Queenstown

So, this is the blog about Queenstown. We spent 4 nights here, while we jetboated, saw wild animals and flew to Millford Sound. It is an awesome little town. This picture is of the condo that Tim arranged for us. He got a very good introductory deal on it (ladies and gentelmen, this condo is why we always have Tim arrange our reservations).

This is the view from our condo. Queenstown is situated on a lake. It is a ski town in the winter but does a good tourist business all year long due to all of the surrounding attractions. Up until 4 or 5 years ago, you could still buy property in Queenstown for a reasonable price. It would be somewhat inaccessible form the states, but once the U.S. dollar rights itself, you may want to think about buying a place in Queenstown (I may try to get this on Reed's list of investments for 2009).

The town itself is built around the tourist industry. There are many shops and restaurants along the water.



This is Rachel and I with a statue of a Kiwi. Unfortunately, we did not see any while in NZ, as they are now fairly rare. Most of the land birds in New Zealand have been killed off by foreign animals introduced for game purposes in the 1800's.

This is a shot of Liz and I along the water one morning. As is always the case when Tim and I travel together, we have Starbucks almost every morning. As you can see, I have my Starbucks in hand.

This is a beautiful shot of Tim and Liz along the water at sunset.















Reflections - TOP 3 THINGS STEVE DID IN NZ, THAT HIS MOM WOULD NOT APPROVE OF

Those who know me, know that I am a fairly conservative and risk-averse person. This is likely due to my upbringing and the fact that I work for a chemical company (trust me, you want people with low risk tolerance running chemical plants).

While in New Zealand, I took a bit of a "You only live once attitude". Though you have read about most of them already, here are the Top 3 things that Steve Did In NZ that his mom would not approve of:

1) Jet Boating with Brendon - Norma would have worried about me jet-boating, even if I were riding with a sensible driver. However, riding in Brendon's boat takes things to a whole new level. The warning to "Keep your arms inside the boat" is quite literal. If anyone would have allowed any appendages to venture out of the boat, they would have lost them. Brendon liked to show off his talent of bringing our boat, traveling at ~60 mph, within 6 inches of immovable obstacles. It was a blast!!!

2)Taking a 9-passenger plane over a mountain range and landing on a short strip surrounded by cliffs. To be honest, I question what I was thinking. As we cascaded over the final mountain range to land, we hit some turbulence, and I white-knuckled the seat in front of me to the point that I almost ripped the fabric. Luckily, the flight back was smoother, and the beautiful scenery made it all worth it.

1) Bungy jumping - I initially thought about doing it (AJ Hackett outside of Queenstown is the birthplace of bungy), but then was ready to let it rest because they couldn't fit me into their schedule the afternoon we went out to watch. However, my loving wife spouted off that if we ever made it back to New Zealand, I would be "too old" to do it. So, I booked immediately for the following morning before our flight back to Sydney. The video below is the documented proof. An Asian tour bus pulled up just before I jumped. You can hear several of them gasp when I jump.