Woo Hoo I'm in Queenstown

The bungy jumping platform
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanyaconnor/collections/72157609516772066/

Finally I'm here in Queenstown!

Went through Wanaka which is a really nice town on the edge of a big blue lake with the Aspiring range framing the Lake. The Christmas tinsel looked really nice & sparkly inthe hot afternoon sun. Had a quick smoothie at a lakeside cafe & did laugh at the tip jars; “which hemisphere has the best Christmas – jar 1 for north jar 2 for south” The North had more money in it so so I'm guessing this place is full of tourists passing through! Yesterday morning we were reading the papers & there was a huge advert on the front saying "Christmas means camping" - very different down here for crimbo. At least I suppose for the kids they can go & play outside with their new presents - not like my day when I couldnt take the new bike or roller skates out due to frost/snow etc!!

Cheeky duck!
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The scenery is still mostly really Scottish, although we have now moved away from the callendereque views into more cairngorm/glencoe. There are occasions though when all of a sudden you round a corner & this huge alpine snow capped peak complete with glacial blue river jumps out at you! Even in Queenstown the mountains are very Scottish – there just seems to be more of them & they appear to be a wee bit higher.

Just before Queenstown we passed the Perigrine vineyard so may take a trip back this way when we are back next week. More pertinently we also passed & thus had to stop at the infamous AJ Hackett bungyy bridge. Even driving down to the bridge my legs started to feel like jelly & to be honest even as I'm typing this I'm starting to get nervous; there will be the mother of all nervous jobbys that day I tell you!!! The bungys had all stopped for the evening so there was nothing except the platform to hint at what goes on here. Still found it amazing standing on the bridge – cant believe i'm here. I did eventually manage to gain control of my legs & started to feel a bit calmer about launching myself off the platform towards the green water. This really is bungy for beginners though as the drop is a mere 42meters – compair that with the Nevis gorge bungy down the road at 143meters??!! They advertise the canyon swing here a lot with loads of posters on the back of toilet doors. This is basically a free fall & then 200meter swing across a canyon. There are many ways to start off the fall & one of the comments in the book if from an English chap claiming “even my shit was scared”?! Anyway it will be bungy for beginners for me – what on earth am I doing??!!

Jackie & Christmas Kiwi
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Arrived in Queenstown & what a beautiful place. The town centre is pretty small but buzzing with bars/restaurants & outdoors shops galore – my heaven! Spotted a T-shirt today with “up mountains down beers” which I thought was very apt! Update - have now bought said t-shirt as it was under £10 & will be very apt for the Clachaig! Having wandered around Queenstown the setting is sooo Scotland! Its amazing that this place is so world renowned & yet there is nothing here that couldn't be reproduced in Scotland - OK Fort William would need bulldozed to the ground - the skeffs moved out & totally rebuilt but the setting is the same. I cant really believe that many people rant on about how beautiful NZ is yet the same scenery is on their doorstep. I did say to Jackie that although its really nice here I don't think I would make much of an effort to come back as I have exactly the same in my own country - why travel half way round the world to see it! Have to say food here is great - good value.

Poor fly at Winnies - however it gave us free food!
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Had dinner in a great place called Winnies. They are famous for their pizzas & mine was indeed great. There really wasn't any more room for more toppings. Jackie got a veggie pasta dish which a quarter of the way through discovered a whole (unlike the half wasp me & Tree found in the bottom of the dish of olives we had just finished!!) dragon fly. Staff were quite appalled & very efficient in replacing Jackies meal. They also never charged us for her past so we ended up with a pretty cheap night. The pub part of Winnies looks like it would be a real laugh, there is a place in there for everyone whether you want to join in Karyoke, play pool, sit beside the fire or escape totally out into the sheltered heated balcony. I've no doubt we will be back!

Queenstown - put some peat in that water & you could be standing at Tarbet on Loch Lomond! No Neds or bucky bottles though!
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Found out a disturbing fact yesterday in that both Jackie & Corina find Michael Stipe from REM attractive – girls bad taste!

Thursday 11^th December

Looked around Queenstown at the various activities you can do to kill yourself! There are a number of bungys from the beginners one I'm going to do at 42meters right up the Nevis bungy at 143meters. There is also the Canyon swing where you freefall 60odd meters before embarking on a 200meter swing across the canyon! Add in canyoning where you hurtle yourself down a waterfall or frogging where you attach yourself to a boggie board & self kayak down a river – all sounds like great fun. Needless to say Jackie isnt doing any of that! After having to do a nervous jobby in the AJ hackett bungy shop just looking at the video we decided it was beer o'clock & headed for a suitable hostelry.

Tanya & the Christmas Kiwi
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Pog Mahone was the boy for us & we settled into a balcony seat for a pint. At 11.30pm we left the single pint having turned into 6 or 7! Very nice bar man from Belfast (supposedly as he sounded like he was from the SW), bit of cheek to him as well although we thought her had gone too far when he commented to a table that you couldn't trust the c*nts referring to us. On conferring with the next table we came to the conclusion that he surely said Celts! His normal profession is guiding & currently he is training to be a river guide – (he recommends the boogie board kayaking as opposed to the frogging). Turns out said chap is thinking of starting out an outdoors business with his girlfriend in Skye. Had a nice habit of calling us girls – not something I've been called for many a year! Very nice dinner of seafood chowder (washed down with the magnificent Macs Gold), watched an amazing “sunset” with the clouds above one of the mountains turning blue all backed by gold - didn't have my camera so hopefully Jackie has captured this well. Had a bit of a run home & back as we realised that we hadn't checked into our room & reception closed at 10pm.