Queenstown, NZ

We knew that it would be winter in New Zealand and that it would make packing for this trip a challenge but somehow we still didn't bring the right clothing. We left the rather mild winter (60 degrees) in Auckland behind yesterday and landed in the middle of a beautiful ski resort town with nothing but a light jacket and a hooded sweatshirt - it's a rather chilly 37 degrees here. Woops. Luckily there are lots of touristy shops in town so we quickly procured hats, gloves, a down vest, etc. How is it possible that it's only day 3 of this trip and I feel like I'm already wearing the exact same clothing every day?

Queenstown is the self-proclaimed extreme sports capital of NZ and it is beautiful here so I'm glad we changed our plans. This morning we took a cable car up a very steep mountain and then raced down on little go-cart type things. A rather lame extreme sport but it's all we've worked up the courage to do so far. I feel bad that Garron is missing out on skiing here but with my bum knee we decided not to risk it. So instead we're enjoying a relaxing couple of days in the little town and staying in a very cute hostel right on the lake. There are lots of bars and the town appears to have a fun nightlife to keep all the skiers and snowboarders happy so hopefully we can stay up past 9:30pm tonight to check that out...

The only other small mishap we've had so far is we seem to have mislaid both our Lonley Planet Southeast Asia and Lonely Planet Australia (sorry Nilam - I'll buy you another one!). Garron maintains they were stolen by a crafty maid at the San Diego Old Town Marriott...
So we've had to repurchase those for the weeks ahead. With only one small backpack you think we'd be able to keep better track of our belongings!

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Part of trip: Summer Travels 2006

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