Queenstown!!!

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Se we left Makarora amid sunshine & blue skies after a brief stop at the cafe for Trouble to get his morning cup of coffee. Unfortuneately only 3 of us were interested in the Eco tour by jetboat (Ecology AND jetboat? How cool is that?!!!) & they needed 5 for the go ahead so we didn't get to do that.

We stopped at Wanaka to visit Puzzling World - several rooms of illusion & a great maze which myself & Debby managed to navigate very well I think. We reached all four corner towers & found the exit with time to spare before Trouble returned with the coach. No one wanted to do the skydive at Wanaka so we headed straight through to Queenstown. Trouble took us the scenic route over the Crown Range Road, a twisty turning road that leads up & over the mountains & down a zig zag to Queenstown. Here we booked our activities for the next day then wandered around the town & ate icecream!

Myself, Debby & Justin stayed in a lovely little hostel called The Last Resort (a converted brothel!) & amusingly we got the last three beds there that night too! Wonderful homely place, quiet but still close to everything. We failed to go out & party due to some people in the hostel putting The Prestige on tv... It's good to watch that film a second time as the twist is really obvious when you know what you are looking for!

The next morning Justin & Debby went off river surfing whilst I tried out the Flying Fox (=zipline) Ecotour. Good but I'm not convinced it was worth quite as much a they charged... Maybe I've just been on too many ziplines! It was good to be on one where you could flip yourself upside down though, not done that for ages!!! That afternoon I set off, again by myself, to try paragliding. It was brilliant! Like my favourite bit of skydiving but even better & without the falling bit! Flying around, enjoying the view, then finding some good thermals & going up to make the ride last longer! If I ever have spare cash I may have to try this one more often - apparently it's only a 10 course to learn to do ir yourself (well, 10 good weater days)....

We did go out this evening as it was the last night we'd all be together & we had free drinks vouchers for a pub in town. Debby then got persuaded to go out on a bar crawl with some of the other Stray people but myself & Justin heaed home to get to bed by 11pm as we had to be up at 5am to get the Stray bus southbound.

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Photos

Crown Range Road
Very twisty road over the mountains between Wanaka & Queenstown.

Maze at Puzzling World
The challenge was to find all 4 corner towers then get out, this was up the last tower!