Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hi again...After another largeish car journey we landed at Queenstown...and what an impressive view of the bay greeted us..Absolutely amazing..and that wasn't the best view in our three days there ...We arrived at the Glebe (wow) and were given a comp upgrade to the $600 penthouse suite for nish, nada, nothing my friends, Oh yes, we have arrived. The rooms are simply fantastic and we have two terraces. After another busy day we decided to chill and cook..all is good in the world...wine and food and bed plus it was snowing quite heavily. With this in mind we quickly arranged for an extra night as we had only initially booked for two and that was OK. We wanted to go to Milford Sound the day after but were advised by Helen (the most helpful person in New Zealand so far) that we should scrub today for flying as it was going to snow and go the day after..We took her advice and headed out on a ferry across the bay. The old steamer is called the ISS Earnshaw which is named after a famous adventurer...The water was calm and we stop off at a farm on our way around as our jaws drop at the sheer scale and beauty of our surroundings..I don't think we really appreciate how lucky we are sometimes..Got off and Bob and Liz went there own way for a couple of hrs and we went up on a gondola to a sky platform in the hills..In a Blizzard..Yep we are intelligent university educated people and as you can guess all bets are off once we get up there..No bungy or luge and then they suspended the cable car too..Stuck on a platform in the clouds so had lunch...V good indeed...after an hour we went back down to terra firma and trundled around Queenstown's many shops and boutiquey type places and watched and fed some pretty inpressive salmon and trout in an underwater viewing platform and then met up with bob and liz and went wine tasting and had some chesse and nibbles. The wine tasting was quite unusual as the cellar door comprised of many wines from NZ and Aus and were dispenced using a funky credit card dispenser which allowed you to try as much or as little as you want automatically on a carousel system..Pretty cool...Tried some Penfolds 'the grange' and decided it is not to my taste for $600 per bottle...
Sarah: Needless to say everyone had a few of everything, but being a heathen white wine drinker and picky at that, i only found one i liked! Luckily enough though they stocked my new favorite wine Astrolabe 2008 Sav Blanc, so Steve got that one and the other i liked and we headed off to the ice bar (post note: we have lost the two bottles of wine somewhere dont know how but mega waste of 100 dollars !)
Now we had been to an ice bar in HK with Petra which truth be told was crap, so we werent expecting much here but thought it would be a laugh, well it was quite impressive,. You got your big furry jacket on and pair of ugg knock offs if you needed them, shimmed across the road and into the freezer as before, but this time it was actually made of ice! A proper ice bar! Ice walls, ceiling and even the bar was made of ice! Ice sculpture dotted tha area and there were hide covered ice seats to perch (didnt much fancy piles so gave that one a miss) Even the glasses were made of ice and you got to break them after (in a greek plate smashing style) A couple of vodka cocktails later and following loss of feeling in toes we exited. M&D headed back to the apartment, so Steve and I feulled by Vodka headed to the english bar to find some signs of life. Needless to say there werent any so i whipped Steve's ass at pool!! (He's either getting bad or i'm getting better)
The next day was an early start as were were flying to Milford at 8am (I'm sure someone is plotting to deprive me of sleep cos everything we have done has always been at ridiculous oclock!) Now Mom HATES flying so we were all a bit scared she would throw a wobbler when she saw the plane and refuse to get on, so we were all impressed after some heavy breathing, pacing around and a white face, she got on without a sick bag in hand or any screaming!
The pilot was great, no bumps or swirls and all in all it was a fantastic (and smooth) flight across the mountains; valleys and glaciers into milford sound, after a brief tour of the sound by air we landed (perfectly) and transferred to a bus and then boat for a cruise around the sound. I cant put into words how beautiful it is, waterfalls empty glacial melt into crystal clear water, the pictures really speak for themelves and to top it off we saw bottle nose dolphins to the side of the ship. It is STUNNING.
The flight back was equally majestic and spectacular and i'm glad to say Mom really enjoyed it and hence so did we! (Helicopter here we come!)
After we got back from the sounds as the day was lovely and sunny so we headed back up the sky gondala to do the luge (glorified go kart down the mountain) i wasnt particularily that arsed but Steve wanted to do it. God it was fun i giggled all the way down like a little kid!
We then booked a session at a spa pool. The place is half way down a hill and the pool is amazing. It is a private spa pool and it has a retractable screen that lets you view the mountain (pretty good) whilst you are in the warmth of the pool. You are exposed to the elements but not still toasty and warm. Had a lazy hr there and then headed back.
We headed back into town, did a it of emailing etc and went for an early dinner as we were all tired (best ribs Steve and I have ever had!) The next day we left for Wanaka, bye bye Remarkables and our lovely penthouse.
PS Steve blamed the weather for not doing a bungy jump, thouigh he reckons he will do one in Auckland..,.anyone know a good insurance company???
- comments