The weekend away

Hi,

I can't believe our weekend away went off without a hitch.  Toby went home from school and found William just fine.  They changed into their Halloween costumes and went trick or treating around Wadestown (Toby says Jacob went with them and they went to every house and got a tonne of candy - candy?  My son is turning American).  But Toby took no photos.  So I have no evidence.  Except the huge happy grin he gave me when we collected him on Sunday night - I could tell he had fun.

Meanwhile Mike and I drove to the airport and met the others for our work weekend away down to Queenstown.  We all got on the wee ATR 30 and spent the next two hours on a wee prop plane.  Mike had a load of work to do, so he was working any chance he got.

The shuttle at Queenstown took us to our accommodation at Pinewood Lodge and we found a room.  Mike and I in the double bed and Dave and Alex in the bunks.  Mike promptly sat down to finish his work - and he got it done.  I went for a walk to the Fresh Choice supermarket and got a few provisions.  Back for our gondola ride and luge afternoon.  Luge is such fun!

Mike enjoying the chairlift to the luge

I really enjoyed the luge.  It wasn't scary in the slightest - just fun.  And cute fun - enough to make you grin all the way down.

Gondola view

 We had five rides on the luge and that was about enough.  Three wouldn't have been enough.

Gondola selfie.  Mike is such a doofus.  But gorgeous doofus.  And now I know where Toby gets it from

 Mike and I wandered around the skyline restaurant at the top, remembering an old date we had there many, many years ago.

The view from the top

Luge! And that's the order we finished in.  Me, Lisa, Mike and Nicky

Mike acting up for the cameras

On the way back down

 From there we wandered into town and had a Fergburger on the waterfront.  For the memory, the Fergburger was one of the best burgers I have eaten.  I had a Fergburger with brie.  The bun was perfection, as was the slab of meat.  Yep - I enjoyed that.

Waterfront

Back to the accommodation and I had an early night.  Mike woke me at 11pm knocking on the window.  So I let him in that way.  He's funny.

Next morning we ate breakfast and went to hire bikes from the reception.  We got two GT Aggressors - hardtails.  But they were really good bikes.  We rode to the Earnslaw via the supermarket and I finally got to take a ride on the iconic classic steamboat.

Hire bikes stashed in the museum on the Earnslaw

 From Walter Peak station, we rode down the gravel road for about 15 kms.  Such a lot of fun.  Mike and I only met one other group on the way back.

We also came across a mother Paradise Duck with her 12 chicks following her.  Then the dad took off to provide a diversion, pretending he couldn't fly.  Unfortunately for him, we were riding the same way as him, so he acted for a good 700m before finally taking off in a graceful arc back to his family.

At our lunch spot we saw a hare the size of a small deer.  Mike scoffs at my description - but it was seriously big.  Huge legs and ears.  And striped.  Like Bambi.

Coming back on the Earsnlaw

 The fierce headwind meant it took a while to reach our lunch point, but we got back to Walter Peak super fast.  We got the earlier boat.

I tracked my ride - but included the Earnslaw portion of our trip

Mike on the bow

Feet in the engine room

We dropped the bikes back once in Queenstown and got ready for dinner.  We all went to the Speights Ale House and I had a great seafood chowder.

Back to the room and Mike and I crashed.  Had a great sleep.  Then up on Sunday for a wander around Queenstown.  It was so warm!  We caught up with Lisa and Nicky and went ice skating!  Woot!  Mike is so good at it.  I am hopeless.

Ice skating!

The wind was amazing and we got hit by wee pinecones as we walked through the gardens.  Into town and the rain came down.  We found a cafe to shelter and then caught a taxi back.

Back to get the shuttle bus and into the airport.  Delays to flights from the weather meant a later departure from scheduled.  But it was all good.  The flight into Wellington was so bumpy.  Like a rollercoaster.  It made my heart beat a little faster.  And the pilots had to combat ice forming on the way up too - Mike was fascinated.  We could see it really well from our seat.

So - a great flight up.  Exciting.  And we collected Toby from William's place (they are house sitting in Karori) and all went home exhausted.

Bring on the weekend for a quieter time.

Had an absolute blast though.

Love,
Angela