Queenstown Ate Our Visa

Queenstown, New Zealand is known as "the adreline junkies capital of the world" and of all the places in NZ, Dad was most excited about coming here. There is every activity imaginable (and some unimaginable) and they all have two things in common: 1) they are awesome and 2) they are expensive. The one saving grace is that the dollar is strong right now which gives us about 1/3 off of any money spent in New Zealand.

The place has more of a resort mountain town feel than any place else we've visited and there are few natives here due to the high cost of living. Real estate has exploded here in the last few years as big money has come in and bought vacation homes. So while the activities are fun, the feel is not as much New Zealand as we hoped or expected. We don't believe we met one native person from Queenstown our entire week here, as almost all employees are here from all over the world.

There are several activities that we could have done other places but we had saved to do here. The topography is so spectacular that it allows for just about any crazy idea someone can conceive.  Some of the options include: bungy jumping (actually invented here by A.J. Hackett), rafting, canyoning, giant swings, ziplining, mountain biking, luge, go carts, track driving, star gazing, gondola rides, boating, paddle boarding, wake-boarding, hang gliding, paragliding, a submarine shark that jumps 18 feet into the air and pulls a few Gs, exotic car driving, and skydiving just to name a few... all easy to book and fairly close to town. Its difficult to decide! Our approach was to release the research mavericks. A week or two prior to arrival we told the kids to start doing their own research on what they wanted to do, comparing prices and options. Many activities have size and/or age limitations so it took a bit of work. Then they had to dust off their presentation skills and present to the rest of the family. Our rough plan was to do half-day activities with school taking up the other half. For the most part this worked fairly well and we had good wi-fi at our place which also allowed us to use our school time well.

We rented another Airbnb place for our time here which sits on a crazy hill that makes parking a bit unnerving but overall worked great. The size and location were perfect and it actually housed 6 comfortably, unlike some we have stayed in that claim they are for 6 but only have 4 plates or limited towels, etc. We could walk into town in under ten minutes, had an amazing view of the lake, a grill and are close to a Frisbee golf course. Our first order of business was to get groceries as we planned to eat in as much as possible to save some dough here. 

View from our patio upon arrival

On our first day we set out to canyon, as it was a rainy, dreary day, and we figured being cold and wet under the canopy of trees would be a good use of time. This was a thrilling "boy-only" adventure as 10 was the minimum age. We slid down rocks, jumped from 6 meters, zip lined, and belly flopped into pools of rushing water. The go-pro was our only photo taking but here are a few shots:

Middle son jumping

Guys canyon-ing

As the weather cleared up a bit, later that afternoon we took a family ride on the Shotover Jet Boat. This is a jet boat that works like a large jet ski with two V8 engine and about 750HP powering it. The company has been in business over 50 years and driven over 3 million customers, establishing itself as one of the "must-dos" in Queenstown. Only needing 10cm of water to work, it powers over rocks and through canyons at blazing speeds doing 360 spins and lightening acceleration. A thrill for sure!

Shotover Jet Boat thrill

Upon our arrival back to town, we walked around the main area and along the lake and beach back towards our place.  The kids played at a park, we collected some more rocks, and then hiked up the crazy steep hill back to our accommodations.

Beautiful setting for a park - right on the lake!

The next day we opted for a family version of white water rafting, which was really more like raft strolling as the true rafting required kids to be over age 15. But we timed this well on a beautiful day and thoroughly enjoyed the activity as a family. We were able to stop and jump off some rocks and swim in the cool water.  We learned about the mineral mica that is in the rocks here and make them shimmer, it also causes the rocks to be brittle and is used in women's makeup for sheen. Our drive down into the river alone was amazing as it traversed a windy mountain road right on the edge. We learned it is one of only two roads in NZ that rental car companies will not insure. We also learned lots about the gold rush that occurred here in the mid 1800's on the Shotover river, which was one of the richest gold rivers in the world. Prospectors concocted all sorts of shenanigans to get at the gold such as: damming the river or actually diverting it through the mountain by blasting a new tunnel. But ultimately, mother nature always got the best of them as the river can rise and fall by about 12 meters in short periods of time. As a result there is a lot of debris from these exploits left in the river and it's considered "historic" by the government. Interestingly, even today there are a few prospectors who dive and pan for gold daily.

