Queenstown

7-3-2014

     After the Routeburn we returned to Queenstown. I love Queenstown. It reminds me of a mountain village in Colorado, but not as ritzy as Vail. There's so much to do here! We hung around the area for a few days because we did a lot. 

     The first day we went to the racetrack. We drooled over some fancy fast cars and then they handed us the keys. Yep, no joke. I drove a Ferrari around the track, 4 rounds, with an instructor in the passenger seat. He told me what cones signaled for me to slow down, and speed up, and said things like, "Yep, keep accelerating." I smiled so big my face hurt. When my turn was done the instructor told me I managed to get all the way to 4th gear on the straightaway, and it felt like a short distance. 

    Luke got to drive a Lamborghini. I hate to say it, but I think his car was cooler. But the Lamborghini was a manual car only and since I didn't feel like ruining their really nice, really expensive cars, I stuck with the auto/semi auto Ferarri. Mine had the option to shift using the paddle shifters, and it would override the automatic shifting, but I didn't have to use them. Perfect.

     Luke was grinning pretty big when he stepped out of the car, too. It's hard to tell from the sidelines, but I think he was ripping around the rack too. 

      I don't know that it was a really big learning experience, other than the fact that I now know for certain I should never be allowed to own a car that fast. I couldn't be trusted to always drive the speed limit. No way. It's so fun not to! Although, there's a huge element of safety on the track that disappears when you involve public streets and have civilians running around. 

    After we drove ourselves around the track we got to do a "hot lap" in a Porsche. I wish it was a Porsche Carrera but we were in a Porsche Cayenne. Still pretty awesome. We both felt like pansy little girls after the Stig drove us around. That lap was fun. 

     The rest of that day we spent driving around the nearby hills touring vineyards. We had some seriously delicious wine, and some truly amazing food. Nutty, buttery chardoneys, sweet yet light reislings, savory lamb salad with beetroot and feta cheese, some fancy poached plum cake dessert that was moist but not heavy, with caramel drizzled over it and vanilla ice cream on the side. I tell ya' I could live here and die happy. 

     We finished our night off by splitting a burger from Fergburger in downtown Queenstown. It's a great locals' favorite, with great character, and some really great burgers. There's always a crowd, it's always busy, because it's always good. I'm glad Luke and I split one because we got The Big Al, and the thing was huge! I was full eating only half of it.

     The next day we started off strong. After all, we had to burn off that burger. So we rented some bikes, bought a half day pass to the gondola, and set off. The gondola is only a few blocks away from downtown, and right up the hill from the bike shop we rented from, so we walked there. Plus, we had 4 hour parking in a town where finding 30 minute parking is a pretty good. 

     I've never downhill mountain biked before. I've taken my bike on the trails around Marquette, which is darn close. I've even demoed a Specialized full suspension bike on those trails, but I've never done only downhill and not had some uphill too. This was all downhill. The bike park around the gondola was the dirt version of a ski hill. There were even "runs" that were rated by green circle (beginner), blue square (harder), black diamond (advanced), and double black diamond (experts only). 

     I stuck to the greens. Even the greens were hard. The first run down I was so nervous that I was on the brakes almost the whole time. I felt like a kid who just learned how to ski who was thrown onto the hill barely even knowing how to stop. After all, I knew that if I crammed on the brakes I'd just fly over the handlebars. I wished there was a bunny hill. I knew just enough to not die, like keeping my feet even when coasting, and using the back brake more than the front.

      Each run took about 45 minutes. On the other hand, with each run I got a little faster, a little more confident. Still, every banked corner made me nervous, because they looked to me like big ramps into the trees and off cliffs. But I did get better. I made it my goal to get better at the banked corners (which was every corner), and I don't know if I did, but at least I feared them a lot less by the end of the day. 

      We even did a blue square run for our last run. It was fast and scary, and fun. I survived! I went fast, I even got some air off the tiny jumps, I cornered just fine, and I didn't fall all day! I think I even like the sport, although I will continue to wear body armor. Yes, Mom, don't worry, we were in full face helmets, elbow pads, and a knee pad / shin pad combo. I may not have done it otherwise. 

     It was incredibly fun. More fun, I think, than bungee jumping. 

     Because we only got a half day pass, we had to return our bikes at 2:00. I'm glad we did, though, because by dinner time it was raining. We were lucky enough to have some warm weather and clear skies when we were on the trails. Biking in the mud is fun, but I'm glad my first downhill mountain biking experience was a little more stable. We returned the bikes and all the gear, then got ready for dinner.

     Dinner, it turns out, was also on the mountain. At the top of the mountain the gondola is attached to a big building that houses a cafe, bathrooms, a huge souvenir shop, a jelly belly outlet, and the whole bottom floor is a really nice restaurant with really nice food. It looks out over the gondola, all of Queenstown, the bays and peninsulas, and the Remarkables (mountains) beyond. It's really cool. 

     It's expensive to eat there, but we figured of all the places to spend money eating out, this was probably one of the best. We weren't wrong. The food was phenomenal. It was so good we ate way too much, and I think we were more stuffed than Thanksgiving and Christmas combined. We finally got to try the local dessert Pavlova, which I thought was a cake but it turns out it's more like merengue. It looks like angel food cake. 

     We also got to see the Kiwi Haka dance. Not the All  Blacks one (unfortunately it's not rugby season here, or I would have bought tickets to a game) but the native one. It was really neat. I used to hula dance in college. It was fun, something to do during my spare time other than drink, like everyone else seemed to want to do. It was very similar to that. I even learned a Haka (war dance), but it was different. I learned to dance with Poi Balls, too, but that was also way different. It was cool to see. 

     By the end of the night we were pretty darn happy, and tired. It was a fantastic day. One of the best so far. I really love Queenstown.