Tuesday, May 15

May 15, 2007

For morning tea, I had Josh call the front desk because we had no milk. They quickly delivered some in a nice saucer. I made us our drinks and we sat on the balcony. It was a beautiful day and the leaves on the birch trees right in front of us were bright yellow. We are experiencing full on fall down here.

We went into town around 11:30 and had lunch at the food court. We parked in our usual 30 minute parking space. I went to the McCafe and ordered a slice of quiche and a mochachino while Josh ordered some cheese and mushroom curry from an Indian place.

After lunch, we were off to do the gondola to the top of a mountain for the view of Queenstown and the Remarkables. On our drive to the gondola, I called and booked us in for a couples massage and pedicures at Hush massage the next day. We were set for 3 pm massages. I was finally cashing in the “gift card” that Josh had given me for graduation last year. It took me a year to use it and get a massage!

Parking at the gondola (like Queenstown as a whole) was difficult but I saw a sign that said Public Parking, so Josh and I turned in there to park. One area said not to park there because it was for the school employees, however, straight ahead there were some parking spots marked by faded white lines. We parked the car and we were off.

Josh stood F-O-R-E-V-E-R reading the sign about all the combination packages you can get to gondola/luge/have dinner/watch a haka. I was like, let’s get up the mountain already. We purchased tickets for the gondola ride as well as three luge rides each. The slogan for the luge ride is “Once is never enough.” Then, after having our picture taken as in the Christchurch gondola, I remembered that I don’t like heights or gondolas.

This gondola appeared to be much steeper than the Christchurch gondola. We kept going up and we were glad it was such a sunny, clear day because the view was spectacular of both the mountains and the lake. When we made it to the top we went to an observation deck.

Here’s the deal on the Remarkable Mountains according to me. The Remarkables were a mountain range that I had looked forward to viewing even while I was in the States. I thought, with a name like Remarkable, they have to be pretty awesome. But really, they were like the Organ Mountains in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Cool but not amazing. Maybe it’s because they didn’t have much snow on them at the time? Anyway, I walked away from my Remarkable experience thinking that they have a better name than look…but, that’s just me.

After taking photos and looking at the view we were off to luge. Now, this isn’t a luge on ice like in the Olympics. The “luge” you ride doesn’t even look like a luge. BUT, it is so much fun!!! First, you leave the observation area and walk down a steep hill to an area where you pick a helmet out of a bin based on the size of your head: small, medium or large. Then, you go round to catch a small ski lift to the top of the hill that you will be lugging down. Josh and I have never been on a true ski lift (I’ve only used a T-bar type lift once in Alaska) so this was a new experience. You put your feet on the proper spot marked by painted on shoe prints on the ground, wait for the chair to come up you, sit down and pull the bar down over your lap. We managed to do that without any trouble.

Up the ski lift and then you have to disembark from the lift. This required moving quickly or the chair would hit you. We did this okay but not as well as getting on the lift.

The first time you luge, you have to take the scenic track. The staff show you how to operate your luge…which is really more like a low rider version of a kid’s hotwheels type ride…pull back for the breaks and let up and forward to go. Just don’t push your handlebars too far forward or you’ll go flying out of your luge. All I could think about was how I’d flown over the handlebars off my bike in Paris last year.

We did the scenic track and I laughed and screamed the whole way down. If that was the scenic track, I couldn’t imagine what the advanced track would be like. We queued up again, took the lift up, and I took Josh’s picture before hopping into the luges to take the advanced track down. The wind was really making us chilly by this point so our hands were getting frozen going down the hill holding the handlebars. It was fun again but I actually thought the scenic route was the better track. The advanced track just seemed to have steeper hills to go down…it didn’t seem as long of a ride either.

Two rides in, we were cold. So we walked up the steep sidewalk back to the observation building and I grabbed a coffee from the café. Josh and I nabbed the best seats in the house after waiting for a waiter to clear the table. Great view and we were warming up nicely. We hope to be able to go tubing down the mountains in ski season when Josh’s parents come to visit in August. Ski season officially opens in early June so by August, there should be a good bit of snow on the hills.

After we warmed up, we went back for our final luge of the day. We decided to take the scenic route and we had a staff member take our photo together before we went down the hill. I love the luge! It’s safe fun…I’m not into the bungy, sky diving, hang gliding, extreme sports that Queenstown is known for. I’ll take the luge, thanks. Josh liked it but not as much as I did.

We left after looking around the observation deck a final time. The ride down the gondola was fine as I was still hyped up about the luge. When we reached the bottom, the gondola staff tried to sell us the same picture portfolio as they sell in Christchurch. Surprisingly, it was $5 less here…this is surprising because Queenstown is the number one tourist destination in New Zealand and everything here is geared towards cash money. Another good couple picture of us that we passed on as it wasn’t worth the price. As it would turn out, it was a good thing we passed on that purchase too.

When we reached the parking lot, I found a piece of paper on the windshield and it was a ticket for parking in a space marked with yellow dashed lines. The fine was $60. So, from having such a great experience we went immediately into a bad experience.

I couldn’t believe it! Where were the yellow lines?!?! They were marked along where the front of the car was located. What the heck?!? Were those there when we parked? Who could see that? And besides that, there were faded white lines that indicated that this was a parking space.

Apparently, we were not the only people to make the assumption that we were parked in legitimate parking spots. Several cars next to us in a row had also received tickets. There was no signage indicating that this was a no parking zone…only those blasted dashed yellow lines.

