We arrived safely to Queenstown with the Scottish family thanks to Calum's impeccable driving. (Don't even ask why Rory is not allowed to drive anymore, lets just say his wee eyes aren't what they used to be).
Annie's house is just amazing, the view of the Remarkables from her backyard is well pretty fucking remarkable.
Here's her sweet little backyard and her precious baby Beyonce:
Our first full day in Queenstown Callum and Elnore parasailed, good for El!! The yellow spec in this picture is their parachute:
We then headed to Monty's for some beer tasting and a bite to eat. Annie and Elnore on the deck:
Rory took off to buy another hat (he's obsessed with hats and, incidentally, meat pies, but more on that later). He came walking back up the hill in what we thought was a cool handkerchief on his head. Turns out it was a pair of knickers with sheep shagging on them. Good times, good times:
That afternoon we took the Gondola ride up the mountain to ride the luge and see the original Kiwi Haka show.
View from the top:
Here's my cheesy picture with the Chester Village News:
The Maori people have a very strong respect for their culture so they asked that during the formal welcoming ceremony (powhiri) for there to be no talking or laughing as this is considered a very sacred part of the show. This proved to be pretty difficult because Calum had been chosen as the strongest warrior to represent the audience. As "Chief Calum" he got on stage and was presented the Kaiana (challenge) to determine whether you come as friends or foe. This huge Maori guy basically spit and screamed and made the most horrible faces at Calum. Thank god they let us laugh later in the show when Callum was brought up again and asked to preform the gayest dance ever with some other audience members.
Here we are after the show with some of the performers, doing the traditional Maori greeting face. Pretty sweet:
The next day we headed out for bungee jumping and wine tasting, thankfully in that order. Bungee jumping is even scarier than we imagined. You see it all the time on TV, but the actual feeling of standing on the edge of the ledge, looking down, is so stomach-droppingly scary that the thought of it means instantly sweaty hands.
The two of us originally thought about jumping tandem, because it may be a little less scary, but once on sight, Tracy had a moment of bravery, suggested going solo, and everything went so quickly that scared-shitless Katie went along with it.
The sight we bungee jumped at was beautiful, and as soon as we arrived we were able to go right out, with no waiting (or time to turn back)- we were at Karawau bridge:
And luckily our bungee instructors were totally smokin hot, so that made it easier. Calum jumped first, then Tracy, then Katie. Tracy had a pretty hilarious (and also terrifying) false start after standing on the ledge for AGES, but Katie made an even bigger fool of herself by having what Annie dubbed "the gayest bungee scream ever". Thank you, Annie, for making sure this is on film. Because Tracy took so long to jump, her digital video is too large to post (unless we want to be at this internet cafe for the next 12 hours) so hopefully we'll be able to add it at a later date, but here's Katie's (and sorry, can't figure out how to rotate the shot):
After that, we were very happy to have a more relaxed afternoon touring local wineries like Gibbston Valley (where we did a tour of the cellar) and Amisfield:
All in all, an absolutely gorgeous day. Queenstown, known as the adventure sports capital of the world, has plenty more activities for us to try over the next week or so, so we'll try to keep you up to date on everything!
- Posted by Tracy and Katie
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