Queenstown

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Ok so just a quick update whilst we have Wifi. We arrived in Queenstown last night, and went for a great meal at an Irish bar. Jan & Den were so surprised by the surprise visit from Carey who wasted no time in getting the beers in-cue hangovers this morning. We are currently up the mountain after a few races on the luge. The views are amazing and everyone is having a great time!



We were all awake quite early this morning, and the sky had cleared to reveal the peaks of the mountains we couldn't really see yesterday. it was beautiful. we had a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast before setting off for a walk to Hooker Valley. The cloud seemed to have dropped again pretty quick and although it wasn't cold, I was glad to be in long sleeves. We stopped off at the memorial site to take some pictures. It was a nice memorial dedicated to all those who had lost their lives on the mountain over the recent years. The views from here back across the lake were stunning, and with the snow capped mountains in the other direction, it really did look like a picture perfect postcard. Back at the campsite we closed up the vans and drove to mount cook village for a shower. It was either boiling hot or freezing cold, but either way it was a freshen up before we left to drive to Queenstown.

On the way we made a couple of brew stops mainly at the request of Daryl who felt like he was fading away. One was a lovely little place called the Musterers hut, and another sold lovely fresh fruit so we stocked up a bit before getting to Queenstown.

On arrival to our campsite we were met by Carey who had surprised Jan and Den by his early visit as they weren't expecting to see him until we got to the North Island on 17th. He had flown down from Auckland to surprise them and had booked them into a lovely hotel by the waterfront for a couple of nights as a Christmas present. Jan was genuinely touched but a little bit gutted that she'd have to share it with Den!

After a lovely hot shower, we made our way into town for food. We were hoping to go to a restaurant that had been recommended by one of Gareth's trainee officers as she used to work there. It was full though with no reservations so we booked in for tomorrow and ended up having food in the Irish bar. The meals were lovely, but Lau got more than she bargained for when she ordered ribs-the serving was almost as big as she was!

Reuben was struggling to stay awake, and his head was bobbing into his sausages and mash bless him. The same couldn't be said for the boys who were well into the full swing of drinking and having a good catch up with Carey after so long. The night finally caught up with us (that may have also been the drink) and wearily we made our way back up the campsite and fell asleep pretty much straight away.







Wednesday 11th December

True to his word, Carey was up bright and breezy and brought us all a McDonald's breakfast, which was great hangover food. We headed for the Skyline gondolas to take us to the top of Bobs Peak and have a go on the Luge which was like tobogganing down the side of the mountain. It was a great morning and the views from up here over Queenstown were amazing. We got some great photos and had great fun racing each other on the luge.

Most of us still felt a little of the effects from the night before, but the fresh air was welcoming and we had a good time.

In the afternoon, Gareth took Reuben down to the seafront and Rhyd and Laura had a wander around town. Jan and Den headed back to the hotel with Caleb, and Daryl, Carey, Michelle and I went on the Shootover Jet ' the worlds most exciting jet boat ride'

We boarded with a load of tourists from Hong Kong who really didn't have much of a clue what the driver was saying, but he was quite a funny character and obviously a good driver (he had to be!) he told us that he had to do 120 hours of training on the river, and once we got going it wasn't hard to see why. We skimmed so close to the rocks through the narrow canyons and did some great 360 spins, the boys were on the outside seats so got most of the water whilst Michelle and I kept relatively dry. It was a great laugh.

We made our way into Queenstown for some food and the boys had a final drink with Carey before he got his flight back up to Auckland. I felt totally wiped by now and had to go have a lay down before we headed back out for something to eat. We went to the place we couldn't get into the night before called Flame which was right on the waterfront. A few of us had steak which was lovely and Daryl had a big bowl of mussels-all of the food had been great, but we were pretty tired from the late night before so wasn't too late to bed.

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