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Published: August 29th 2005
Can You Spot the Southern Belle?
Guess who's from Georgia and had her first cross-country ski experience on top of a mountain in New Zealand?Greetings from Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand, or perhaps the world.
Now, I'm of the school of thought that adventure can happen anywhere and you don't necessarily have to be emptying your wallet or risking spinal injury to participate, but for certain types of paid outdoor adventure type activities, Queenstown is the place. Take your pick from rafting, jet boating, parasailing, skiing, snowboarding, river boarding (boogie boarding down a river), canyoning, canyon swinging, and even some kind of airplane-like tethered rocket plane kind of thing. and of course bungee jumping (invented here). Queenstown has all of these. Sherry and I will probably partake in the jet boating, but that's about it.
The landscape on the south island is beautiful: snowcapped mountains, green valleys, still lots of sheep. On Saturday (2 days agao) we had some amazing views of Mt. Cook on the way from Queenstown. It's the highest point in NZ, and similar to Mt. Whitney in California, you can drive right up to the dry side of it and actually get quite close. We had some great, clear weather and let me tell you, the views were amazing. We'll post photos as soon as possible.
Church Altar
Behind the altar there's just a window overlooking the Southern Alps Sat night Sherry, Frank, and I all went to the pub in Twizel (population counted on my fingers and toes) to watch NZ vs S. Africa in rugby. The match is part of the tri-nations cup (NZ, S. Africa, Australia being the 3 teams and being the 3 premiere teams in the world for rugby). Watching the match there was a great experience, and with the local crowd cheering or booing, it made it a lot easier to follow what was happening. In the end the good guys came from behind, scoring a "try" (like a touchdown) in the closing 2 minutes to win 31-27. Scoring in rugby works similarly to "American" football. A "try" is 5 points, kick after is 2 points, making it 7 points if you get both. You can also score from a (penalty?) kick and that gets you 3... Anyway, 31-27 is a good, close, high scoring match, so what more can you ask for.
The 'All Blacks' as NZ's rugby team are referred to (Springboks are S. Africa and Wallabies are Aus.) remind me, unfortunately, a bit of the Raiders of the NFL. Maybe it's the uniform color. One other cool thing was
Swing Bridge
On trail to view of Mt. Cook before the match how NZ did this tribal inspired chant/dance to challenge their opposition. It's called a 'haka', and its not something that everyone does, pretty much just NZ and some pacific island nations.
Anyway, it's about time to head to bed now. We're getting up early, to take a ride out to Milford Sound tomorrow, a spectatular fjiord on the SW coast of the island. It'll be a 14 hour day including driving and boat tour. We met a nice couple from Russia via La Jolla that we'll ride out there with.
Oh yes, another big big thank you for our hosts here on the S. Island, Pam and Frank. They were the most excellent hosts and tour guides, and the only thing that they asked in return is for my parents Cheryl and Dick to pay the visit here that they've been meaning to for so many years.
Cheers!
-Cory and Sherry (or Sherry and Cory, however you want it! ; )
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Cheryl
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Photos
I love the photos of NZ. Especially the reflections.