Q-Town

It had been relatively quiet the last few days so, in an effort to avoid a quiet weekend, I decided to join my flatmate Stuart on a trip to Queenstown. Queenstown is known to some as the "Adventure Capital of the World" with all its bungy jumping, white water rafting, jet boating, etc. We went for the skiing. Queenstown has 2 wonderful ski fields (Stuart aka "Mr. Colorado" has his own opinions but that's cuz he's from the land of plentiful ski slopes): Coronet Peak and the Remarkables. Let's try to run through the events of the weekend through pictures.

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The mighty Clutha River just after the Clyde Dam. New Zealand is so damn scenic!!!

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We left Dunedin early on Friday afternoon. One of the stops along the way was Cromwell. Here, as you can see, they have a giant fruit display.

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We (L->R: Me, Ben, Stuart and John) drove to Queenstown in a little Honda Accord (more on that later). We had booked a little lodge at "Creeksyde" Motor Park & Lodge and were pleased to discover that our lodge was very well furnished. We each had our own beds, electric blankies and our towel rack was heated! Fancy that.

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The next day, we rode on over to Coronet Peak to hit the slopes.

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Here I am with my skis. A nice blue color that served me well through the day. They even had "Thermo-gel" (whatever that means).

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Here, Stuart & I are catching the lift up for our first run down the mountain. I'm still pretty disappointed that I didn't take my Oaks on the slopes.

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The view from the lifts is quite beautiful. Here, you can see Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables mountain range (the Remarkables Ski area is just to the left of the pic outside the field of view) in the background. It's sometimes hard to focus on skiing with such a gorgeous backdrop!

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And, looking down, you see the runs below you. This is the end of the M1 run which is an intermediate level run that is also the longest one at Coronet Peak.

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Here's Stuart as we prepare to take another run down the mountain. We started out at the "Big Easy" beginners run so that I could get used to the skis & snow (I've never been skiing outdoors before). I fell a few times but it got better as I regained my "snow legs."

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On our first break of the day, we sat down at the benches outside the base and admired the beautiful, sunny weather. It really was a gorgeous day. That led me to taking this pic of the slopes reflecting off of the tinted windows of the lodge. I thought it was a cool pic...

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After a quick "lunch" (actually, we just split a bowl of chips) and encouraged by a very good (no fall) run down some intermediate slopes on the ride side of the mountain, I got ambitious and decided to take one of the higher lifts up to the left side of the mountain. The view from the top was spectacular to say the least. That's Queenstown & Lake Wakatipu behind me. Trying to make it down more advanced runs was, however, a mistake for a number of reasons. First off, it was pretty darn steep and particularly icy up there. Also, I was really, really tired by then. Needless to say, I made it down a little less than halfway before having to slide the rest of the way down. I just didn't have the ability to make the necessary cuts (and I would've had to make a lot).

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This is what my tail looked like after it was more or less used as a sled to ride down most of the way. I'd also like to note that all that snow/ice was stuck to my fleece pullover which was underneath my jacket. It looked more or less the same on the pants too.

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A nice long session in the sun was a necessity. It really helped me to thaw out.

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I was so hurt by my ordeal, they had to call the ambulance! Just kidding. The ambulance was for someone else. Didn't see any major incidents so it probably wasn't too big a deal. I thought it'd be a funny pic to take. I'm holding my knee but you can't tell cuz Stuart needs to work on his photography skills...

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On the way down the hill, our venerable Honda Accord's clutch couldn't take it. Ben & John waited with the car for AA to bring a tow truck. Stuart & I hitched a ride back to town with some friendly Aussies who helped us figure out why the car suddenly died on us.

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We ate dinner at the "Fergburger" which I think is similar to "Kua'aina." It has a pretty good selection of gourmet burgers and I'd have to rate Fergburger's burgers as being tastier than Kua'aina's even though Kua'aina's patties are larger.

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Here's a picture of my tasty Fergburger with (Swiss) cheese. The night before, we had dinner at Fergburger too. I had a "Sweet Julie" chicken burger which had a nice sweet chilli sauce on it.

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Dinner involved Stuart, Myself and two other individuals who we met up with in Queenstown: Lily & Ryan. They decided to do a hike instead of hitting the slopes so that's why they haven't been mentioned so far. Here we are, after dinner, competing to see who can skip a stone the most number of times on Lake Wakatipu. (L->R: Lily, Stuart & Ryan).

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We had a lot of time to kill between dinner (ended at about 8 pm) and the SA v. NZ rugby match (started at 1 am) so we decided to goof around town a bit more. Observe our shenanigans:

Stuart & Statue.

Ryan & Statue.

Lily & Statue.

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Watching the All Blacks lose a close match was pretty agonizing. Almost as agonizing was the fact that, the next day, we had to find other means of transportation back to Dunedin town because the Accord was stuck in Q-Town. So, this is what we did...

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Here we are in action!!!

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Let me just note that it's much harder to catch a ride when neither of you is a girl. I guess there are advantages to having two X chromosomes...

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Fortunately, we made it back home to Dunedin town safe and sound. More adventures to come when next weekend rolls on by. Mesopotamia perhaps? Visiting the Chun family in Queenstown? I'd like to say both. Stay tuned to see what I am able to do! Until next time, take care folks!!!