We almost made it in first time, although three hours late. Despite what the captain of the Airbus 319 told us over the radio, I think he was just wanting to give us all a second view of this amazing part of New Zealand from the air. The bumpy ride in to Queenstown was really just a loosener for the adrenaline trips to come in the next few days. But nowhere in the books will you find a missed approach and go around as part of the must do activities around here!

This is holiday time for Lesley with two weeks off work. It's been a very long time since this has happened at Christmas and New Year, what with the job she's in. She's looking forward to the time off. Our home for the next week is quite appropriately on Edinburgh Drive, Queenstown. Overlooking Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu, the views are very grand. We've been able to relax on the sun terrace in the midsummer sun.

The villa owners are obviously very trusting. They have left a rack of wine in their lounge, and their booze is in a kitchen cupboard. We doubt that they have counted the wine or measured the gin, but we've brought our own drinks. Of less use to anyone is their clothing including ski gear in walk in cupboards. It seems that this is the Kiwi way, you don't clear away all your personal belongings, and we found this in Gisborne as well. They are generous with their food as well….the kitchen cupboards and fridge have a great variety of stuff, some of which is out of date. Being simple folk easy to entertain we amuse ourselves going through the food packets to see from how long ago they kept food…………the powdered onion soup from May 2002 got the prize. Can anybody out there beat that! Actually when we left Ancrum Bank in August we had a clear out of old food and I won't embarrass ourselves by telling you how old some of it was.

A walk though Queenstown tells you what this place is all about. There is no shortage of restaurants and pubs, activity booking centres, or people. Probably 50 % are of Asian origin, and there are no Maoris. I sat for a few minutes in one of the main streets and watched the never ending bustle. '0800-4-RAFTING' and '0800-2-SWING' are printed on the sides of minibuses. Others declare that they do 'SHOTOVER JET' or 'HEN AND STAG PARTY HOSTING'. Why not visit the 'OFF ROAD ADVENTURE CENTRE', 'VERTIGO BIKES', NZ ZONE SKYDIVE' or ECO-EXHILARATION'. After your outdoors blast if you have any dollars left you'll be pleased with the 'FIVE DOLLAR JAGER SHOTS ALL SEASON'. After you filter out the camera toting tourists, most of the folk you are left with are half our age, wearing half our clothes and twice the tan. They look the sort that have been for the ultimate adventure that day or perhaps employees that would be happy to push you off a bridge with only a length of elastic between you and your fate. A browse of Estate Agent's windows tells you that you need to be well endowed with cash to live here - '38 EDINBURGH DRIVE; QUEENSTOWN LIFESTYLE; 4 ENSUITE BEDROOMS; SUPERB LAKE VIEW blah blah; $ 2,000,000. A couple of photos on the 'Queenstown' Album in the blog shows the views that sort of money can buy.

Of course, your stay in Queenstown can also break your wallet in sedentary ways. Thank you to our good friends (you know who you are) who gifted us a superb buffet in the Skyline Restaurant with a ride up the gondola to get there. We check in and are number 42 in the list, well, everybody knows that you need to be early to get a window seat but really wherever you sit you get a to die for view of Queenstown, the lake and surrounding mountains. The multi course buffet is awesome and we go to bed that night swearing we'll never eat as much ever again!

We didn't really mean that, I think, as a couple of nights later, in the company of Katherine and Jenna who have flown in from Dubai for Christmas with us, we step aboard the TSS (Twin Screw Steamer) Earnslaw. This 102 year old ship runs five trips daily from Queenstown to the Walter Peak Station, originally a sheep farm which occupied 60,000 acres of high country. Lesley has booked a dinner buffet cruise, and after drinks on the fore-deck, and a short 35 minute run from Queenstown, we tie up at the jetty. The restored Colonel's House is where the eats are taken. Our expectations are not just met but excelled when the buffet is called. Lesley it seems is trying to tick off desserts and samples 6 of them! For the next part of the evening, Peter, a local fellow, then calls everybody to come over the sheep shearing sheds and proceeds to skillfully demonstrate with his dog King the art of rounding up sheep. To finish, he shears the fleece off a large sheep (it was his fourth today, professional shearers can do 400 in a day). The ships's whistle sounds, and everybody piles back on board, the choice of entertainment being the pianist or the coal fired steam engines, with their constant clackety clackety clack of rods, governors and shafts.

