A very expensive and busy day today but then we are in Queenstown. We started in a pretty relaxed manner until we thought we might make it to the 10am cruise on the TSS Earnslaw. A spurt of speed on David's part and faith on mine meant we did make it, just ! David returned saying we had missed it as they had pulled in the gang plank but from my observations of yesterday I knew they kept a second one open for much longer so sent him off again. The cruise across was lovely and gave a fabulous view of the shore and the lake. We had chosen to go on the Walter Peak Farm tour, this was a good plan as the girls enjoyed meeting the sheep, heighland coos, deer and seeing the sheepdogs at work. I was just sad they didn't say comebye at any point, to be honest it was a little blast from the past and the when One man and his dog was on TV. On the tour there were some pretty annoying people who hogged all the areas and would not let the girls have a look in. Partway through the tour we had morning tea which was yummy with sultana cake, cheese and onion bread and pikelets with jam and cream. The girls ate very little of it. The day had at first been crisp but soon heated up and the time spent on the veranda was glorious. The boat returned at about 1 and we cruised back to Queenstown and I spent the time chatting to a lovely couple who were travelling for 5 weeks. Their elder daughter had IVF at ARGC and now has 2 little boys.
We then walked through the town to see what it was like and bought sunhats for David and I and lunch for us all from a bakery. We then walked up to the Skyline and bought gondola and 3 luge rides, a little pricey but worth a try.
The view from the top of the site was simply stunning and only got better when we caught the chairlift up to the top. Chairlifts are interesting with a baby on your knees. Fortunately Elizabeth was very well behaved and there were no scary moments. The luge down was good fun and Alex really enjoyed it and wanted to go on the 'flying chairs' again to go down again. On the way down Elizabeth was heard going oooo, weeee and woooo; Alex kept saying ' Why braking Daddy ?'. A great success !
After the luge we walked down to look at the Sky Swing - totally nutty ! This was followed by a walk to the shop to buy an icecream which we ate on the viewing platform. The girls sat in one of the original gondolas on the platform to eat theirs. We were interested to read that the entire complex had been built to allow tourists to get to the view at the top and had no ski links whatsoever.
We then left the gondola, I went with Elizabeth and David followed later with Alex who had decided at the last minute she needed a wee. By the time they were down Elizabeth was fast asleep in her pushchair. We walked back via a very poor supermarket so we ended up with KFC for dinner.
Both girls now playing happily