Down and Out

We started our morning at the Skyline Luge. A gondola ride is included, then 6 runs down the luge track (buy 5 get one free). There are two tracks and you need to do your first run of the day on the Scenic Track. Charlie was young enough to be free, as long as he went tandem on the Scenic Route for the day. His strategy was to push the handles as far forward as he could, attempting to speed up the cart. He didn’t really understand that there was a fine line, if you went too far forward, you’d come to a complete stop – dangerous copilot. We zoomed passed a woman on an early run and she found us afterwards and apologized to us afterwards for causing Charlie and me to slow down. She explained that the last time she did this in Park City, Utah, you had more control of the speed. We said no big deal because we were waiting on our daughter who was cautious and, who liked to take it easy. She asked how old Molly was and after telling her, she said, “Well 80 year olds like to take it easy too”! You go girls!

The views over Queenstown and the Remarkables was an added bonus for the grown ups and eased Mike’s disappointment at losing a head to head luge race with Daniel.

The Queenstown Jazz fest was Saturday morning along the water. The local face painting artist decorated our kiddos and we enjoyed salmon salad along the water while listening to “L is for the …”. I don’t really know any of the words to that song.

We spent the afternoon in Glenorchy, a small town 40 kilometers from Queenstown. The drive is…well, here it is:

Glenorchy and nearby Paradise are the setting for most of the Lord of the Rings films. Turns out we were too tired to hike, so we just pitched rocks into the braided river. Some of the other tourists milling around took pictures of Charlie, the dragon faced boy, who is always thrilled to ham it up for a crowd!

On the way back into town, we headed to Fergburgers for dinner – a local institution according to the woman in one of many, many backpacking shops. Our host there was a woman from Cambridge, England, who came over to New Zealand for a year and, like many, ended up in Queenstown for a few months because it is that kind of place.

For my entertainment, Mike keeps singing his version of the “all that glitters is not gold.”