We're relieved to report that we got our daughter and Jenna back from their mad bungy jump. Of course, it had to be the biggest one that they did, a huge 140 metres of fall off the end of a platform........once the staff got the winch fixed back together after a wheel fell off into the canyon below and someone had to go down to retrieve it.

'Merry Christmas…..Merry Christmas……Merry Christmas, the door ushers wish us season's greetings as we leave the local Watchnight Service at 12.15am. Tis the season of good cheer……indeed, until we try to start the Subaru that the villa owners have rented us. Completely dead, no lights or sounds from the ignition. We all know what a dead car sounds like, and this is no different. So we return to the villa, and e-mail the owner who lives in Australia. Yes, I know it's Christmas Eve, should we wait until Boxing Day and give them time off? Not at all, it's just one of these things being at the beck and call of guests in your property. Fortunately (for the owner's manager) the car sleeps in a local car park. Had this happened three hours drive away, who knows what the outcome would have been, for sure I'd have blogged that as well.

There are some ordinary activities that you can undertake here for not a great cost. Ben Lomond towers behind us, and is to Queenstown what Ben Nevis is to Fort William, a local hill. With a dead car parked in town, we walk to the Skyline Gondola, it's only 20 minutes away. It is hard to tell which activities in Queenstown shut down on Christmas Day, but for us the main thing is that the Skyline Gondola is working. We are lifted to a few hundred feet above Queenstown, and then set off up the Ben Lomond Track. This hill is something of a Mecca going by the wide good track to the summit and the number of trampers. Most of the voices are American, and not many New Zealanders. We think that the Kiwis have all climbed it before and are spending time with friends and family, whereas the visitors look for an activity before or after Christmas dinner. Anyway, it's pretty much a full day out and we got the photos so to speak.

Walking back to the villa, we decide just to walk by the car again. Oh heck, it's not there and hearts miss a beat or ten. Stolen? Unlikely. In the police pound? Could be. Mechanic called out on Christmas Day by the owner? Maybe. When we get to the villa 10 minutes later, heart returns to normal, the car is in the garage. The explanation? Owner contacts Manager after my e-mail, manager drives in from Arrowtown half an hour away with husband (and probably youngster in the back seat), gets car started and drives it back home. The explanation, written on a note left for us, is loose battery terminals, simply a broken circuit. The note suggests that this happened when we drove into the car park. Really? I can't resist the last word, and as well as thanking the owner and manager by e-mail, suggest that either they advise guests not to go into any New Zealand car parks, or have the battery leads welded securely to the battery, or a third option, to check the terminals before each guest arrives. Ach, we weren't that inconvenienced by it really.

It's great to catch up with our friends on Skype in the past couple of days……..Avril, Lesley's former job share partner, still holding the fort at Newbattle, Bruce and Sue Dunlop in Ancrum Bank, James and Louisa, my brother John, Gosia, Tom and Monica in Canada, and my Dad in Glasgow by good old landline. We've got seven cards on the mantelpiece, a few e-cards and Christmas greetings. Folks, it's very nice to be remembered, we are pretty far away and not a bit how we are used to Christmas. Katherine and Jenna being here make it a bit more like a family Christmas for us.

So, seems a good time to summarise Queenstown so far. Earnslaw Boat trip, done. Katherine & Jenna - bungy jump, done. Christmas, done. Hill climb, done. White water rafting, done. Katherine & Jenna - freefall skydive, done.