Day 11 (7 April)
Since it was Sunday, we found a church to attend, and actually showed up on time for once. The people were really friendly and both boys had a great time in their classes. We grabbed some lunch at a nice little bakery and walked around the Queenstown town center. It is definitely the most commercialized area we have been to in the south island, but not in a Hollywood-Avenue-disappointing type of way. Lots of cool little shops and some bigger chain stores, mixed with coffee shops and upscale restaurants. There were tons of outdoor gear stores; this town would get expensive for me in a hurry.
We took the Skyline gondola up to the top of a mountain that looks out over the city and surrounding lakes and toward the Remarkables mountain range. They have a luge course that Elias was super excited about. The luge consist of a downhill paved surface with tight, banked corners which you descend riding a wheeled sledge. Elias and I rode a couple of times, and Liz and Cohen joined us as well. Both boys loved it. Cohen was yelling “Go faster!” most of the way down. Elias says it was his favorite part of the trip so far.
From there we drove north up to Glenorchy, which lies at the north end of Lake Wakatipu. We set up camp, cooked some dinner, made a candle centerpiece our of an empty yogurt container, and broke out another set of glow sticks for the boys. Those things never seem to get old.
Since it was Sunday, we found a church to attend, and actually showed up on time for once. The people were really friendly and both boys had a great time in their classes. We grabbed some lunch at a nice little bakery and walked around the Queenstown town center. It is definitely the most commercialized area we have been to in the south island, but not in a Hollywood-Avenue-disappointing type of way. Lots of cool little shops and some bigger chain stores, mixed with coffee shops and upscale restaurants. There were tons of outdoor gear stores; this town would get expensive for me in a hurry.
We took the Skyline gondola up to the top of a mountain that looks out over the city and surrounding lakes and toward the Remarkables mountain range. They have a luge course that Elias was super excited about. The luge consist of a downhill paved surface with tight, banked corners which you descend riding a wheeled sledge. Elias and I rode a couple of times, and Liz and Cohen joined us as well. Both boys loved it. Cohen was yelling “Go faster!” most of the way down. Elias says it was his favorite part of the trip so far.
From there we drove north up to Glenorchy, which lies at the north end of Lake Wakatipu. We set up camp, cooked some dinner, made a candle centerpiece our of an empty yogurt container, and broke out another set of glow sticks for the boys. Those things never seem to get old.