16.3. – 19.3.2023
From Te Anau we carried on to Queenstown, a city known for its extreme sports. We arrived in town just in time for lunch, so once we had parked our van in the town centre, we went to look for a place to eat. We found a nice Indian restaurant. However, we were told that the place would be closing in half an hour, as the lunch service ended at 2 o’clock. So we moved on and found another Indian restaurant that was open until the evening. The food in this restaurant was heavenly. We ordered a platter to share with the whole family, with four different chicken dishes to eat with rice, and one plate of different fried delicacies to eat as they were. Of course, delicious naan bread was also included.
We had originally planned to take the gondola up one of the mountains surrounding Queenstown, but the weather decided otherwise. As it started to rain, we drove straight to the campsite and the kids got down to some school stuff. Because we had previously signed up for a membership of the Top 10 campsite chain, we got to use the hot tub for free at the campsite. At first we wondered why we were given only half an hour to use the hot tub, but when we entered there, we understood why. The water was so hot that there was no way you could stay there for more than half an hour without sweating.
The next day, the weather was a little better, but almost all outdoor activities were still cancelled, apparently either because of potential rain or gusty wind. So we drove to a park in the city centre, which had tennis courts, a skate park and a frisbee golf course. There was also a playground and a café on the beach, so we parked ourselves there for a while. Then it started to drizzle again, so we got back to the car and drove off to check in at the next campsite. This campsite was within a walking distance of the town centre, so it suited our purposes better. We would have liked to have stayed here for our first night too, but the place was fully booked.
The kids did some school work for a while, but then we jumped back in the car and drove to the Oxbow Adventure site about half an hour away. Marko had booked a boat and car ride for himself and the kids. This was no ordinary boat, but a sprint boat that could accelerate to 100km/h in 2.5 seconds. The driver did three laps on an artificial waterway. Risto was the smallest, so he got to sit in front next to the driver. Marko and Ronja sat in the back. There was only room for three people on the boat, so Jaana stayed on the shore to take photographic evidence. Jaana is not particularly interested in fast boats or cars, so she didn’t mind staying behind. To be honest, this was more Marko and Risto’s thing, but Ronja couldn’t not go, since Risto climbed aboard. In Ronja’s opinion it would have been totally embarrassing and unfair otherwise. Even though Ronja didn’t get on the boat with much enthusiasm, she had a smile on her face at the end of the ride. It had been fun, she said.
The car wasn’t just an ordinary car either, and with this four-wheel drive you could drive up and down really steep slopes. Sometimes the car would go at an almost 90 degree angle along the side of a mountain. It was also reasonably easy to drive over big boulders. So it was a similar ride to the Hägglund in Christchurch, but at a slightly different speed. At the end of the ride, the driver took the car for a few more laps to spin a doughnut before turning back into the car park. Risto got the front seat on this ride as well. He was super happy about that.
On Saturday afternoon we were supposed to go paragliding with the whole family. We took the gondola lift up and went to the company counter to sign up. Already then we were told that it looked like the wind was picking up again, so it was a good thing we arrived early. That way they could get us in the air before it got too windy. We were told to stay in the nearby area to wait for our departure. We waited and waited. No one was gliding in the sky anymore. Finally, about ten minutes before our allotted time, we were told that unfortunately the activity would have to be cancelled due to wind conditions. Well, there was nothing we could do about the weather, so we agreed to postpone the activity until the next morning. Maybe the wind conditions would be more favourable then. Risto was especially disappointed, as he was probably the one of the four of us who had been most looking forward to flying like a bird in the sky.
Instead of paragliding, we stayed on the mountain to go for a ride on a luge. From the top of the gondola lift, a chairlift went up the mountainside a little further to the starting point of the luge. First we were given a brief instruction on how to control the luge and then we were off. The route was 1.6km long, so there were quite a few tight twists and turns. At one point we had a family race to see who could get down first, but we found it a bit pointless as Marko, weighing the most, won the race very easily. After six rounds we had paid for, we took the gondola lift back to town. It was a nice day, although not quite what we had first planned.
On Sunday morning, we tried to go paragliding again. This time we were lucky, and we were able to get up into the sky to glide. Ronja was the first to take off. At first she was almost in tears, because she was very nervous. When the worst (the start of the glide) was over, she was happily giggling in the air. The next to take off was Jaana. Marko was the third to go, and Risto, who had been looking forward to the paragliding the most, was the last to go. The rest of us actually landed on a field nearby before Risto even got going. Apparently, on the first attempt to take off, the wind had blown the parachute sideways, so they had to start again. The paragliding itself took maybe a little over five minutes, but with all the waiting, it took almost two hours.
Once we were all safely back on land, we went for a speedboat ride in the Shotover River canyon. This speedboat was moving at about 85km/h down the river through a narrow canyon. Back upstream, the speed slowed down a bit, and we cruised at about 75km/h. That was fast enough, as in some places there was only about 10cm of water under us, and sometimes it felt like the boat was almost touching the rock walls of the canyon. The boat was powered by two engines, each with 350 horsepower, so it could really speed up and go fast up and down the river. After a somewhat damp ride, it was time to say goodbye to Queenstown, and continue on to visit our friends Andy and Grant near Wanaka.
