Queenstown, New Zealand

 Feb. 5, 2011

Senne's Summary: Spent a week in Queenstown, it reminded us of home. Went up the gondola, took lots of walks, played disc golf.

I'm going to pack a whole weeks worth of information into one entry… settle in… who knows how long I could ramble on here!

Before we start with Queenstown I have to mention the funniest thing we heard all week. It was in the Sydney airport. We were exchanging our leftover Australian dollars for New Zealand dollars at the currency exchange (which is a crazy rip-off by the way) so we would have money for a taxi when we got to Queenstown. We had about $200 Aus. left to change. They guy at the currency exchange who is clearly trying to rip us off even more asks us how long we will be in New Zealand. We answer him, "Five weeks." Then in a very patronizing tone he asks us if we think $200 will be enough money. Well several responses went through our heads (which I don’t think we should mention here… public forum and all…) but we politely told him that was all we had. (Um, yeah… there’s this new invention called the bank machine… we can get money out of there…)

Anyway, we had a nice direct flight to Queenstown, had an interesting conversation at customs where we discussed which shoes we had worn to the wineries… and then headed out to get a cab. The first thing I noticed is that Queenstown reminded me a LOT of home. Mountains, trees, lakes… it even smelled kind of like home. You know that smell when you first step off the plane in Victoria… kind of like that 😀

We caught a taxi to our apartment (the taxi was almost twice as much as we thought it would be!) and checked into a very nice modern room. The best part is the nice soaker tub and the heated mattress pad. Why have I not heard of this fabulous invention before??? I MUST get one when I get home!

Okay, now I’m going to switch to generalities for the week…

Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand… if you like an adrenalin rush this is the place to do it… I personally prefer to not have an adrenalin rush (and live a long and happy life) so did not partake in the bungee jumping, canyoning, speedboating, etc.

It is also a beautiful place to walk. We took many walks into town (our apartment was about a 15 minute walk from the center) and around the lake.

The lake is glacial fed and often has a beautiful turquoise colour. The town is very cute and full of little shops, restaurants and pubs. The prices seem to be similar to what you would spend on things in Canada… definitely cheaper than Sydney. The other benefit is that their dollar is only 77 cents to ours.

My favourite kind of food... wine and snacks!

One day we met some girls from Europe while we were waiting for warm cookies to come out of the oven at “Cookie Time”.

It's Cookie Time!

They told us that we had to try a “Ferg Burger”. Apparently, you aren’t even ALLOWED in Queenstown if you haven’t heard of the Ferg Burger… so I guess we were lucky someone told us about it! We did try it out the next day, and have to say that it is very possibly the best burger we’ve ever had!

The restaurant was so full we had to eat in the park across the street!

Many days we walked through the main park on the other side of the lake. They had a great (FREE) disc golf course that Steve and I played on a few times.

One day we saw some guys going through without their shoes on! It’s a forest! I wanted to say “At the risk of sounding like your mother, why aren’t you wearing any shoes?!?”….but I’m not so forward. Later, Steve said to them, “My wife thinks that you should really put some shoes on”.  He chuckled and replied, “These are my Kiwi work boots”.

My favourite activity at the park was the pinecone races. (Steve invented this activity… it’s for those of us who prefer a little less adventure in our competition 😉

Choosing the winning pinecone

We found a stream that emptied into the lake and had many pinecone races throughout the week. Go ahead and ask Steve who the champion was (IT’S ME!!!!) Apparently, my pinecone selection skills are top notch!

Watching my pinecone win!

Steve’s most memorable day in Queenstown (Warning: Steve is typing now, this could go on for quite some time) involves the same stream that we were using for our pinecone races.  The stream is only about 8ft wide and about two feet deep.  Just before it empties into the lake there stands an enormous tree.  There is a rope with a stick tied to the end (looks like a makeshift trapeze swing).  We have watched small children (the rope is not strong enough to support big kids like me), numerous times throughout the week taking turns swinging out and back to shore.  The rope is not long enough to allow the kids to swing completely across to the other side, so the kids swing about ¾ way across and return back to their take off point.  Lisa and I are always standing on the adjacent shore…the rope swing is the finish line for our pinecone races.  So one day, we had just finished a race and this little Japanese girl approaches the rope with her Mom and Dad.  She grabs on to the rope swing and does a few test steps towards the stream, giggling and speaking in Japanese to her parents.  She has obviously never done this before and likely saw some kids do it earlier.  Although neither Lisa or I speak Japanese we could tell that Mom and Dad were both encouraging her to go for it; Dad with his video camera and Mom with the regular camera.  I can’t speak for Lisa, but after watching this 8 year old take a few test steps, I was thinking, “This is not going to end well”.  So with one big breath, she steps back, runs forward and jumps….it started off so well, body gliding through the air, taking  full advantage of her speed, enjoying the ride.  Most kids in the past, keep their feet pointed down at the stream...not this girl she lets momentum carry her to a completely horizontal position to the water.  At maximum height (about 5 feet above the water) the rope pulls back, twists the girl a full 180 degrees in the air…now she is looking face down towards the water…and yes, you guessed it, this is the exact moment she loses her grip.  She drops five feet, face first, belly flop right into the water.  At first Lisa and I were both concerned that she might be hurt.  But she popped up instantly spurting water and giggling as her mom jumps in to drag her to shore.  Lisa, not wanting to hurt the girl’s feelings, darted behind a large Bamboo bush, and tried her best to stifle her giggles.  Me, I was buckled over laughing.  It was priceless.  (Side note:  We saw it happen to another girl two days later, but she went in from a seated position)…who knew watching kids play on a swing could be so entertaining.

Back to Lisa typing... and you thought I was long winded...

One day we took the Gondola up to the top of the mountain (Steve always laughs when he reads this line). I was a little worried because of my fear of heights but it wasn’t scary at all on the way up.

This sign did not make me feel better!

It was temporarily scary on the way down. I was sitting facing backwards and Steve was having fun warning me about the BIG DROP that was coming up. He snapped a nice picture of me cringing when he said that.

The views from the top were incredible.

They also had a luge run that you could take a chair lift up to. Steve really enjoyed that and wished he had some more adventurous friends around who he could race on the luge run!

We also took a nice walk through a cemetery. It had a great view! (I guess the residents probably don’t notice that though 😉) I’m not sure why but cemeteries are fascinating to both of us.

The weather has been pretty good this week. Most days have been sunny, only one day with Victoria-type rain. It’s been a little cooler than we are used to though. Most days I wore pants and sometimes even a jacket. Now don’t throw things at your computer screen when you hear this… but cool means around 20 degrees Celsius. We’ve definitely climatized to warm weather!

All in all we’ve had a great relaxing week in Queenstown… it feels like home… except people talk funny here 😉