This is the actual place where the River Horses mowed down orcs in the LOTR movie

Mom & Dad jumping off the cliff holding hands - aren't we cute!

G flipping off of the cliff

One tired boy!

We woke up Tuesday morning hoping to hang-glide, but as we loaded into the van to drive up the mountain, the wind changed directions and we were told it wasn't going to work out.  Bummed, we agreed that a great activity to do together was frisbee golf, so we went and bought some disks.  we also happened to bump into the fun couple we'd done a wine tasting with in Lake Wanaka, so it was fun to visit with them again.  Then the boys headed to the beautiful frisbee golf course just across from the place we are staying, and had fun playing that for a couple of hours.

Frisbee anyone?

Frisbee golf - and it is FREE!

Beautiful park to frisbee golf in

The boys had been waiting patiently to mountain bike after the amazing experience they'd had on the north island, so the following afternoon they rented some bikes and took the gondola up to the top of the mountain so that they could ride down it.  This was serious downhill with steep terrain and bermed corners.  With multiple riding tracks to choose from, they never graduated beyond the "green" courses, but were mesmerized watching more experienced riders fly down the hills.

Downhill mountain biking

On the way home from biking the guys picked up some pizzas and the kids had a movie night while mom and dad escaped for a few hours to go out to dinner. It's been really nice to be able to take time for our marriage while here in New Zealand, knowing that the kids are safe and can speak the language so that we can leave them for a couple of hours.

Our last planned day in Queenstown we were scheduled to hang-glide again (our 3rd attempt actually - all previous opportunities cancelled due to weather), but this again was a bust. So with this news, we learned that it was actually the bungy jump company's 20th anniversary and all jumps were half off - done deal! But here we had a weight issue as our two youngest boys were on the low side of the scale. After many tears and complaints we bought 3 tickets (which included the two oldest and dad) and worked our way towards the time of our jump reservation. One kid was drinking and eating for two hours to "make weight" while dad reminisced on his wrestling days. Long story short, we got there and added layers of clothes, and our third son took dad's spot... Mom was a a bit upset at all the shenanigans to get to the jump spot, while dad was proud of his boys. There is a reason God gave children a mother and father.

The oldest went first!

This one jumped feet first!

G snuck in on the craziness

We then set off for our Milford Sound adventure (a separate blog post).

Upon returning to Queenstown, we played some more frisbee golf, walked around town, got caught up on laundry and drove to Glenorchy, where many of movie scenes have been filmed (Lord of the Rings, Prince Caspian, Avengers, Wolverine).  We stopped at a local cafe to get information and ran into the women we kayaked with in Milford Sound (previous post).  Then we ventured off on a rainy day to some beautiful sites and used our imagination as to some of the movie scenes that may have been filmed along the way.

Paradise is a small city outside of Glenorchy

We went off roading a bit and crossed this creek with the cows

Fairly certain this was Isengard in LOTR

Our last day we were finally able to hang-glide on our 4th attempt!  It was a chilly morning and had snowed a bit overnight in the mountains, but this was a fantastic experience!  All 5 of us got to ride gliders with a pilot feeling like Super-man, while SJ para-glided her way down the mountain feeling like she was in a giant swing. The experience of soaring down the mountain on nothing but air will not be soon forgotten.

Incredible!

Dad up high

G's up in the clouds

Enjoying the flight

Flying in the mountains

SJ seeing the sites from her sky swing

We enjoyed one last Ferburger (famous burger place in town) and a few more holes of frisbee golf before we headed to the country to experience farm living and work for our housing.

Delicious Ferburger!

One last frisbee golf time in Queenstown

What an incredible week of once-in-a-lifetime experiences.  We've had many discussions about these opportunities and using our time and resources well.  In some ways the last few weeks have felt more like a long vacation, but that is due in part to being in a country that speaks the same language, moving around so quickly, and not having an opportunity to connect much with the locals (when there are locals around).  We pray to be the hands and feet of Jesus every day and hope we are a light to those that we come in contact with.  In a way it is "easier" to feel like one is accomplishing kingdom work when there is a task to do or community to interact with.  We miss our church family back home and the time zone difference makes watching services online difficult, but we've been learning how to be more like Jesus every day in each of our own walks and to grow as a family.  And we pray that God will take this year of many experiences and use it in unimaginable ways in the lives of our children and what they are being exposed to (experiences and opportunities positive and negative) for His glory as they grow.