Queenstown-Lakes District

We woke up early and had breakfast in time for the 0800 Queenstown Parkrun (a free 5km run that happens on a Saturday morning in various parks around the world, very popular in the UK). It was attended by a respectable 100 or so people and we had a good race around the parks and along the lakefront. We both ran well and thoroughly enjoyed it considering it rained heavily half way through!

After the run we cooled down and went to get a coffee (flat white, originated in New Zealand don't you know) and then went back to the campsite to have a shower and get changed. Queenstown was in a rut of low cloud so we decided not to do the very tall mountain hike, but luge from halfway down the hill instead. Luging is a bit like sledging on a road, you sit in a little cart with wheels, a steering column and a brake and you roll down the hill around corners and over humps etc. Great fun! We got tickets at the bottom of the cable car that took us up the mountain and got on, Izzi very nervous as she looked out the glass windows, jumping every time we went through the connecting pillar bits. We got to the top and donned our, very unflattering in Tom's case, helmets. The view was brilliant and we admired it, taking photos before the rain came, and then hopped on a ski lift that took us to the start of the luge. We got taught how to use it, and wondered incredulously at how some people failed to grasp the concept of braking. But after our brief we were on our way, zooming around the corners and weaving through the nervous nellies. It was great fun, sliding around some of the wetter corners and trying to brake as little as possible!

We then went up the lift again for our second run, this time down the more advanced slope. Nothing too strenuous, just a bit steeper and more corners. Tom arrived at the bottom in front of Izzi and looked behind to see she'd stopped further up the track. What was all the fuss was about? Izzi had managed to lose control of her sled on a wet bit of ground and had collided with the entrance to a tunnel. A large graze on her forearm was the visible damage, and we went back up the hill to the office and first aid station. She got patched up and after joking about a free ride down, received one so we both made our way back down the first slope, Izzi more tenderly than before.

After a great time luging we went to Fergburger, an apparently must eat takeaway burger place in Queenstown. The queues are normally mental but in the rain it was a little less, so we got 2 fantastic cheese burgers that lived up to the hype they have. We then went in search of frisbees for frisbee golf. This is a GREAT sport, played very similarly to classic golf, but with a frisbee instead of a ball. You play through woods, and there's a surprising amount of effort that goes into the sport, with a variety of plastics, weights and designs for various different shots. We spent a good 15 minutes chatting about the disks in the shop before purchasing one each for ourselves to use. Queenstown Park has the first official frisbee golf course and we had a great time lobbing our frisbees round in the intermittent rain, trying to get them into the chain frisbee catcher thing that varies from being 40-180m from the tee. Our first attempt was pretty poor but it was great fun, and we were glad we bought the frisbees instead of renting them, so we could play again in the coming days!Read more