Well, we made it.  We arrived in Queenstown about 1:30 this afternoon (New Zealand time), got our luggage, bought bus passes, and FINALLY got to our hostel.  I hear the best way to avoid jetlag is to stay awake until bedtime for the locals comes around, so it’s a good thing we all got some decent sleep on the long leg of our flight.  Once we all got settled in and showered, we decided the next order of business should be finding some free internet, as our hostel doesn’t provide this particular service.  We weren’t successful.  Here we are, five college students on the other side of the world, just wanting to (at the very least) let our families know that we made it here alive, and the only free internet we can find is a half an hour’s worth that comes with a purchase at McDonalds!  This isn’t even a good deal, by the way, because everything is so much more expensive at McDonald’s here…$5.10 for a McChicken??  Try again.  We very well may end up biting the bullet and paying the $3 a day that the Starbucks down the street requires for the use of their internet, just so we can make sure everyone knows we still exist. 

Other than the internet thing, our hostel is actually really nice.  It’s in a great location, not more than two blocks from the water, and our room has a balcony with a great view!  On top of that, we ended up getting the one and only five person room in the entire place, so we don’t have to share a room with a random stranger.  There’s also a sauna, a big common area with nice leather couches, a pool table and a kitchen, AND the best part of all…*drum roll* FREE BREAKFAST AND DINNER!!!  I think this place will end up being a really enjoyable spot for the next 5 days, everyone seems really friendly, and most of the people staying here seem to be about our age.

Queenstown itself is an incredible place.  Apparently it’s known as “the adrenaline capital of the world”.  We’re already planning out our activities for the rest of the week, and among our options are skydiving, kayaking, “canyoning” (which appears to be a combination of white water rafting and running through the woods), or this crazy looking cable car ride to the top of a mountain:

I’m sure whatever we end up doing in Queenstown will be great; this really seems like a special place.  We also found out tonight that my outlet adaptor works here!  Settling in one step at a time…