Queenstown, Day 2

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Today, as usual, I woke up at about 3:00 a.m. I stayed in bed until 5:00. I suppose by the time it is time to go home I will be on a regular schedule and then it will get all goofed up again when I get home. I got up to try and upload some photos, but was unsuccessful, but I am hoping soon. After a quick shower, John and I went to breakfast in the hotel. Deb and Greg decided to go later. We had a quiet morning and then about 11:00 we went into town for lunch and a bit of shopping. We stopped at an information booth to make reservations for dinner, a gondola ride where we will have a beautiful view and a Haka dance which we were informed we should not miss since it is part of the New Zealand Culture. Deb and Greg had already seen it some years ago so they are going to stay back and relax. We ate alunch at a pizza place, (name escapes me)and decided to go back to the hotel and drop off some things and then head out of town for about 30 minutes so we could see the bridge that is famous for its bungy jumping. Queenstown is where it all began. It also is the place to go for extreme sports. There was only 1 person, a young man, who was jumping and I almost missed it. I saw him bouncing though. We walked across bridge and looked down. We drove back to the hotel and for the3rd of 4th time today tried to do laundry. Maybe later.

This evening we took the shuttle into town so we could ride the gondola up the mountain for some stunning views, to have dinner and watch a unique Maori Cultural show performed by Queenstown's leading Kapa Haka group at the top of the gondola. Afterwards we had dinner which was a buffet which consisted of New Zealand cuisine. There were beautiful panoramic views from the windows. We were just finishing eating when we were greeted by 2 young girls who were with us on the Millford Sound flight. We talked to them at length about their travels and we finally left the restaurant to ride the gondola down to the shuttle bus for the ride back to the hotel. On the way down, we saw them again and they offered to give us a ride back to the hotel which we gladly accepted. We returned to our room, but not before checking the laundry situation. I had John stand guard while I ran and got the laundry. We got the laundry in the washer, but when it came time to dry our clothes, someone had gotten there before John. They had promised to call him when there clothes were done, which he did, but by the time John got down there, someone else had put some things in the dryer. It was a long evening, but we finally got it done.

Tomorrow we leave for Fox Glacier right after breakfast.

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Photos

Suspension bridge
Where bungy jumping began.

Just hanging out.

After the jump
The pickup

Gondola Ride
View from the top.

Haka Performance
Welcoming Ceremony

Comments

[peter]

no way
I will never, ever go bungy jumping. CRAZY!