QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND
For the past three days we've been in Queenstown, "Adventure Capital of New Zealand." Which means that if you can jump off it, jet through it, ski down it, fly over it, or fall out of it, there's an outfit here that you can pay lots of money to to help you do just that. This all came about because Queenstown was the first place in the world to offer commercial bungee (or "bungy," as they spell it here) jumping about 20 years ago, and it just snowballed from there to include other adrenalin-pumping activities like skydiving, parasailing, hang gliding, wire-flying, jetboating, zorbing, and all the rest. (Nothing involving a shark tank yet, but I'm sure that will be coming soon.) Being relatively broke, though, I haven't taken advantage of any of this "Xtreme" stuff, although some of it does look pretty fun.
Actually, the only thing we've done here, apart from laundry and spending time on the internet, has been a trip to Deer Park Heights, which is a high hill/mountain overlooking the city where--you guessed it--they shot a number of scenes for the Lord of the Rings films. (And specifically, a lot of scenes from The Two Towers: The Rohan refugees fleeing Edoras, the wargs attacking them, Legolas doing a backflip onto his horse, etc. I got to stand on the cliff that Aragorn was dragged over--but there's only about an 8-foot drop on the other side, and no river below, just grass.) Anyway, it was pretty cool to see those locations. Plus, the entire area is a park with all kinds of livestock roaming around: Deer, goats, llamas, pigs, thar, miniature horses, even buffalo. And you can feed them. It's kind of a weird combination of activities, but we had a good time.
Apparently driving up and down that steep hill was the final straw for our rental car's brakes, which had already been making noises from all the mountain roads we've traveled. After Deer Park Heights, it sounded like a jet plane taking off every time I braked, and we thought it might not be a bad idea to inform the rental car company and have them repaired. So today we did that.
Oh, and the other night we went to the movies and saw Aeon Flux, which wasn't as bad as it could have been, but wasn't great art either. (And it had virtually no relation to the original animated series.) But it kept us out of the rain, at least. The weather has been pretty lousy since we arrived here--cold, windy, and rainy, which is a change from the rest of our time in New Zealand, which has for the most part been warm and sunny.
For the past three days we've been in Queenstown, "Adventure Capital of New Zealand." Which means that if you can jump off it, jet through it, ski down it, fly over it, or fall out of it, there's an outfit here that you can pay lots of money to to help you do just that. This all came about because Queenstown was the first place in the world to offer commercial bungee (or "bungy," as they spell it here) jumping about 20 years ago, and it just snowballed from there to include other adrenalin-pumping activities like skydiving, parasailing, hang gliding, wire-flying, jetboating, zorbing, and all the rest. (Nothing involving a shark tank yet, but I'm sure that will be coming soon.) Being relatively broke, though, I haven't taken advantage of any of this "Xtreme" stuff, although some of it does look pretty fun.
Actually, the only thing we've done here, apart from laundry and spending time on the internet, has been a trip to Deer Park Heights, which is a high hill/mountain overlooking the city where--you guessed it--they shot a number of scenes for the Lord of the Rings films. (And specifically, a lot of scenes from The Two Towers: The Rohan refugees fleeing Edoras, the wargs attacking them, Legolas doing a backflip onto his horse, etc. I got to stand on the cliff that Aragorn was dragged over--but there's only about an 8-foot drop on the other side, and no river below, just grass.) Anyway, it was pretty cool to see those locations. Plus, the entire area is a park with all kinds of livestock roaming around: Deer, goats, llamas, pigs, thar, miniature horses, even buffalo. And you can feed them. It's kind of a weird combination of activities, but we had a good time.
Apparently driving up and down that steep hill was the final straw for our rental car's brakes, which had already been making noises from all the mountain roads we've traveled. After Deer Park Heights, it sounded like a jet plane taking off every time I braked, and we thought it might not be a bad idea to inform the rental car company and have them repaired. So today we did that.
Oh, and the other night we went to the movies and saw Aeon Flux, which wasn't as bad as it could have been, but wasn't great art either. (And it had virtually no relation to the original animated series.) But it kept us out of the rain, at least. The weather has been pretty lousy since we arrived here--cold, windy, and rainy, which is a change from the rest of our time in New Zealand, which has for the most part been warm and sunny.
posted by John Kuge at 2:17 PM
1 Comments:
Did Leo tell you that it looks like you've lost weight?? I don't think I've met Chris but once, so I don't know if he has or not. Anyway, I also want to comment that your hair is looking nice and neat. Are you going to a barber shop? Just random questions and comments.
The pictures you have up are beautiful and it is making me want to come visit!! Ahhhhh, maybe next time.
We miss you. I plan on washing your car this weekend. Ben is sitting up on his own and can stand while holding on to something. Everyone keeps commenting on how pretty his eyes are.
I was at Piedmont Park on Monday. It made me think of you. Can't wait until we all can have a beer together again. Hope you guys continue to have fun and ya'll be safe.
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