Queenstown & Dunedin

On Friday we drove from Wanaka to Queenstown, with a very enjoyable stop off at Puzzle World. That place is amazing (no pun intended!). It has a big 3-D maze, then some illusion rooms which totally stuff up your mind. In the 'hall of following faces' you walk around the room & all the eyes from the masks around the edge follow you as you go. It's very spooky! There is also a tilt room, where water appears to run uphill, & if you let a ball go on the pool table it appears to roll uphill & into a pocket. There are also loads of holograms amongst other things.

From Puzzle World it was a short drive on to Queenstown. Again we were staying at a great little backpackers, very close to town with magic views over Lake Wakitipu & the mountains. In the photo below you can see the view from the communal kitchen/lounge.

We only had the 1 afternoon in Queenstown, so couldn't really do any of the myriad of adventure stuff available there, it'll have to wait for the next trip! What we did do is spend a very pleasant few hours at Deer Park Heights. It is a nature reserve high on a hill just out of Queenstown where you can hand feed all sorts of different animals. It gave magnificent views of the surrounding area. It is also on the Lord of the Rings trail as several areas in the reserve were used during filming.

The next day it was onwards to Dunedin, stopping for ice-cream & scenic lookouts along the way...We arrived at the Roe's place in Dunedin at about 3pm. It was lovely seeing them all again. Rich & I started teaching Maths at Bearwood at the same time, 3 & a bit years ago, & he & his family returned to NZ early November. That night was Rach's 40th birthday party (a couple of days after the big day itself...). It was a very good night, although I'd expect nothing less from a party at the Roe's!!! I think we called it a night at about 3:30am... It was really nice to meet lots of their family & friends whom we had heard a lot about.

This morning was suitably lazy, recovering from the excesses of the previous night... In the afternoon we all went for a drive out to the Otago Peninsula for a picnic lunch. The whole area is a nature reserve & there is an Albatross colony there, although we weren't lucky enough to see any flying around. What we did see was loads of seals. One of them kept us very entertained. It thought it was king of the beach, & would huff & puff & 'charge' at anyone who got too close. Now by charge, I mean waddle in a very comical seal manner! We also saw a very very cute Blue Penguin in a little hidey hole in the bank.

Tomorrow for Christmas we are going out to Rach's sister's place near Middlemarch. Her & her husband & their 4 kids have a sheep farm out there & it promises to be a really nice day. We are staying the night there, then on boxing day we will drive to Christchurch for the night.

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you all have a great time, wherever in the world you may happen to be.