Day 83

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The next leg of our journey was planned to go down through Queenstown and on to Te Anau, but this journey got shortened as we found heaps to do on the way.
First of all, we went to an old gold mine, we just spotted it en route to Queenstown and stopped in. They did guided tours which included gold panning which was something we really both fancied trying, just in case we could replace our bad luck on the lottery with good luck in gold!! The tour itself was really interesting, we got to hold some real gold nuggets which had been found on the site, as well as the see the specks of gold which we were more likely to find when panning. The showed us how gold used to be mined, a village where the miners had lived, and generally heard all about how tough things were, and about how thousands would descend on a location as soon as gold was discovered. After that, we saw a machine used for crushing rock to release gold, and also a giant water cannon which was used to wash away the softer rock and, again, how this was panned for gold and then finally it was our turn to have a go. We got a lesson in how to do it, how to rinse the mud away, how to angle the pan as gold is 19 times heavier than stone, and we were each given 2 pieces of lead shot, the idea being that if we did things properly they would be in the bottom of the pan at the end, and, more importantly, our gold would be under them!! So, we all had a go, and, believe it our not, out of our entire party, including Helen, I was the only one NOT to find any gold at all. Helen, for her part, did really well to spot a bit of gold in her pan, and I happily forked out the 50 cents for the little vial that we popped it into, so Helen has at least struck gold this trip.

After that, we found we’d spent a good 2.5 hours at the gold place, and were feeling a bit puckish, and so the cheesery was the next thing to catch our eye. What a find!!! Their cheese platter was to die for, and we thoroughly enjoyed chomping our way through some magnificent locally produced cheeses, and managed somehow to resist the lure of the shop and leave only having spent for lunch. The photo will give you some idea of how good the cheese board was!
Next up was the home of bungy! Helen had made it clear there was no way she was every going to do it, I’ve done it before and, to be honest, $180 for about 2.5 seconds of freefall just didn’t add up, so we just went to check out the site and watch a few people jumpt, which was good. We then, finally, made it into Queentstown having decided that we needed to spend the night here rather than try and get on to Te Anu. So, we found the local top10 capsite, gawped at the almost $50 a night cost, but, as it was one night and we’d been warned we’d be fleeced in Queentstown for everything, we paid up and set up the tent before heading into town to the Gondolas. We decided that rather than do the Luge run, which Helen isn’t so keen on in her current condition, that gondola to the restaurant and buffet dinner made more sense, so that’s what we did. You buy tickets at the bottom and are asked to check in before your meal. The check in decides which order you get taken through to your table, we were 9th in line so we ended up with a table right next to one of the giant windows overlooking Queenstown and the lake. Truly an impressive site and, having made the most of the all you can eat buffet, we took a leisurely gondola back down again before heading back to the tent and crashing out for the night

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