Queenstown

It's another warm day in Queenstown but the apartments we are staying in are an easy walk from the town so we stroll down to The Post Office cafe for breakfast.  The cafe wins the award for best veggie breakfast so far! Though I ordered a large latte which is known as a "bowl" and they ain't kidding,  up it comes in the sort of bowl you would normally have cornflakes in - no handle, that's one big coffee!

Then it was off down to the the front to book ourselves on the Jet Boat. Talking to the lady behind the desk it turns out that Otago (the very bottom bit of New Zealand) is experiencing it's hottest years on record whilst the rest of the country is experiencing its wettest.  Can't say we are surprised by that info!

The Jetboat leaves the harbour and tears across the lake skimming the surface at about a thousand miles an hour(ish) with the occasional stop as the driver spins the boat through 360 degrees soaking the occupants.  Then it's off down the rivers,  The boats can operate in only 5cm of water and they frequently do, with the driver aiming to get as close to trees, posts, and rocks as much as possible.  It's fun, fast and furious.

My god, he's heading for the rocks!

Look out, they're in the trees!

The other boat going the wrong way

Returning slightly damper than we started, we get to go down below the lake in to the area where you can observe the trout being fed.  What is really cool is that you can watch the ducks diving for food through the glass. I have seen it so many times from above but never from below.

ducking fantastic

Off to the old gold-minning town of Arrowtown now.  It does feel a bit like a theme park as you wouldn't normally come across  somewhere that looks like a wild-west town anywhere else.  But apparently it is all pretty genuine.  Time for a snack in a saloon, then its off for the bungy jumping.

Gun fight at the OK post-office?

Miners houses - or as we like to call them..sheds

On an old suspension bridge over a deep gorge above Queenstown, nutters have been throwing themselves at the river, protested only by upgraded knicker elastic for the last 15 or so years.  There is a viewing area and you can watch the regular procession of people jump to their doom,  Obviously I would have love to have had a go, but having only recently had my eyes sown back in, it would not be a good idea.  Maria on the other hand is a game girl and did a fantastic backwards swallow dive down to the bottom.  I was up there with her giving moral support, so I didn't manage to take any photos of her dive but here are some similar jumpers:

That bloke's a nutter

Oi Nutter

(if you believe those last two sentences you'll believe anything!)

We headed back to town for a bit of shopping,  then carried on through Queenstown along the lake.  Suddenly from the hussle and bussle of Queenstown you are back in a land of natural beauty and open space.  We drove along the lake to Bobs Cove for a paddle in the lake and a bit of a chance to cool down.

For the ful experience, view this picture whilst knee deep in ice cold water under a sun lamp

For dinner we found a nice restaurant on the front with views over the harbour.  Maria had the Vegetable Tatin which was a simple flan with a small amount of salad on top.  This was dwarfed by the ribs I ordered - a huge stack of bones on a pile of potato wedges.  It even got to the stage where I had to give up without finishing & Maria had eaten most of the wedges for me!
That evening I took a trip out to grab some photos. Landscape photography really needs skys with drama.  For drama, you need some clouds,  in the morning it had been plain blue skys with not a cloud in sight, all day I watched clouds form till it got to the evening when there was too much cloud!  Though I think I managed  one or two snaps before the sand flys ate me completely!

Where did that hair on the sensor come from!

Obligatory jetty long exposure shot