Yesterday, I thought I had gotten out of climbing up the Gondola Hill. We booked our zip-lining adventure for today, only to find out that we had to get to the top of the Gondola Hill... The ticket to ride the gondola up is $30 and since we just did that yesterday, we didn't want to pay that again. So...we decided to walk the steep trek up to the top! Although it seemed very daunting at first, we made the climb fun by taking advantage of all the photo opportunities.
Val climbing up a switchback, like a champ!
These carved chairs were all over the hike up
The giant rock behind us was moved here 1000's of years ago by a glacier!
Our "making it to the top" pose!
Normally there are 10 people in a zip-lining tour, we lucked out and it ended up being just us four! The tour was also an eco-tour, so we learned about some of the environmental issues the area has and what the company is doing to help. One of the biggest problems are the Douglas Fir trees, they were brought over from the America's to make it into an Alpine Forest, with the hope of bringing in more tourists. What ended up happening though, like it does with so many other things, the tree THRIVED in the area! One tree grows 4x faster than it does in the US! Every 10 years the trees double in area, so they spread like wild fire. They grow so fast and high that they make a canopy over the native trees and plants and end up killing them by lack of sun. There are several things that are being done. They burn some areas, but then that also means they kill all the other plants in the area too. Another thing they do is drown the Douglas Fir in canola oil, which kills the tree and the seed. Lastly, they pluck the baby trees from the ground so that they can't spread. It's a timely project, but they are working hard to make the mountains a Douglas Fir free zone. I loved all the environmental education, but the actual zip-lining took the cake! We had six lines, the last one is the world's steepest zip-line, dropping 30 stories!
All suited up and ready to go!
Game faces...
Hannah all smiley after her first zip-line!
Val coming into the tree house after the steepest zip-line
Strike a pose mom!
The six lines and all the other eco-tour information took us about 3 hours to complete. We had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves so we took a road trip to Arrowtown, which is about a 20 minute drive. On the way there, we passed a lot of wineries, so we thought it was a good idea to go into one and do some wine tasting. The lucky winery to grace our presence was called Gibston Valley Winery.
Wine tasting! We each had three different types, my favorite was the dessert wine.
A dog house made out of wine barrel
Cheese tasting at it's finest! We bought some sheep cheese and maasdam cheese. The cheese seller was loving on Val and even asked if she was single, she gently let him down. :)
After wine tasting, we decided to go on a hunt for Lord of the Rings sights. The first one we came across was called Pillars of the King, which was in the end of the first movie (Fellowship of the Ring). In the movie, the Fellowship spent 11 days paddling downstream from Lothlorien, covering a distance of over 300 miles to the breaking of the Fellowship at Amon Hen.
The only way to see the scene from the movie is to kayak down the river, but we had a beautiful view from the top!
Not too shabby if you ask me!
After all the exploring, we headed into town to have a little snack. Val heard all about the White Bait Patties from my past blog post: you can read it here . We decided to all give it a try. It wasn't as bad as it looked, my only problem was getting past the eye balls...so I just didn't look at it.
Just look at those excited faces, about to eat whole baby fish... mmm
Before we headed out of town, we had to check out the other LOTR scene in the area. This one is also in the first movie (Fellowship of the Ring). This scene is when the Nazgul charged as Arwen carried Frodo across the river on Asfaloth, her Elven steed.
Hannah and I may or may not have pretended to be Arwen... we could really sense the power of Elrond...
Another perfect day in a beautiful country, we keep lucking out in weather! Hannah and I have been so busy working, we haven't really had a chance to explore the Queenstown area, so it's been extra fun having my mom and Val here!
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