Day 174: Queenstown

Jenna and I leave Cromwell and head off to Queenstown.  It's very beautiful there, with a river running a thin channel between steep mountains on either side.  It's also really cold!  We bundle up and go for a walk in the park, where we find the ice skating rink and laugh at people who have hired Segways and are cruising around.

Next we drive over to the gondola.  Queenstown's gondola is very steep and fairly long - also a bit pricey at $23 for a round trip.  Apparently you can ride it one way (down only) and hike up if you want.  To save ourselves $11, this is what we do.

Although it is cold, we both get nicely warmed up on the 40 minute or so hike to the top of the gondola line.  Since we have been thrifty and saved our money to get up to the top, we decide to ride the luge, which is a concrete course with small carts with wheels.  We ride a chairlift (with the coolest ever automatic integrated return for the luges themselves worked in) up to the ticket office and buy a ticket, then we're off!

(the above photo is actually a photo of the photo they took of us riding the chair lift.  Quite a nice view, tho, huh?)

Here's Jenna (and miniwati) on the luge.

And then here's us on taking the gondola down and some pretty pictures of Queenstown scenery.  Ah, Queenstown!