New Zealand
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The
word for the day is "whoa". AD and I began the day with a two
hour horse ride through the mountains. We had a great time
fording streams and cantering across the countryside. The ride
was filled with beautiful flowers and blooming trees. We are
both supporting bruises on our bums. AD will rejoice in
telling you that as the horses broke into a gallop, I was
terrified saying whoa, whoa!! Fortunately we mostly rode in a
canter not a gallop!
After
the ride we came back to Wanaka and TD had lunch waiting. So
nice to have a room with those capabilities and Sue to do it.
The pool is open and AD has met two boys, Matt (6) and
Mackenzie (8) McNeil from Ottawa, Canada. They played the
afternoon away which gave us some free time. We relaxed by the
pool, read and made dinner. Minced lamb and beef burgers with
a tossed salad and light alfredo noodles. Don't tell AD, he
thought his was all beef! TD did the laundry and we now have
pink underwear, socks and two pink and red tee shirts. Oops, I
forgot to tell him my red tee shirt from Machu Picchu was in
there! You'd think that by now it would be color fast. Now we
are headed into town for some of their delicious homemade ice
cream.
Survivor Pearl Island in on NZ channel 2. There are a few current programs on TV but only 3 channels to choose from. The programming is often rated R or X in our opinion and not suitable for AD. We played cards after Survivor because of it.
We left Wanaka this morning, driving toward
Queenstown. A small village, Arrowtown is a tourist stop on
the way. Settled by gold miners in the 1860's, Arrowtown has a
one block long shopping street filled with souvenirs. There
are a few blocks of old houses that have been restored. It's a
cute little place. There was a huge influx of Chinese to
search for gold. Nothing remains of their settlement but place
markers. Queenstown is under 10 Km from Arrowtown. We found
our next Top 10 Holiday Park location and registered.
Queenstown is tourist central for New Zealand. There is just about any outdoor activity available at a price. Top on the lists are water sports. Jetboating is very popular for $60 US. It's a 30 minute ride. There's bungee jumping, another luge track, Lord of the Ring trips from $100 up, airplane rides at up to $400, or parasailing at only $50 (what a bargain). We chose to only stay overnight here. When it comes to natural beauty NZ has lots of other places with a cheaper price tag. Window shopping is in our budget so we walked around the city center and found some Christmas presents.
There is an old steamship, the TSS Earnslaw,
that plies Lake Wakatipu from the dock at Queenstown. It is a
beauty built in 1910 and is one of the last great steamer in
the world. We were in the Botanical Gardens walking as it
approached the town. DW went and waited for a good shot of it.
The Gardens are right near the center of town. There are huge
trees, some nice gardens, and a bowling club. AD had been
wanting to see bowling.
Our cabin in Queenstown is the smallest we've stayed in. The variance in these accommodations is surprising. Some are the size of a one bedroom apartment, many like an efficiency, but this one is no bigger than a travel trailer. Makes for tight kitchen space when cooking dinner. It was cold overnight with a heavy frost.
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