Queenstown NZ

Stunning Lake Topeka.
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Monday, January 22, 2007 (Queenstown)

The 'adventure" capital of NZ...ya baby!

- travel day to Queenstown! Stopped & took some great pictures along the way. The geography is stunning & changes dramatically within very short distances. Lunch break in Lake Topeka (city of trees). Because of the glacial feed lake, the depths of the blues in the water color are quite remarkable. Extremely windy here as well. Rolled into Queenstown at approx. 4pm, managed to find another Top Ten Holiday Park (the creekside), right in the heart of the city. Great location, dairy is 2 min. walk, downtown within 5 min. Once I got camp all set up the boys & I set out to get a lay of the land! RV Park is fantastic, clean with great facilities. Cooked a great stir-fry in the facility cook hut. After clean up, Jacqueline proceeded to kick my ass in every card game that we played!! Pretty much a cold windy rainy day in Queenstown.

Brunch at the Lake! That's what I call a "chubby"!
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Tuesday, January 23, 2007 (Queenstown)

- sleeped in a little this morning, it’s 9:45am ( too much vino last night, dam these Kiwi’s & their local white wine…nectar of the Gods!). Another one for the record books, what a stellar day. After a few hours of school we took a walk downtown to book a jet boat tour of the Shotover river, then walked over to the Skyline Gondola were we had the best buffet lunch yet. An absolutely stunning view of Queenstown on the banks of Lake Wanaka and the surrounding mountain terrain. After lunch we all went lugging down the mountain, there slogan is fitting...”Impossible to go down just once!” the boys were smiles from ear to ear. Our jet boat adventure kicked off at 4pm.definitely a must do whenever in Queenstown, wild & wet. I could have licked the canyon walls at times we were so close. Back into town & back up the Gondola for an evening Maori cultural show. I was volunteered by my lovely children to be “King” of our group. It was “King Kevins’” job to approach the Moria warrior and make my intentions clear as to whether we were welcomed guests or enemies. I choose the later and accepted a peace offering after a rather intimidating Maori warrior greeting dance. The boys & I cooked another meal at the Holiday parks outdoor cook hut. Not a cloud in the sky all day, with temperatures in the low 30’s.

I'm quite satisfied with my choice!
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007 (Queenstown)

- pretty much a chill day today, I believe I may of had to much sun yesterday. We worked with the boys on there curriculum for a few hours and rewarded them with a little extreme trampoline…Kiwi style “Bungee Trampoline”. Walked over to the Queenstown Bird sanctuary & cultural interpretative park, where we spent a couple hours learning more on the birds of NZ & some very interesting history on the Maori people of NZ. Oh ya a rouge parrot decided that my head made a good perch…I was thankful he went to the bathroom prior to his visit! Jacqueline & I decided to leave the boys on there own for supper & we walked downtown to see what Queenstown had to offer for shop’n & Tia cuisine. The rest of the evening was spent getting caught up on the Blog. I believe this will be our last night in Queenstown; it has been an absolutely phenomenal addition to our journey. Next stop the Franz Joseph & Fox Glaciers on the west coast, (the only glaciers in the world surrounded by rain forest)!!

Let's eat!
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Thursday, January 25, 2007 (Travel day to Westcoast)

- well thought I would give it on last try with this wireless network (it is 7:30am, thought that might make a difference…NO SUCH LUCK!!). Wireless seems to be almost none existent most everywhere in NZ). You would think that home of the invention the bungee & jet boat technology that someone could figure out wireless? Will keep trying, would like to get our travel blog up & running! Well looks like we are off to the west coast, back to the beach & to see what a glacier coming out of the rainforest looks like.