Day 12 Saturday (13/08/2011)

So, the plan for today?  Breakfast, then hit the Queenstown markets.  There wasn't many stalls, but what there were, were very nice and arty.  Handmade jewelry, mostly, some ceramics, photography etc.  Ian bought me this gorgeous necklace (from Ayelet, thanks Ayelet) and we bought a necklace each for our daughter and daughters-in-law.

Then home for lunch; just an egg and salad sanger.  A nice relax for a couple of hours, then we HAVE to (Ian is pushing this idea!) walk the Tiki trail up to the Skyline Gondola Restaurant and Cafe.  Now I've been up the mountain on the gondola and know how high and how steep that mountain is!  I KNOW this is going to be hard.  My fear is that I get halfway up, get utterly exhausted and can't go up OR down!!!  We get to the base ready to start and Ian realises he hasn't got his phone, so at my suggestion, I start up the hill while Ian goes back to get his phone. I can't believe it.  It is so scary and steep; I can hardly see the path (because it's just a scant dirt track in places) and I'm terrified of falling.  I'm scrambling over rocks, practically crawling, clinging to every tree and rock I can find.  Can someone please tell me why there is a group of small Japanese children with a twenty year old teacher happily descending like it's a walk in the park???  Ian finally caught up to me after about twenty minutes.  It took another grueling (for me) whinging, painful sixty minutes to get to the top, and yep it was just like I thought; halfway up I didn't want to finish, but I COULDN'T  go back down..... waaaaaaahhhhhh!

It was good to get to the top and I really enjoyed my caramel/choc ice-cream as a reward.  Thanks Ian, so kind!  I took photos of The Remarkables; almost missed the sunset.  It wasn't as pretty as last time and I had a 70-300mm lens last time so was able to get a bit closer to the subject then.  Oh well.  Anyway, we totally enjoyed the free ride down in the gondola.  Fun!

We walked over to the Winter Sports Expo - boring (sorry to all you people mad on winter sports).  We walked through town on our way home and decided to buy dinner because we saved money walking up the hill.  Hmmm, everyone is always lined up outside Fergburger... well.... for Ferg's burgers and we would have tried one but there was such a huge lineup!  What is it with these burgers???  Are they the best in the world or something???  Nextdoor is Ferg's Pies - next best option peut-être?  Ian tried the Beef and Stout pie and I had the Mince and Cheese pie.  I'm convinced!  Yum!  This is a 10/10 pie, no question and it's not even chicken!  The chicken was SOLD OUT!!!

FREEZING COLD!!! Home to warm camper, showers and telly, cups of tea and coffee, Mars Bars and scones!  haha.

Ian and I find it so funny that we see all these people hobbling around on crutches or with their arms in slings.  Snow sports are obviously pretty dangerous going by the high percentage of the population here with injuries.

Ian catching up to me on the Tiki Trail to the Skyline Gondola Restaurant and Luge

The view from the Tiki Trail.  Look how high we are!  Eeek!

The way was made a little more treacherous because of ice and snow on the path

Sunset view of The Remarkables