Queenstown to Lumsden

Queenstown to Lumsden Weather: mid to high 50's, rainy; sunshine appeared late in the day when we got to Lumsden

Today is our second day in Queenstown. Not a huge fan of the clouds & rain, but we can't complain too much 'cause we have gotten unbelievably lucky with the weather so far! We had breakfast at Cafe 111. I had the most amazing bacon, onion & cheese muffin! I'm planning on trying to replicate the recipe somehow! It was so good! We took the Skyline gondola to the top of the Queenstown hill. Despite the weather the view was awesome!

Skyline Gondola

View from above

View of Queenstown from viewing deck

Peter really wanted to do a hike in Queenstown. Since I put the kibosh on the hike yesterday due to my tired, aching body, I felt it was my duty as a super sweet wife to go on the hike today. I'd like to say that I was enthusiastic and happy about our little hike, but I'd be lying. I'm not good at hiding my feelings... especially when I'm cold. It was beautiful though!

Mushroom in the woods

On our hike

More hike

Not so happy Jaime in the rain

More hike

Some prospectors

More hike

After the hike we had some time to kill before heading to our farmstay in Lumsden. We decided to stop at Les Alpes, a French cafe before leaving Queenstown. I had a flat white & croissant and Peter had a mocha & pain chocolate. Let me just say, the experience at this restaurant did nothing to improve my feelings for French people... they're still rude!

Cafe Mocha & Flat White

After the cafe we headed out to Lumsden for our farmstay. A farmstay is kinda like a bed & breakfast... only on a farm. We thought this would be something different to do. We stayed with Ted & Shirley. They have a family owned & run farm with 5,000 sheep, 1,000 deer and 250 cows. Upon our arrival they gave us some snacks & then took us on a tour of their vast farmland.

Cow

Elk protecting his women

Sheep, of course

Sheep

They don't even blink!

Sun coming out!

View from high above

Deer

It turned out to be a gorgeous day

Bird

Duck pond

Cows

Cows

Cows

Sheep running from us

After our tour of the farm we were treated to a lovely home cooked meal of lamb chops and home grown veggies. We also shared some very good pinot noir we brought from our wine tour adventure. It was all wonderful & a nice change from all the fast food we'd been eating. For desert Shirley made sticky date pudding. I was a bit apprehensive since I'd never had dates before, but it was so freakin' good! There was this unbelievable carmel sauce to poor over the bread (aka the pudding) and ice cream. I got the recipe from Shirley & look forward to making this someday in the not so distant future. After dinner we watched the movie Kick Ass. Yes, you read that correctly. We watched Kick Ass with a 70 year old couple. I swear it was Ted's idea. We were all a little confused, yet intrigued by the ridiculousness of the movie. At it's conclusion we headed to bed.

Max the family cat

Shirley's rose garden

Shirley's birthday giraffe in her garden

SHEEP!

P.S. Happy 29th Birthday to my little brother!!

Queenstown

Queenstown Weather: low 60's partly cloudy

We slept in today 'til around 8 am... how sad is it that I call that "sleeping in" while on vacation? We took our time getting out the door though.

We walked along the wharf & took in some scenery. I insisted on stopping at a pharmacy to buy some anti-itch bug stuff. The pharmacy was pretty impressive... sadly, I did not take any pictures.

Lake Wakatipu

Queenstown

Putting anti-itch gel on my many, many bug bites

I made him drape himself in possum

Took this one for Nicole!

We grabbed lunch at a Japanese place where Peter finally got his noodle soup that he's been craving. We then headed to do the Shotover Jet Boat Ride. The place where our shuttle picked us up for the jet boat was the same place I was supposed to sign up to do my bungee jumping. Alas, I chickened out. Peter had no interest in it & I really needed someone to come with me for back up in order to ensure that I would jump. Not that I'm blaming him for my chickening out. I'm apparently just a big baby. Maybe someday...

Anyway, back to the jet boat... The boat ride was pretty intense. You feel like you're gonna hit the sides of the rock wall & you do get a bit wet. The "best" part of the boat is that you have to to hold on the entire time... to heated railings. Nice!

