Trip with Mom & Dad: Day 4 - Queenstown

Monday, December 30th

Well, we woke up to more rain and it was really pouring down when we left the hotel this morning.  So we headed over to the shops and did some souvenir shopping for a couple of hours and had lunch.

When we walked out of lunch, we had a miracle! It wasn't raining, it was warm, and the skies were clearing up. Not wanting to waste time, we quickly walked up to the Queenstown gondola to see the breathtaking views of Queenstown, Lake Wakatipo and the Remarkables.

Here is a picture looking up at the gondola as we started walking.   

Do you spy Dad and Brian? Perhaps more importantly, does anyone believe that my Mom actually rode a tram up that high?  Just to prove it, here is a picture Mom & Dad took while inside their gondola and you can see how far off the ground we were.  Lol, you can see Dad's foot in the reflection.

We took pictures in this stationary gondola so that we didn't have to buy the overpriced copies they take for you on the actual one.

Once we reached the top, we got to take some amazing pictures.  I guess it was a little brighter outside than I realized because the pictures are a little washed out.  I guess I should have used a different setting on the camera.  Oh well!

Make sure to notice the gondola gears in the right bottom corner.  My dad wanted those in the picture.  There is another one that shows it better, but they are smiling better in this one!

Overlooking Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown & The Remarkables

We also had some fun watching the bungy jumpers but I was too scared to try it myself. We got a laugh out of their advertisement on the roof of one of the towers.

After we rode the gondola back down we found another one of Brian's flats from his mission.  I was impressed that he basically drove us straight to it. Nice job Brian!

By the time we checked into our new hotel for the evening, the clouds had completely dissipated and we finally got a good picture of the double cones on top of the Remarkables. I was quite happy about that.

Then we headed over to Arrowtown, which is a historical town near Queenstown that was started when the west coast gold rush occurred.  The town has preserved many of its old buildings and it was very quaint.  We mostly just enjoyed being out in the sun and eating ice cream.  It was so wonderful to have a summer day!

At the entrance to the gold mining museum in Arrowtown.  Mom is down to only one jacket!!!

Mom is pointing to these flowers.  We kept seeing them on the side of the road so we did a little research and found out they are called lupins.  Which is actually in the bean family.  Pretty weird! 

Here's just a few more random pictures from the day that I liked. Enjoy!

Amazing view from the hotel!