Up, up and away...

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Having a great time in Queenstown although we have spent quite a bit of our time looking down on the town from above.

We got here yesterday and headed straight for the gondola which is a cable car type affair that takes you up one of the mountains 450m above Queenstown. That gave us really good views but the best bit was they had a luge track at the top. The luge are these plastic go kart type things. There is a 800m track which you go down with bends and tunnels and bumps. There are actually 2 tracks - a scenic one and an advanced one for people who want to go faster! You have to go down the scenic one on your first go just to check you can actually control the thing but after that the choice is yours. We stuck to the advance one which was really good and fast. You can go very quickly on these things. I was not that fast so Tim managed to over take me on a few goes.

Today we went parasailing which was brilliant. This is when you are attached to a parachute which is towed behind a boat. You can ride in tandem which is nice. You can reach heights of up to 200m. The views were fantastic. The best thing is that you feel like you are just hanging in the air! You are sitting in this harness type thing with your legs dangling! At one point they stop the speed boat so you start to drift down to the water. When you get to just above the water they suddenly put their foot down and you fly right up into the sky again. It was such fun, I want another go!

After all that excitement we decided to go to Glenorchy for a couple of hours which is this very pretty village about 45 mins away. Just managed to fit a game of mini golf in (I lost as usual!) before we headed back to the hostel for dinner. It is a busy life travelling...

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Photos

Ready to luge!
You had to wear those taseful helmets. The luge is hanging of the chairlift.

Landed!
Arriving back safe and sound on the boat