Saturday August 20, 2011
Emari and I awoke to what these Kiwi's would call a "nippy day" at Jubilee Park where we camped up along the water 1.7km from the heart of Queenstown. We checked into our Holiday Park with out camper van and let me say Emari did an outstanding job sniffing this place out, one block from the Skyline Gondola and a short walk down the hill into the main drag of Queenstown. We parked into our powered slot and plugged in immediately to get some heat going, both electric and gas heat fired up, probably the warmest this rig has been.
After cereal and coffee we started two loads of over due laundry and took a walk into town to scope out a place that supposedly does ski and snowboard repairs and tune jobs. We located the place Emari had found on-line and headed downstairs to the shop. Although no one was there I liked what I saw, base grinder and a full shop fully set up. I briefly spoke to a guy who assured me my split board could be fixed but they needed to see it. We went back to the camper van and retrieved my split board and upon return we dealt with a young lady who was friendly and stated the guy who will do the repairs will not be in until 1pm. In good faith, not knowing the full price I told her to get all the work done.
Emari and I walked through Queenstown which reminded me of a ski community out west. We saw more people walking the streets with snowboards getting ready to hop some buses to the mountains...they all picked a beautiful blue bird day to ride, it was cold like a Late March day at Killington, temps in the mountains, I'm guessing mid to upper 20's. Our plans were for our 6 line Zip-line tour from the top of Skyline Gondola scheduled for 1:40pm. Before walking back to the Holiday Park we bought two venison pies and a thai curry chicken pie but we did not eat them until we got back to the camper van.....the were so damn good. Who killed Bambi? Who cares, that was some good viddles!!! Venison seems to be the only red meat I go for, particularly venison jerky.
By the time we finished eating it was time to retrieve our laundry and walk to the gondola site. Had we known that we could hike to the top and save $50NZ we would have but the gondola ride was cool, one of the steepest gondolas I have ever seen or ridden with unbelievable views of Queenstown and the lake, the mountains etc. Once up top we walked around, the balcony up top just freaked me out since I am afraid of heights. It took at least 15 minutes before I reached for the railing and slowly pull myself towards the railing. Looking down below we watched someone bungee jump and twenty minutes later we watched someone bungee swing.
We checked in for our zip-line tour but still had 45 minutes to kill so we walked around, browsed through some of the shops and enjoyed the amazing views. I was thinking based on my behavior on the peak balcony, "how the hell am I going to do this Zip-line tour" but knew regardless I was just going to do it.
We returned to "Ziptrek Ecotours" at 1:30 for our 1:40pm three plus hour tour....almost like Giligon's Island. We really have not been around people in 20 plus days so it was difficult initially being around people all doing this touristy thing, but once we got started I was able to turn off my judgmental mind and really enjoyed our guides and the crew we were with. Once fitted with our harness and helmet we were ready for line one. Emari was the giddy giggling champ, you could hear her laughing almost the entire way wether she was zipping away from the platform or towards one. 6 amazing descents, the last one is the steepest and fastest in the world and it was so cool flying through the trees, ground snow covered which normally was not so but the snow storm of the century blanketed much of NZ. It was guided well and Eco friendly information and education was also provided. Made me really think just how fucked the human race is at large, the way we take and don't give back. New Zealand seems to be ahead of the rest of the world in these endeavors but with a population of 4.4 million people this is much easier to tackle.
Back to Zipping......with trembling legs, I was buckled in and you are simply directed to walk off a set of steps, stepping off into the abyss....so, so cool. What is amazing is that we were high up, but because of the trees I never felt like I was on an exposed ledge so my fear of heights was tempered outside of walking off the short flight of steps into the abyss. Emari and I did it all, straight zipping to cannon balling, to the titanic where you walk off the steps backwards, spread your arms, close your eyes and fall backwards. We zipped 50mph upside down, arms out like an iron cross. Great views and I even got to see Mt Mordor from Lord of the Rings. A great trek through the forest, though slippery with all the recent snow fall to the sixth and final line, the steepest and fastest in the world. Emari performed perfectly the Titantic to upside down iron cross to cannon ball up to speeds of 50mph. This one freaked me out a little but I managed to get my wobbly legs to walk right off the last step right into the abyss to an upside down iron cross. This was a really enjoyable tour and great way to see and experience such amazing beauty, in the mountains, the lake, the forest....the pure fresh air...like Emari, this place is amazing.
After the tour we decided to walk into town and splurge for dinner.....imagine that, perhaps the two cheapest and frugal tourist in NZ. We settled on a Korean restaurant. I had never actually eaten Korean food and although I had no idea what I was eating at least half the time it was a great meal, food was awesome. Topped off with a mocachino and Emari got a white mochachino and we walked back to the camper van. We played a few games of backgammon I got my ass kicked, pushed the "undo" button at one point which negated one of Emari's rolls and was accused of cheating. Actually it was cheating. The way she plays you would think we were playing chest for life or death...ten minute decisions before making a move. If I am not mistaken she has won four games to my two. Needless to say I need to find a game that increases my odds at winning as I am growing tired of losing!
Tomorrow we get picked up at 6:45am for our all day tour to Milford Sound. From what I gather, it is almost destined to be breath taking and amazing. Still entertaining my worst impatient decision of the trip to drive away from 5' of powder, but starting to get over it with days like today.
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