Queenstown

We're still catching up, slowly, slowly from our visit to the South Island.  No trip there would be complete without a look around the adventure capital of the world--Queenstown.  On our way south to Te Anau and Milford Sound (the only way to Milford Sound is a bit circuitous), we skirted Queenstown, deciding to explore the city on our return north.

As mentioned in our earlier post, we had our own adventure in Queenstown.  Everything is bigger there:

and beautiful...

The gondola ride provided us with some fantastic views.  

With a 3 and a 5 year old, we weren't able to participate in some of the more typical Queenstown adventures:  no jet boating, no bungy jumping, no paragliding, no canyoning, no extreme biking, nope.  But we did take another smaller ski lift higher, and then we went down the:

Here's the course:

And the ride went in a typical fashion for our family:  L (riding with R), who we had to encourage for about 10 minutes before he would try it, kept saying that they were going to fast and little M riding with me said we were going to slow.  Yes, our kids do have their separate ideas of fun!

And then we took it up again, just to see more of the view.

There was a bungy jumping platform here as well.

And then we took it back down, had a fabulous Indian lunch, did a bit of shopping at the local stores, and just bandied about.

Finally, as in all locations, we spent our requisite time in a local playground.  Where, however, can you say that you have a view of The Remarkables?

And that is Queenstown.