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Published: March 3rd 2008
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It was time to leave our home in Clyde and Alex after six weeks. We bid farewell for now to our new friends and started our adventure West. Although it was another hot sunny day, it had snowed in the mountains that morning, reminding us where we have come from.
We had the great fortune of a beautiful timeshare condo to stay in for a week in Queenstown as Charlotte's parents couldn't make their trip to New Zealand; we will be forever grateful for this generous gift. It was heaven for our aching muscles and spirits after six weeks in the van... a bed, a kitchen, a TV and a bath tub! We indulged in real cooked meals, meat, and even ice cream. It was our long lost honeymoon, and a great place to spend my birthday and our fourth anniversary.
We explored the activities available - anything you could think of from bungee, skydiving, rafting and biking to shopping, spas, and scenic drives. We chose to get our thrills up the gondola where we each did three luge rides down the mountain. It was so much fun we were laughing out loud. Much like a go-kart, you had
Snow?
Yes, it was snow on the mountain tops, vineyards in the valley wheels and steering, but instead of a motor, you had gravity and brakes.
Some of our other activities around Queenstown ended up being more thrilling than we anticipated too. First was a drive out to Paradise where some scenes from the Lord of the Rings were filmed. It was a beautiful drive by mountains, sheep fields, thorugh forest, and even through streams! Tui managed the waters well but we turned around when the road stopped at a large riverbed. This was where we first met "the bugs". We actually laughed at how many tiny bugs were swarming around us... until about four hours later when all the bites began to itch! These tiny sandflies would be our nemesis for nearly ten days... they itch worse than mosquito bites. We had been so excited that we have hardly seen any mosquitos, in fact, you won't find any screens in windows here and patio doors are often left open (Warning: do not try this at home!)
Our second scenic drive was out to Arrowtown, an old gold mining town. We weighed our options and took a hike along the river rather than trying our luck panning for gold. On our
way back toward Queenstown we drove up Skipper's Road to a ski hill and enjoyed a bird's eye view of the Quenstown area (we also swear we spotted Shania Twain's house). Then we discovered some interesting signs warning hazardous roads with steep dropoffs, where insurance may be void. We aren't insured anyway so took on the challenge! The road took us snaking around a mountain ledge down through Hell's Gates (should this have been a clue?), and down to the bottom of a gorge. It was intense at times when we met oncoming 4x4's as the road was single lane with few narrow shoulders; Kirby and Tui pushed on with excitement and I showed a supportive wide-eyed grin and white knuckles. That night, TV was about as much excitement as we needed.
Some of our more calming pastimes were spent enjoying having a couch. We watched a few movies, Lost, and episodes of Flight of the Conchords (which I got for my birthday a day early). This was also the week of our anniversary, and we enjoyed an hour of bliss with a couples massage at a spa to celebrate. It was also good timing for a massage as
Condo View
We enjoyed the views and sunshine on the balcony and with the floor to ceiling windows! my shoulders were sore after going for physio this week. After some exercises and an overhaul of my posture, my rotator cuff should be back to normal in a few weeks... no more manual labor for a while!
The week of luxury flew by and Friday we moved back into the van continuing our journey west toward the Fiordlands. On our way, we stopped around the Mavora Lakes where parts of Fangorn's Forest (Lord of the Rings) were filmed. After a serene forest walk and taking on a one man suspension bridge, we continued on to Manapouri for the night. Manapouri is by Doubtful Sound, one of the famous Fiords of the Fiordlands, and although all of the cruises and tours were booked, we managed to book one for Milford Sound (North about 3 hours) on Sunday. Before heading to Milford, we enjoyed the sights around Manpouri, then drove to the Kepler Track where we took a ton of pictures on an amazing rainforest walk. The West coast has been so beautiful and lush, with so many tracks to walk and places to explore.
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Robzo
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Kids... grreat blog entry!! Wow is all i can say. Beautiful pics fo sure!! Bet it was nice to have a holiday from the van. That should keep ya going! Loved the comment on the smurf mushroom. So true! And finally my sweet Christina... happy belated brithday!! I suck. Miss you guys!