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Published: October 26th 2008
The drive over the mountains from Wanaka to Queenstown was probably the most beautiful we have done so far. 'Devastatingly beautiful' as the man we met on the plane would say. It takes you right up to the highest point you can reach by sealed road (see pictures for the awesome views) and then snakes slowly down the other side to Queenstown. We read in the Lonely Planet that it should be tackled slowly and carefully, not when tired, not at night etc and were a little nervous that we perhaps weren't at our sharpest after our big session the night before in Wanaka! But stopping at various points to take photos quickly blew the cobwebs away. We also stopped in Cardrona to see the 'bra fence' which is actually a tree where ladies have been hanging their bras for a few years now, but unfortunately the grumbling council had had it taken down a few months after the Lonely Planet wrote about it - not because of that, but because someone had been offended by it. Pah!
Anyway - on to Queenstown. As we said before, Queenstown is the adventure capital of the South Island, and there are any
number of things you can throw yourself off or down, or dangle yourself over, or whatever takes your fancy. We looked through the long list of opportunities and decided straight away that bunjeeying was not for us, but that the Luge looked like a lot of fun! Also Stuart G had told us with such excitement of his time on the luge, we absolutely had to give it a shot. Getting up the hill in the cable cars was less fun and the last part is done by ski-lift - but hey, with every new height experience we are becoming braver. It was ABSOLUTELY worth it when we got to the top - the luge was AMAZING!!!! By far the most fun you can have for a couple of dollars! You get into tiny little sledges with wheels and skid off down the hill on the twisting and turning track. It feels like you are going a hundred times faster than you actually are, and we laughed our way all the way down, and again, and again, and again! We had planned to paraglyde from the top but unfortunately (or fortunately perhaps for Rich?!) they shut it just as we
got to it as the wind was picking up.
So we did what we do best; we hit the town! Queenstown is very nice - again, at the bottom of a huge lake, and reeeeeeaaaally really cold at night, but we have our snowboarding jackets and cocktails to keep us warm now 😊 We went for dinner at an absolutely amazing sushi restaurant (see pics!) and then had a drink at Minus 5, the Ice Bar. It was quite amusing, but a bit of a tourist trap really. Still, we had just met someone in Franz Joseph who had been raving about the Ice Hotel and we wanted to see what it was like.
The next day we threw ourselves across the river on the Shot Over Jet Boat which was a lot of fun. It flies off at breakneck speed through Shotover Canyon, only narrowly missing the rocks that jut out just above your head (all part of the fun of course) and the incredibly clever drivers negotiate all the twists and turns of the river at such high speed. The afternoon we spent in a spa having a massage which was absolutely gorgeous, and then we
went wine tasting in the evening 😊 What a lot of fun!!
The next day dawned very bright and beautiful and the perfect day for running off a cliff on a paraglyder! Hurrah, Rich was terrified, but he did it and I think he might have actually enjoyed it you know?! It was an amazing experience, although I lost my stomach a few times as we came spinning down - I think I am more of a scenic paraglyder. It's basically like sitting in an armchair up in the air - very cool. And we thought we should enter into the Queenstown spirit and throw ourselves off something before we left ;0)
More on the next blog - we are off to Milford Sound next folks!
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Rosemary
non-member comment
Catching you up
I've just got your link and have caught up with loads of blogs in one go. What a huge amount you have packed in - must have taken ages to plan. It makes us feel very boring back home but I will be in NZ soon probably not taking heli trips,throwing self off mountain etc!So glad you having such a great time. Love Rosemary.