This morning started with some beautiful views out the front window while eating our breakfast. We have been so amazed by the beauty in Queenstown. We took a while to get ready this morning and when everyone was gathered we started to head to Skyline Gondola. Fortunately for us the skyline was situated about 5 minutes from our hotel.
When we arrived we were greeted by a lovely lady who walked us through the deals and prices for the skyline. We all decided to get the gondola and 7 luge passes. We headed into the gondola and headed up to the top of the mountain. I rode in the gondola with Steve and Anthony and on the way up we saw some Mountain goats clambering down the mountain. It was a very steep hill so we were very impressed.
At the top we had a look around at the beautiful view of Queenstown. We took some photos and then stopped for a coffee and some breakfast for those of us that were slow to rise this morning. The view was absolutely amazing and the food and coffee were good too.
To get the the top of the luge track you took a chairlift up the mountain to a higher vantage point. Rob is terrified of heights and refused to go on it. So he wandered up the mountain which was a really hard climb. For note: Rob climbed the mountain 7 times and Joe and Chris did it 6 times. We were very impressed. The luging was awesome we did do it 7 times. The highlights including 5 of us getting in a photo. Chris falling off the luge while getting into it. And many many amazing photos taken on the track. We had a great time and we finished just in time because the tourists started flooding in as we were finishing.
Some link to the videos are:
We took the gondola back down and walked back to collect the cat. It is off for a 30 minute drive to Karakawa Bridge to watch some bungy jumping. A few of us toyed with the idea but it was very expensive. The area around the bungy is stunning. I think if you were going to bungy anywhere it would be here. However the biggest thing that happned here is after much fear Rob actually crossed the bridge. We were all very proud of him and gave him a group hug.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Lake Hayes to take some photos. Then we stopped at the Shotover river. We walked out onto the shotover river and it was like walking on the moon, all white and stony.
The Onsen hot pools were booked for 7:30 so we had to have a quick fish and chip dinner before heading to the onsen. A quick 8 minute drive from our hotel and we were at the hot springs. This place is beautiful the pool is a large barrel and there is a large retractable window that opens up to views over the shot over river. The pool was hot and even though it was dark the view was nice. After an hour in its glory we were relaxed and turned into jelly. We tramped our way back to the car and headed towards our last adventure of the day.
Today was Chris’ 30th birthday. Seeing he didn’t come to the hot springs we bought him some cookies to turn into a cake. We returned with the cake and has a little parry complete with glow sticks. It was a great day.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!