According to the ticket, we could stop into certain Queenstown locations to pay our fine. Josh just wanted to pay the fine and forget that this had ever happened so off we went to the nearest spot. We asked the lady about the parking situation in that area and she was like, yeah, they know that’s a problem for people but the police think that if you’re driving in New Zealand than you should be familiar with the New Zealand driving regulations and you’re not supposed to park anywhere with dashed yellow lines.

Josh indicated that the city is sending mixed messages when there are faded white lines indicating that this is a parking space. Blah, blah. This lady was basically saying that the city knew it was a problem they just wanted to take your money. Josh said that as a tourist town you would think they’d try to make tourists happy and she was like yeah, the tourists just pay the fee and leave…the city doesn’t care.

So, we paid the fee and left. Queenstown…not the best place for a multitude of reasons. Mainly because it’s a money grubbing snobby uptown sort of place. Josh and I frequently commented that QUEENSTOWN IS NOT NEW ZEALAND. For one, you hardly meet any native Kiwis, it’s a very multi-national small town. And second, everywhere has a tip jar…for no reason. If you want to experience the real New Zealand…get out of Queenstown! However, all this said, it is still the place that'd we'd return to with Josh's parents because it truly is a base for the South Island.

That business take care of, we had to return to the hotel to get ready for a Rotary presentation scheduled for tonight. Josh had spoken to Chris, a Rotarian in the club about a change of venue for the club’s meeting this night. We were supposed to meet Chris at the wharf at 5:30.

We worried about parking (which was completely understandable given our previous situation) and ended up parking on the main road that headed out of Queenstown to Glenorchy. Josh and I double checked we were not surrounded by obscured yellow dashed lines (we’ve learned our lesson for the rest of our stay in New Zealand) and even confirmed with the hotel receptionist at the hotel by the parking space that where we had parked was, in fact, a legitimate spot…she said it was.
We were off to the wharf where a large group of people had assembled in front of a steam boat. Josh and I were wearing our USA/NZ friendship pins but no one approached us for awhile…we also stood out as Josh was carrying the laptop for our presentation. About 10 minutes into standing outside in the cold, Chris rang Josh on the cell phone and we met up through the crowd of people.

As it turned out, we totally lucked out and were able to ride an authentic, original 1911 steamboat, the T.S.S. Earnshaw, across the lake to Walter Peak to have dinner. The Rotary club’s normal venue is the casino restaurant in town. We lucked out because our steamboat ride and dinner experience typically costs tourists $100 per person as it is operated by the tourism company Real Journeys. Since one of the Real Journeys higher ups, Tracey, is a Rotarian we got to go on the trip for free.

The boat ride over was one of the most incredible experience I’ve had. Josh and I started out sitting upstairs with some Rotarians, however, after the ship left the dock I went downstairs to find the toilet. Exiting the toilet, I took a walk around the lower deck. It was amazing!

The air was blowing my hair back as I walked forward in the same direction as the boat was moving. There was nothing blocking the wind coming through the open windows which also exposed the ever increasing darkness in the sky as the sun set behind banks of clouds. The lights of Queenstown shrank into the distance the further along we sailed. I had to go grab Josh to tell him that he had to experience this.
Josh and I walked around and even walked through the open area where they throw coal into the oven to power the ship. Note to self: heeled shoes (even low heeled practical shoes like those I was wearing) should not be worn if going through the boiler room area). Yes, my heel slipped through one of the metal bars but quick hands saved me from what would have been a disastrous fall.

Josh and I went back upstairs to finish the ride over to Walter Peak. We disembarked and followed the crowd into a restaurant. We were shunted off into two groups: the Rotary group and tourists. We went with the Rotarians this time.

The presentation was not normal for us as there was neither a screen nor a projector for the laptop we were toting around. After the first round of wine was served along with the soup, Josh and I went up to the front of the room to speak to the 60 person Rotary club. Given the circumstances, we gave them the abridged version of our speech (Josh wisely had printed of a copy of the slides for reference in situations such as these). Someone at the head table was taking our picture while we spoke…but not with our camera (we’re going to try to get copies). Unfortunately, we didn’t teach this group how to Call the Hogs out of respect for the tourists in the next room over trying to enjoy a nice meal that they’d paid big bucks for. Presentation done, Josh and I ate our dinner which was served buffet style in the main room.

After dessert and coffee most people went out to a shed area outside to watch a sheep dog herd sheep. After that, the man giving the presentation sheared a sheep. Show over, we went back to the ship for the ride back to Queenstown. The tourist group (by and large they were over 50) gathered around a piano at the front of the ship to sing songs and dance. Josh and I talked to a couple in the Rotary club who had been to visit Silver Dollar City in Branson in 1992 because the guy works in tour buses in Queenstown. I got really excited at the fact that someone in New Zealand knew about Silver Dollar City!

Once we made it back to Queenstown, we said our goodbyes and walked back to the car. As we walked back, I’m not even joking about this, I noticed something else on the car windshield where the parking ticket had been located earlier. You’ve got to be kidding me!

When we got close enough to see what was on the windshield, we saw that someone had placed a single pink rose blossom there. That is so strange. Was it amends over the parking ticket? Was it a random act of kindness? We will never know….but, I love roses!

We returned to the hotel where it was so cozy to have had turn down service again and the bed already warmed up for us. Josh had noted that the workers were downstairs watching tv so he decided to stay upstairs (I was warm up here so there was no way I was going to go down to the cold lounge) and he read a book while I read a magazine.

We went to sleep with plans to get up in the morning and take advantage of the outdoor hot tub with the mountain and river view.