Day 5 - Queenstown

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Followup from yesterday. HELL was great! Good pizzas with names like Lust, Pestilence, Greed, Mordor, Gluttony. They have really cool pizza boxes that you can punch part out of and fold it into a coffin (to take home your "remains".)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Pizza



This morning, we woke up early and drove out to go horseback Riding in Glenorchy (near Queenstown).
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=Queenstown,+NZ&ie=UTF8&ll=-44.771355,168.409081&spn=0.173538,0.31929&t=h&z=12&iwloc=addr&om=1

If you have seen Lord of the Rings, the mountains in the background are seen in the following scenes:
- Isengard (black tower where Sauraman lives)
- Lothlorien
- Misty Mountains (opening sequence and others)
- snow scene (where Boromir tries to take ring)
- Lighting of the signalling beacons (sweeping through all the surrounding peaks)

it was very very pretty.

Tony got to Canter (gallop). The riding style was English, not western, so it took a bit of time to get used to the balance. Chris and Anne kept to a walk or Trot. We all got sunburned on only 1/2 of our faces (out in the morning, returned at Noon). Anne was quite sore after we got done, and hobbled to a very nice cafe in Glenorchy.

Glenorchy is the smallest town in NZ that has a working school. There are about 20 buildings in downtown, most of them shops, cafes, or tour fronts. Everyone is super friendly, and the place was hopping. Tourism is the #2 industry since Mining dried up. #1 remains farming.

We came back to the hotel and crashed... we all slept or read 3 hours. It is quite warm here... definately a heat wave.

Anne drove downtown (3 blocks). Wasn't too scary!! 😊😊
Anne and Chris are wine tasting downtown while Tony is at the Internet Cafe blogging and figuring out how to use the web cam.
(looks like Yahoo IM is going to be the easiest.)


Tomorrow is going to be quite busy. We are driving to Glaciers on the West coast (about a 5 hour drive). We plan to go on a 4 hour hike, which involves spike shoes and parkas. The description mentions the guide carving out stairs for us in the ice. Should be exciting.

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Photos

Scenery shot
oooooo Pretty!!

3 horsemen
It was hard to get the horses together. Anne's horse and Tony's didn't get along to well, and all they wanted to do was eat and pee.

Chris on Horse
Chris didn't take his camera, so he wanted to make sure we got a good shot. Did We?

All in a line
Look at Anne... Waaay back at the end. Winston did not like to follow and did not like to go fast. He went at his own slow pace, which was fine with Anne!

Lamb Sandwich
Same restaurants... different menu

Comments

[Matt Rogge]

Looks like you're having fun! When you get to Christchurch, check out the University of Canterbury for me. Watch out for Ringwraiths.