The next day was the 20^th of June, Mel's 23^rd birthday!! I had managed to convince her that I wasn't prepared at all, and would have to buy her a card and present in Queenstown. Little did she know I'd sneakily bought her a card and presents in Christchurch while she was getting her hair done. So that morning I got up and made her breakfast in bed: sausages, scrambled eggs, hash brown, fried bread and toast! Then we headed into town and found a campsite to stay in. While Mel was in reception I quickly got the happy birthday banner I'd bought out, and trapped it between two cupboard doors. Mel came back, went into the back of the camper, ducked to go under the banner twice then sat back in the passenger seat not even noticing it!!! Its not until I told her she needs glasses she realised! After we'd pulled up and got our selves sorted I produced her card and bag of prezzies. I'd gotten her a Lush set of body products, a big mango scented candle and a cuddly Kiwi that makes real Kiwi sounds, which she promptly named Ken. Later we had a walk into town where I showed her 'The Bunker', where we would be dining that night, and I took her to the cupcake shop to get some birthday cupcakes. If that wasn't enough, while she was buying a new dress and shoes for the meal, I went and picked up the flowers I'd pre-ordered for her. Before we knew it it was 8_pm and time for the meal. We had a couple of cocktails before we sat down at the table. Mel had a French Martini and I had a Vesper off of James Bond. When we sat down I got us a bottle of Veuve Cliquot bubbly and we picked our meals. Mel went with the quail and stuffing wrapped in bacon, lamb ribs and tenderloin with sweet potato and celeriac dauphinoise and a chocolate mousse with a peanut base and peanut ice cream. I went for the Paua (a local shellfish) encased in pasta, roasted pork cheek and belly with bacon mash and savoy cabbage and a passion fruit créme brulée. Feeling rather stuffed and my wallet feeling a lot lighter we only managed one extra drink in a bar before we headed back to the camper for the night. Still feeling full from our posh meal the previous night we skipped breakfast and went down into town to look at some activities to do for the day. The first place we came to was Fergburger! This burger shop is renowned for having the world's best burgers, everyone we've met who has been to Queenstown, has told us to go so we had to try it. So we joined the queue (that was out of the door!) and got ourselves a venison burger with all the trimmings and a special plum sauce, and a beef, cheese, bacon, pineapple and the rest, burger. We sat down opposite the entire Irish rugby team to eat. Its just as well we had no breakfast as the burgers were massive!! For the rest of the afternoon we went to the Kiwi and rare bird discovery park where we got to see real life Kiwis being fed and lots of other rare native birds and wildlife. We'd bought a combo pass which enabled us to go up to the top of one of the mountains via a gondola, where they have a A J Hacket bungy jump,a cafe and the luge. Being so high up we got excellent view of Queenstown and lake Wakatipu, we didn't feel brave enough for the bungy so we opted for the luge instead. You sit on a little plastic go-kart and fly down the hillside steering your way around a track. We returned down the gondola and called it a night. The next day was a Friday and the start of the Winter Festival, its to celebrate the start of the beginning of the ski season and lasts for 10 days every year. Walking around town there was all sorts going on from street acts, to people singing on a big stage they'd set up in the middle of town. We also had a visit to Cookie Time, another place we'd been recommended to go. It's nothing special, just a cookie shop, but they are damn good cookies! Later that night we went back down to town to watch the opening ceremony and firework display which was one of the best I've seen. Although as soon as the last firework went off the rain started, so that put a bit of a dampener on the night. Saturday came and it was time to leave Queenstown but not before watching the winter parade, (which wasn't a patch on the English ones) and we had to call into Fergburger again just to check their claim and we con cure.