nz day 1: queenstown

Although we left California on November 20, we didn't arrive in New Zealand until the 22nd because we crossed the International Date Line.  Basically, we skipped over November 21st.

Nathan's journal entry: "Flights were fairly uneventful, but we got a great sunrise over the clouds on the way into Aukland, and the approach into Queenstown was winding enough to be its own tourist attraction.  At one point we could see the ground a few hundred yards out the windows on both sides of the plane as we went through a mountain pass.  Then after crossing a beautiful valley, we made a very hard bank to go down another valley and line up with the runway.  Oh, our sunrise was accompanied by an orange glow of light in the lower levels of clouds.  It was magnificent.  As usual, Kristin 'baa-ed' at any white speck on the landscape that might be sheep."

 Queenstown and the Remarkables.

Kristin's journal entry: "Queenstown was so beautiful!  The flight in was amazing with the lake, lush green mountains, and yellow flowers covering the countryside."

 Yellow flowers covering the mountainside.

Once we arrived in New Zealand, we had fun figuring out the airport and getting a rental car.  The first major cultural differences we noticed involved food and driving.

Kristin's journal entry: "The New Zealand airport was nice and confusing.  I set off security alarms when I went to get breakfast, and then I made the mistake of ordering white tea (apparently this means that they just put tea bags into steamed milk...gross!)."

Nathan's journal entry: "Driving to the hotel was certainly interesting.  I kept drifting to the edge of the road since I'm used to the bulk of the car being to my right.  They love roundabouts and tiny streets signs here just to confuse tourists."

Fortunately, Nathan only had to drive 7 miles before we made it to our hotel.  We took showers and then set out to enjoy the town.

Kristin's journal entry: "We ate an amazing lunch at Winnie's Pizza - gluten-free chicken, Brie, and cranberry pizza.  I've got to try making my own version someday.  Then, we went up the gondola and saw sheep, bungy jumpers, and great views of the lake.  The Merino sheep here are so cute, especially the babies.  We also roamed around the Queenstown Gardens (really pretty) before eating at the Pub on the Wharf.  I ate an amazing salad - greens with chicken, tomato, Brie, cashews, and balsamic vinaigrette.  I'm not sure why but it may have been the best salad I have ever eaten.  For dessert, we went to Patagonia Chocolates.  It was nice and warm in there, so we ate slowly.  I had a pretty good raspberry sorbet, and then I stole tastes of Nathan's dark chocolate gelato.  The gelato made the whole trip worth it."

Lunch really was amazing.  It was Kristin's first pizza in over a year...she loved it!

 Eating like a pig.

 Pizza menu.

We went on a gondola that took us up the mountainside for an aerial view of the city.  Merino sheep were grazing along the mountainside as we went up.

 Merino sheep viewed from gondola.

 Paraglider (not us!).

 This is what we look like after an international flight.

The gardens in Queenstown really were lovely.  We enjoyed ambling around them before dinner - it was a great way to keep ourselves awake.

 Nathan found himself a party tree.

Nathan's journal entry: "The day was long with our lack of sleep, but Queenstown is really enjoyable.  It is pedestrian friendly, has a really nice city park/garden where we watched their form of [lawn] bowling, and has the gorgeous lake and the Remarkables. 

Kristin likes taking pictures of dead logs...

 Fun pedestrian mall area.

Our hotel - Rydges Queenstown.

 Looking towards the gardens.

Cecil Peak.

Nathan's journal entry: But the most memorable parts of the day were the meals.  For lunch, we found a pizza place that made a gluten and tomato free pizza, for dinner we went to a pub where I had a steak wrapped in bacon and cooked in a pastry (called Wellington beef), and for dessert, I got an excellent dark chocolate gelato from Patagonia chocolates on the water front." 

Why we didn't get a picture of that gelato, we don't know.  We blame it on jet lag.  But, it was lifechanging...literally!  We're still talking about that gelato.

The evening was beautiful as the sunset cast beautiful colors on the nearby mountains.

We tried to stay up later than this so that we could see Queenstown at night, but we just couldn't do it.  The sun wouldn't go down!!!  We crashed at about 9:30pm and slept long and hard.