Luge or lose!
Trip Start
Sep 10, 2008
1
41
71
Trip End
Sep 03, 2009
Queenstown,
South Island,
New Zealand
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Journey to Queenstown 2
. This is very unlike me! My stay in Lake Wanaka was short and sweet, I didn't even make it to "the puzzling world" (one of those illusion places) although in fairness, if I had tried I would have had time. I did however, have enough time to admire the proper toadstools growing on the small grassy banks on the sides of the road. They were huge and red and everything toadstools are meant to
be. Perhaps rather disappointingly there were no fairies dancing round
them. In fact I doubtlessly saw more on the journey to the small town than I did whilst I was there. Back on the bus it was, with yet another grumpy bus driver who felt the need to talk absolute drivel down the mike at us for 2 hours. Note the "at us" not "to us"! Still, it gives us, all the long-suffering magic bus passengers, something to bond over!
Still, we took the usual photo stops on the way, which were all as impressive as usual, this is New Zealand after all. We even took a slightly less conventional stop. The driver told us that he shouldn't really be letting us to this, but stopped before the bridge to allow us to walk over "The Gates of Haast". It was indeed very beautiful, with a turquoise river gushing dramatically underneath us, however, the bridge was clearly made for cars only, and as a single lane, so it was a bit of a tight squeeze over the bridge.
And on to Queenstown, somewhere that is either fantastic or ruined depending on who you are. Well known as the adventure centre of New Zealand, if you have the guts, you can do pretty much any death defying stunt that you want to do from here
Journey to Queenstown 5
. But of course, only if you have the cash to pay for it. This unfortunately was something I was running low on. I decided that doing the world's highest bungy jump was enough for me; I didn't need to do another one! So I wondered round the shops, seeing what the town had to offer. I walked up to the gondola station, and took a ride up the steep sides of the mountain. There was a great view at the top, and more importantly, a luge. If you don't know what a luge is, it's basically a go-cart, powered by nothing but the gravity of the steep slope you hurtle down. They are fun. As usual, there is a camera near the end to snap you in your moment of glory and for you to take home as a souvenir to remember forever. Basically another ploy to get more money out of you!Still, I wanted to take home a memento of my glory. But why stop at the boring picture of smiling as going down the windy slope. I decided I would wave at the camera instead. As the camera snapped my cheery wave, I quickly realised why keeping both hands on the steering thing was a good idea, as I veered into the side narrowly avoiding a serious crash! Still I now have a rather ridiculous photo of me waving at the camera with my handbag on my lap.
I never did get to Fergburger, which was famous for having some of the best burgers in the world. So famous that there was always a huge queue out of the door, and quite frankly, I didn't want a burger THAT much. So I left the burgers to the crowds and went for a walk along the Lake front, admiring the colours of the mountains and the clouds as the sun went down.
