On the way to Queenstown

Andrea: After a nice, long, HOT shower at the campervan site, we packed up and decided to head off to Queenstown. On the map, it seems like a pretty short drive...however, the map excludes a few mountain ranges that you drive through to get there! Overall though, it was a beautiful drive - the really sick twists and turns were all in the beginning, when I was on a full stomach (ughhh), but it got much better after that. We drove through two national parks, passed two BEAUTIFUL lakes, and finally entered the "Valley of the Vines" just outside of Queenstown.

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Jose: She forgot to mention that on our beautiful drive into town I asked her, for what else but Coke and when she turned around to get it there was tons of red stuff all over the back of the campervan spewing out of the cabinets. Turns out that our pasta sauce made of glass decided it couldn't take any more of my driving and commited suicide. It made a huge mess of the cabinets, Andrea was nice enough to clean most of the mess. I helped but not much really...She's a good wife, what can I say I picked a good one...So then we continued down our trail ... We then passed another campervan blinking his lights at me in the middle of the day so I decided to blink back, since everyone is so friendly down here, but in fact he was warning me of the impending doom ahead...a police car sitting there waiting for me...luckily my miami police sensor went off in my head and I reduced my speed accordingly...That was pretty close though, but not as close as our encounter on a one lane bridge...and I mean ONE lane so that only one car can pass. It's amazing how many of these there are and how many of them have turns right before and after them so you can't see if anyone's there till it's too late. To make matters worse I was passing another car on the right, yes right, and didn't even know one of those bridges was coming. Luckily though I have the reflexes of a cat and the speed of a mongoose so we averted disaster and moved on.

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Andrea: Before I get to Queenstown....I just need to mention the SMELL of our campervan now. A few days ago, a couple of Jose's organic beers exploded and made a big mess, which wasn't too difficult to clean up, but left a bit of a smell in the refrigerator. Two days later, the garlic salt we had purchased to cook with decided to explode all over the biggest cupboard. That smell has been lingering (and sometimes getting stronger) for about two days. Today, in the midst of Jose's twisting, turning, and rapid accelerating and decelerating....a huge jar of tomato sauce exploded in the same garlic cupboard (which happens to be right next to the refrigerator). So, our campervan now has the appetizing smell of beer, STRONG garlic, and tomato sauce. It's kind of like living in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant....mmmm...

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Anyways, back to the Valley of the Vines - there are a TON of vineyards down here in the South Island - most are small, family run operations. We stopped at one and tested out some of their Pinot Gris, Pinot Nois, and the Riesling. The Riesling was not so good, but the Pinot Gris was amazing - so we bought a bottle, slightly overpriced, but they are a family run operation...you can't expect too much. We also got to taste the actual grapes that they used to make the wine - they were amazing! Much more flavorful than the normal supermarket grapes. They also were producing their own olive oil - which we tested. It tasted kind of grassy...if that makes any sense. It was good, but had much more flavor than I'm used to in oil. We were going to get some - but the prices were outragous.

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So we continued on our way to Queenstown, which appears to be a fun, vibrant place. We just got into the campsite and found out we have wi-fi internet (yay!!), laundry (bigger YAY!), and are about a 5 minute walk from downtown. Yes, Queenstown appears to have a real downtown with shops, restaurants and all kinds of goodies that actually might stay open past 5pm! YAY!!

Jose is off making reservations for bungee jumping, canyon swinging, and the Shotover boat ride....we will have great pictures for tomorrow I'm sure! Check out these pics though of our drive from today - the countryside here is beautiful!! We love and miss you all - we'll have more tomorrow!

Love,

Andrea & Jose

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