Our day began with ambitious plans; we were going to hire a private plane to fly us to Milford Sound then get on a boat cruise. Unfortunately, the pilot called to tell us that the weather was to rainy in Milford to make the trip. We switched to plan B and started the day with a drive to Deer Park Heights. This park is where Lord of the Rings filmed some scenes for the second movie: the Two Towers. Of course, there were amazing spectacular views of the mountains, lakes and city nestled below.6781

This park also features feeding stations where you can buy tins of food to feed to the various animals: horses, llamas, goats, sheep, deer, yaks, chickens, etc. The kids had a great time watching dad feed the animals; they were too scared to come out and pet them 🙁

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Our second stop was the Queenstown Gondola. Once again, the view was marvelous. We took some snapshots. Bart refused to ride the luge, once again, so we headed back down to head off to our next stop.

Our third stop was a 1/2 hour drive to Arrowhead. This tiny town at the base of the valley features few shops but one unique bakery. We had an order of gingerbread cookies, carrot cake and custard with the most delicious hot chocolate over at the Arrohead bakery. We stopped by an old Chinese Settlement and saw how the chinese gold miners lived in relatively poor conditions. After Arrowhead, the kids took a rest back at the apartment while I went to take some more snapshots of the landscape. I must say that we’ve seen the most unusual skies here in Queenstown. Sunrise and Sunsets turn the sky, lake and mountains pink and purple with a beautiful variances in between. I took some long exposures and I hope the colors are captured well.

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After the kids rested up, we headed to a bar called Celsius -5. It is a bar made entirely of ice that features some rather tasty drinks. The kids had a blast touching the various ice sculptures and tasting the fruity drinks. We finished the evening by heading for dinner at a “mexican” restaurant called Sombreros. The food was “different”. I didn’t think it was possible to remove flavor from rice, but the Kiwis here managed to do just that. The “fajitas” I ordered tasted more like carne guisada than fajitas. The “chips” are what we would consider Sam’s Club round chip big box special. The only “true” tasting mexican food here was a giant tortilla smothered in garlic butter. Dinner cost around $70 NZD + tip so we were somewhat disappointed. We are planning on taking our Milford sound flight tomorrow but it looks like we might get rained out here in Queenstown. Hopefully it will snow tomorrow or Monday as well.

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Categories: New Zealand
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