Day 11: The Life of a Kiwi

*The NZ Wood Pigeon is the largest pigeon in the world. Wouldn't Fat Boogas love to get her paws on one of these.

After a nice cereal breakfast in the motel, we headed across town to the Kiwi & Bird Life Park. It was really cool. We saw a lot of native birds including the Tui (which we now have a painting of), the Wood Pigeon (which is the 2nd largest pigeon in the world - boy wouldn't Boogas like one of those) and the Kiwi bird! Kiwi birds are nocturnal so we went in a dark building and their enclosure was lit with red lights. They are really big! Like a basketball and their beaks are about 6 inches long. One of them was being hyper and running around, it was so awesome. We also saw the conservation show and then a Maori dance including the war chant the Haka. I think I should learn the poi.
We then went up the skyline gondola which actually goes up a really steep incline. At the top we watched someone do the Sky swing which is like a bungy jump but you sort of sit in a harnass and they release you and you swing. I told Chris I would do that since it is not upside but I decided I can find a better way to spend 100NZDs. - And I did! We road the luge at the top which are those sleds on the concrete path. It was steeper than any of the others I have been on and fun.We went back to the motel and ate lunch of leftover Indian food and peanut butter. Then, we had a power nap.
We have come back into Queenstown and done some shopping. I got a Kathmandu fleece and bought Chris one for his birthday. I also went to another NZ store and got some shirts. We just finished shopping and decided to pop in an internet shop and get everyone caught up. We have activities booked the next few days and then will be driving so this will probably be the last post until we get back to Auckland. I will backtrack and add pictures to all these posts then.

Day 10: The Long Haul

Everyone acted like we were crazy for trying to drive from Akaroa to Queenstown but we made great time. We got on the road and not to far in we saw a grocery store and stopped for supplies. We marched on to a small town Geraldine were we looked around and bought a nice print of a local artist's painting of a Tui (NZ bird) sitting on part of a Maori war canoe. Chris had said earlier that day that he missed the sound of the Tui in the morning.Then we went my Lake Tekapo which is turquoise, more turquoise than even the Caribbean. It has to do with some sediment from a glacier. We stopped and had a picnic lunch of tuna and cheese from Barry's Bay Cheese Farm. Not far from Lake Tekapo is Lake Pukaki which is an even brighter turquoise. I can't wait for everyone to see the pictures. I could live there and just look out the window all day. Chris and I got out of the car to walk down and touch the water and some ocean birds (smaller than sea gulls) got rilled up and started swooping down at us. One came within 5 inches of Chris's head! We had to move down the beach a little. From Lake Pukaki is the vantage point to Mount Cook, unfortunately it was cloudy and you could only see the foot of the mountains. We chose not to make the trek down the road to the main vantage point because we would have only seen more clouds.
We got into Queenstown about 6 o'clock. We stopped at the bridge were the first commercial Bungee jump site happened in 1987. I think Chris may try it tomorrow. I don't like to be upside down.
Our motel is not a place I would normally stay but it is an efficiency with a little kitchen and has an awesome view of the lake here. We got our bearings around town last night before going to Freiya's Indian Restaurant and going to bed.