Shotover Jet Boat Tour

Shotover Lake

More Shotover

Sexy hair post-Shotover jet boat

We had been tentatively planning to do a hike up on Queenstown Hill, but I thought best to postpone this activity until tomorrow when my legs will hopefully be better rested. Canyoning kinda kicked my butt. So, in lieu of hiking we headed out to the city & stopped at Wine Tastes to try out some local wines. At Wine Tastes you get a card that you put into a machine & it pours you either a taste, half a glass, or a full glass of the wine depending on what you choose. Each pour is a different price that is added onto your card & you pay when you're done. It was cool, overpriced, but interesting.

Wine Tasting

For my mother

We then walked the Queenstown Garden walk which was along the shore. It started getting cooler, so we got some white coffees to enjoy along the way.

Clouds rolling in on Lake Wakatipu

The symbol of New Zealand

Lake Wakatipu

Lake Wakatipu

Lake Wakatipu

We then went back to the city & stopped at a bar called Malbas and had a couple Tuis

Downtown Queenstown

Sexy man at a bar

Yes, I donated

No, these were not purchased

We went to dinner at one of the few Mexican places we've seen since arriving in New Zealand. Then we stopped at a few places to find sunglasses to replace the ones Peter lost today. We headed "home" to the hotel & did our laundry for the second time during this trip while drinking wine & watching the movies "Just Married" & "Bring it On".... our choices were limited on our 6 station television.

Canyon Crazy

Wanaka Weather: mostly sunny, high 60's

Queenstown Weather: cool, rainy, it was almost 8pm when we got there & I have no idea what temperature it was.

Big adventure day! Today we go canyoning! We booked the Big Nige Canyon trip through Deep Canyon. We were told to eat a big breakfast the morning of, so we headed to Relish's Cafe where we had an awesome breakfast! I had a plate of the most amazing fresh fruit with yogurt & toast with peanut butter. Peter got the ultimate breakfast that included eggs, yummy potato cakes, sausage & "streaky bacon." Streaky bacon was exciting 'cause most of the time in New Zealand when bacon was listed as an ingredient it turned out to be just boring ol' ham.

Anyway, on to our adventure! We headed off to do the Big Nige. We drove about 40 minutes outside of Wanaka to where our adventure would begin. We were fitted with gear that included helmets, gloves, socks, sneakers, thermals, wet suits and harnesses. We then ascended a ridiculously steep hill & climbed up it for about 40 minutes (carrying all of our own gear). Once at the top our guide, Chris gave us a crash course in abseiling (ie rappelling). After that we donned our gear & headed down the canyon by abseiling, sliding & jumping!

Big Nige group: Naomi, me, Peter & Jeff

Gorgeous views from where our adventure would begin

Peter abseiling in a sexy wetsuit

Me abseiling down a waterfall

More views

Happy group

At this point let me say that this was physically demanding. However, the activity part was nothing compared to what my body's thermal components were experiencing. The water was freezing! At points I couldn't even grip my carabiner because my hands had lost all circulation & were as white as snow. Luckily there was a break in the middle of the day where we had hot berry tea & some cookies. Warmed my hands right up!

Me

Getting ready to make our way down

Feel the cold!

In a cold waterfall

This picture makes me laugh everytime!

Me sliding

Peter sliding

"You want me to slide down there?"

This photo is so embarrassing, but I still had to post it. Our tour guide told me to work the camera & this is what he got!

Another big waterfall!

Peter jumping

Me abseiling down a big one...

And letting go of the rope & sliding to the end

Peter abseiling...

...and sliding to the end

Our happy group

One more pic... who's the loser with her helmet still on?

After canyoning we enjoyed a nice picnic at the bottom of the hill/mountain. Then, we headed back to pick up our car & were off to Queenstown. It was only about an hour away & we drove through the picturesque, winding Crown Range Road. Peter was not too happy with my driving on this road. To say the Crown Range Road is twisty is an immense understatement... but it is pretty. It kinda reminded me of the landscape when we drove through Utah/Arizona/Nevada a few years ago.

Crown Range Road

Crown Range Road

Crown Range Road

Peter & I were so exhausted from canyoning that once we got to the hotel we just ate at their restaurant, showered & went to bed. I also announced that I'm gonna sleep in the tomorrow! We have no set plans, so it seems like the perfect day to catch up on some sleep!

In closing, here's a few videos from our canyon adventure. I can't get them to show up any bigger, so squint to see us! ;-)