After a long day adventuring through middle earth yesterday, Danielle and I decided to have a nice leisurely morning. Now, after doing a lot of traveling together and always having a very full agenda, the thought of sleeping in was really new to us. We set an alarm for 8 AM, thinking that would be sufficient time to slowly wake up and enjoy a few extra minutes of sleep, but ended up not getting out of bed until about 9:30 AM. We were lying around for a while just talking for about half an hour, but once housekeeping came by and opened our curtains, we decided that was our cue that we needed to get our day started. We took our time getting ready and it wasn’t too much longer until we were downstairs for our breakfast.
The one good thing about waking up late is the kitchen is much quieter than it is at 7 or 7:30 AM. We had our typical toast, fruit and PB&J breakfast but I decided to pass on the fruit. I tried a golden kiwi fruit but it just didn’t have the same appeal as the green kiwi fruit did. Oh well. Live and learn right? After doing a small batch of dishes and finishing getting ourselves prepared for our day, we headed out into town and walked along the lake towards the gondola.
Queenstown is a great city and there is surrounded by awesome mountains. It reminds me a lot of ski resort cities like Big Bear and Mount Bachelor. And one of the things I wanted to do last time we were here but didn’t have the time for, was riding the Gondola to the lookout on the top (well, almost the top) of the mountain. So Danielle and I made our way slowly but surely through the streets of the city to the Gondola station. And of course, since Queenstown is the city of spontaneity, we decided that we would do 2 runs on the luge at the top of the mountain. Hey. Why not? This now means that I have officially luged in 3 different countries on 3 different continents. Not too shabby right? Now it was no surprise that when we went up to buy our combination tickets Danielle ended up looking like a dumb American tourist. She wasn’t understanding that the luge track was at the top of the mountain and you only got to take the gondola once. That’s alright though. If I had been first in line I probably would have had the same issues.
So with our tickets bought and our excitement starting to build, we got on the gondola and made our way up the mountain. We were told that we could hike up it and it would take about an hour or hour and a half, but I must say that it is much nicer to be up the mountain in 5 minutes and to get to enjoy the breathtaking scenery on the way up without huffing and puffing and sweating. Don’t worry though. The day is still young and there is plenty of time for that! We decided once we reached the top of the mountain that we would go ahead and do our two luge runs. Danielle and I were each outfitted with helmets (that were color coded for size) and rode the chair lift even farther up the mountain to the top of the luge run.
Now, both of us being snow sport people (Danielle snowboarding and myself skiing), we weren’t used to being on a chairlift without something strapped to our feet. It felt really awkward getting off the lift and not gracefully sliding away from the chair, but rather having to briskly walk (almost run) to get out of the way because there was no snow on the ground. But, neither of us got run over by the chairlift and we made our way to the luge track. When it was our turn, we were given our luges, had a brief lesson on how to properly operate the carts (pull the joy stick back and you moved forward, pushed the joy stick forward and you stopped; idiot proof really) and we were off. Luging is pretty fun and the two tracks in Queenstown were super fun! There were some nice hairpin turns and a couple of tunnels and the more advanced track even had a couple of “hills” and drops that were really fun! Danielle and I had a blast racing one another and I proved once again that if you are patient enough on that inside line, you will eventually win!
Before we knew it we had already done our two runs on the luge and needed to find another way to entertain ourselves. There was a souvenir shop near the gondola station that we walked around in but neither Danielle nor I bought anything. Thankfully, we are both very good about not buying those useless, tacky souvenirs. So after a bit of window shopping, we decided it was time for lunch. There was also a café on top of this mountain (they are super prepared here in Queenstown and are desperate for your money!) so we got a slice of pizza, a meat pie, and a chocolate mousse to share. We enjoyed our munchies but were eventually interrupted by a woman walking around with an iPad asking people to take a survey for the tourism board of New Zealand. Now, I wouldn’t usually agree, but I love this country so I figured why not. As it turns out, she actually thought I was Irish. Ooops.
Oh well. Danielle and I just worked on the survey together and it was pretty straightforward in terms of questions about where we have traveled and why we decided to come to Queenstown. It took a while, but we contributed to the tourism board and their mission to continue attracting people to this beautiful country. I feel like we paid it forward. Once we returned the iPad to the woman, we took a quick bathroom break before heading out on our walk/hike. Remember earlier how I said there would be plenty of huffing and puffing? Well cue the huffing and puffing now! I like to think I don’t complain, but I know I do and I am incredibly out of shape. But it was nice to be outside and to enjoy the scenery because the area surrounding Queenstown is fantastic. We took the Skyline Loop and eventually worked our way to the overlook where the paragliders launch from. So that was pretty sweet! But of course, right as we made it to the top and sat down to catch our breath, it started to rain. Luckily for me, I’ve never minded the rain and was enjoying the fresh air it brought with it. Danielle on the other hand, wasn’t enjoying it quite as much as I was. Oh well. We made our way back down, much quicker than earlier on our way up, and before we knew it, the rain stopped and we were back at the gondola station.
We spent a bit of time on the viewing deck and eventually found the bungee platform that we heard so much about. Unfortunately, no one was jumping so we didn’t get to hear their screams. That’s alright though. Danielle and I just took some time to reflect on our own jump on the bridge just a few weeks ago. Sometimes I’m still shocked to think that I actually bungee jumped! Holy smokes. But eventually, we decided it was time to go so we rode the gondola back down the hill and made our way back to the hostel and our car. We needed to do a bit of grocery shopping for another curry dinner since we had some leftover onion and potato from the previous night’s dinner.
So we drove our trusty Roxanne to the supermarket, picked up some Rogan Josh curry paste, some beef stir fry and made a very early dinner once we arrived back at the hostel. We missed the bulk of the dinner traffic in the kitchen by eating early and neither of us complained about that. After we did our dishes, I made a Skype call back home while Danielle read a book for a while.
Thankfully, we did have two more mini apple pies in the fridge that we needed to eat plus a bit of dessert wine we needed to finish. So we heated up the pies, poured our final glasses of dessert wine and settled down in our room to watch the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. And of course, like the nerds we are, we were giggling and screeching every time Isengard came in the background because we had ridden past those mountains the other day. Can you say nerdy!? And before we knew it, we were ready for bed and asleep. We had a longer day ahead of us tomorrow and we knew we wouldn’t have the luxury of sleeping in like we had the previous morning.
WHOTSOT - what happens on tour, stays on tour 