The many views of Queenstown

Thought we should provide a sampling (however small) of the views of Queenstown while we were there. Most pics were taken in the afternoon or evening after we had played outside all day and were enjoying some vino and the forgotten joys of chairs :)

Queenstown feels like Jackson Hole (for those of you who've been there) or probably any of the cool US mountain towns. Its pretty laid back, pretty much alot of folks coming to enjoy the outdoors and nightlife and do some expensive shopping (Lana restrained herself fairly well).

Our house was close enough to walk into town, so we enjoyed the bars several times. The most fun night probably was a DJ/reggae night at a local bar. The rastafarians (sp) turned out strong and the main event was a 50 ish hippie with dreads down to his feet (no kidding) who rapped and sang for a little more than an hour - pretty high energy set for a slightly older gentleman.

If NZ has a music genre to define it, it has to be reggae. BTW - the best by far name of a reggae band we've heard so far is "Katchafire" - we'll see them soon and report on the tunes.

Of course, Queenstown is only the base for probably to best scenery and outdoors fun in the whole of NZ, so we'll get everyone some blogs of the adventures we had while down there. Suffice it to say that you could spend an entire summer in Queenstown and still not be satisfied, but it sure would be fun to try :)

More to follow . . .

Drive to Queenstown aka The Adventure Capital of the World

We left our house sit in Blenheim on December 1st and traveled down to Christchurch by a bus to purchase a car. It was about a 5 hour bus trip and we couldn't wait to get off especially because the guy in front of us began hurling his brains out just as we got into town.

We are now the proud owners of a 1998 Honda Accord! While we were in Blenheim we met a lot of really nice people and at Thanksgiving we met a really lovely lady and her son (She is actually from New Mexico) and her husband was kind enough to put us up in Christchurch for the night (he is living there temporarily while going to university to become a landscape architect so he can ditch his old job as a farmer - amazing mid-life decision!).

The next day we headed down to Queenstown to stay at a house Charles found for us. The home was absolutely gorgeous, it was set up in the mountain side and our front door opened up to a view of the mountains, lake and town below. [Most of the pictures of Queenstown were taken from our front porch - there will be a whole lot more to come of those . . .]

Anyway, the drive South took us over and around the Southern Alps which were beautiful; not to mention the mountain lakes we saw which are so clear the water took on an electric blue tint! Had to stop by one and have lunch and a beer :)

Sorry for the long delay on the blog, but we will keep them coming to keep you guys warm in the winter :)

Love to all,

Lana and Charles

Nelson Lakes

Hi Everyone, so sorry we have fallen behind. We have done a ton of traveling throughout the South island and have had very limited access to the internet. Before we left our last house sit in Blenheim we made one last camping/hiking trip to Nelson Lakes National Park. This park has two lakes hidden between some beautiful mountains. We hiked around one side of the lake and camped out for the night. It was a beautiful trip with the exception of sandflies. We need to work on finding a more powerful bug spray. :)

More pics to come asap - hope everyone is preparing for a wonderful holiday! We get to have our first Christmas in summer . .. not that NC is very cold these past few years, but beers on the beach might be a good substitute for a white Christmas. We'll report later . ..

Be in touch soon