ate porridge despite the fact that it is one of the very few things I strongly dislike, should have been an indication of my impending illness...

But there was no time to dwell - the mountains were calling...

 ...and we had to go! So off we drove to Wanaka - Treble Cone:

The weather was glorious...

The lifts queue-less, and the snow decent. In other words: we were pretty chuffed with ourselves!

As was this guy: Who even had a little boogie along to Jack Johnson (as you can see in the video at the end).

Now while we managed to get a pretty decent set of runs in for a season opener, by the end of the day the tickle in my throat had turned into a full-blown cough and I was looking like this...

You could say: sick as a dog. Fortunately, we were not camping that night, but instead staying with Cam's parents - who to my dismay, I couldn't even talk to when we arrived as I had completely lost my voice! 

I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I was for their hospitality, and to be sleeping in a warm guest room!

Despite this, my condition did not improve overnight (as I had hoped...) but on the contrary, worsened still. :( So the next day it was off to the airport...

Noooo not to go home and rest up - don't be ridiculous! - there was another adventure to be had! :)

We were in fact headed to the Central Otago Flying Club. I must confess, that when I saw the state of this sign, I became a little nervous about what we would be flying in...

But when this little beauty rolled around the corner, I figured we'd be okay. She may be bloody old - but she looked pretty sturdy.

Now conveniently, Cam can fly, so with his dad and the videographer (me) strapped in the back...

And co-pilot Kristina good to go, it was time for a little sightseeing flight around the Alexandra basin.

(Un)fortunately I took all videos throughout the flight, so you are best to watch that if you want to see what we saw :)

I must admit, afterwards I was quite inspired to want to learn to fly myself - and was tempted to stock up on some of these manuals (they make it sound pretty easy) but we had other places to be...

Next it was time to visit Cam's uncle, Lionel - who I would describe as the quintessential Kiwi-DIYer. He built this little beauty!

But that's not all: he actually built an entire train track - including tunnel! - around their property, that you can take a ride on a miniature train on! 

Unfortunately due to some ridiculous political correctness, the track is no longer open for kids (or kids at heart) to enjoy...so I felt extra privileged. :)

As the weather wasn't great the next day, and I still didn't quite feel up to another day on the mountain, we checked out the National Transport & Toy Museum in Wanaka.

It is quite the wonder emporium and has a collection on pretty much anything you can imagine, from vintage toys and Barbies, to cars and planes.

If you are a kid at heart or love things with history, then this is well worth checking out.

And before we knew it, it was our second to last night in the glorious 'Jucy Jesse'...

Which for the last two nights we booked into powered sights with, one right next to Lake Wanaka - just 10 minutes drive from TC, where we woke to this glorious sunrise.

For yet another stunner of a day on the mountain!

For lunch we headed across to the Matukituki Basin, to have our sammies from the day before - the avocado in which (to my dismay!) had blackened. :-/

Well with this view, I decided to get over my first world problems, because quite frankly...

I felt like the luckiest person alive! :)

Happy days!

Our final day was spent milling about in Queenstown soaking up the stunning weather...

Catching up with some of Cam's mates, and of course - a "final supper" at Le Ferg...

Where once again I failed to take a proper pic of my burger! :)

We played some mini-golf at the CaddyShack, and strolled around the Queenstown Gardens, along Lake Wakatipu.

And before we knew it, it was time to head back to Auckland...

Now you may believe what you want about what happened in the campervan. All I can tell you is that despite pumping myself with all sorts of medication, I was coughing so heavily that I was only sleeping a couple of hours a night, when I was utterly exhausted.

How Cam managed to get any sleep is beyond me (fortunately he did!) and I didn't have to feel toooo bad...

However, I already have a tendency to get grumpy if I don't get my 8-10 hours sleep on a normal day. Add to that the sickest I have ever been, and five days of minimal sleep...

Well I really had to fight to pull myself together and stop myself from turning into the Hulk (mainly because I was so angry at my body for getting sick!). Fortunately, I discovered that I am a pretty tough little cookie if I put my mind to it, and despite the fact that we are both quite opinionated types, we were still friends by the end of it.

In any case, I will be eternally grateful to Cam for putting up with me and my coughing fits, making me copious cups of tea, hot water bottles, and generally showing a German JAFA his Southern home.


Unfortunately my sickness did mean we only got in a total 2 days skiing, but when I asked him if skiing with me had been okay over all, his reply: "I've never met a chick who could get down any part of the mountain like that" went straight to my head... :)

Now that you have read the full story, you may watch this little video if you wish.

So do I regret going on a skiing and camping adventure with my first Tinder date?

Most definitely not! Was I nervous as hell the week before? Absolutely - because that is generally just not the kind of "crazy" thing I do.

In fact, I was catching up with friends recently, and their reaction was something like: "You have a first Tinder date and have a camping adventure - others have a first Tinder date and get murdered". 

However as I am a strong believer in "Adventure may hurt you - but monotony will kill you", despite the fact that my judge of character has not always been the greatest, some part of me trusted that everything would work out for the best.

Fortunately it did, I made memories I will treasure for a lifetime, and even lived to tell the tale (cheers for that Cam! ;) 

Until the next adventure!

Yours truly,
Fräulein SoulFood x