Quirky in Queenstown

Our kiwi tradition of spending New Year's Eve on the South Island of New Zealand continued with our welcome of 2012 in beautiful Queenstown. This is definitely a city that knows how to party. It appeared to our somewhat "old fogey" eyes that pretty much every university aged student on the south island landed in Queenstown for new years...and they each brought two foreign exchange student backpackers with them. It was pretty crowded, in other words.

We started our adventures with a ride up Bob's Peak in a gondola. Doesn't this guy make the cutest gondolier?

While we may have had to throw a few elbows to get to the railings, we eventually managed to take in some of the gorgeous views of the Remarkables.  

 

A city completely devoted to thrill seekers, we whet our adrenaline appetites with a couple of competitive luge rides.  I was a little too busy driving the wheeled cart beneath me down a mountain to take pictures while we were actually on the hill...but this helmet-head sure looks cute!

No trip to Queenstown would be complete without a visit to Fergburger.  This one-of-a-kind burger joint is anything but fast food...in fact it took us more than 40 minutes of standing around in a crowd like this to get our plate-sized burgers!  

Fergburger has a grand total of about six tables for the hundreds and hundreds of clients it serves a day - so we upgraded to a much better seat by the lake with the added company of new year's revelers and a flock of ducks that has quite clearly grown fond of Fergburger fries. 

This is where our trip to the South Island took a bit of an unexpected detour.  Many of you may know that we had planned a four day backpacking trip on the Kepler Track outside of Te Anau.  Unfortunately, a small medical hiccup kept us off the trail.  Sufficient to say that recovery time in a beautiful Queenstown hotel suite was much closer to doctor's orders than 60 kms with 20 lbs on my back after sleeping in a hut with 40 other hikers.  Not to worry - everything and everyone is fine now...let's just say a 15 year old ski injury repeated itself (and if you don't know what that means - no need to ask - and if you do know...insert pitying laughs of hilarity here.


While we were definitely disappointed not to get to go on the trek, the Kepler will still be there when we are both healthy and able to actually enjoy the challenge.  So, while I convalesced with a couple of good Kindle books, some amazing Queenstown fudge, and some not-so-amazing daytime television Adam followed his orders of finding fun things to do on his own.  He started with some good Wakatipu county day hikes. 

Adam discovered the giant grass stalk native to solo hikers all over New Zealand.

A few restful days later and a clean bill of health from a follow up appointment later brought us to Arrowtown, a beautiful suburb of Queenstown.  A sunny hike up the Sawtooth Valley track led us up and down valleys where miners dug for gold.   

We may not have found gold, but happy and healthy smiles are priceless!

Our travels around the world have taught us that it's never a good idea to pass by a good crepe shop.  

Adam's in charge of the next blog post that will include tales of our whitewater rafting and canyon abseiling escapades, so I'll just leave you with our final outing in Queenstown - frisbee golf!  Adam out threw me on pretty much every tee, but the 18 holes of throwing along the lake around Queenstown Park was the perfect way to bid farewell to our South Island journey. 

See you in Samoa!