Travel to Queenstown

Today was a big travel day, we drove from Franz Josef to Queenstown.  The whole thing took about 6 hours, a lot of it on windy mountain roads. This country also has a lot of crazy one-way bridges, the signs indicate which direction has the right of way and which direction must wait until it is clear. We even went over one that was also the bridge for the train - we assume the train gets the right of way in this case.

On the way here we stopped in Wanaka at the Puzzle World. It is a collection of strange illusions you walk through.  There is a room full of 3-D faces on the walls that follow you and a room that makes you look tall if you stand at one end and short when you stand at the other end.  The craziest room has a steep slope going one way, but the walls and floor look like they are horizontal.  This means you are very disoriented when you walk because you think you are walking on flat ground, while you are actually trying to go up a hill - it made us dizzy. Outside there is a tilted clock tower that, if you stand in the right place and pose properly, it looks like you are holding it up.  In the picture Colin was actually 50 feet away.

We have come to love a couple of things here in New Zealand, our Tom-Tom and Tim-Tams.  Our Tom-Tom is our GSP navigation system, it has a sweet female voice and gives great directions.  Tim-Tams are amazingly yummy cookies!  We have only tried one kind yet, but there is lots of time to try them all because you can get them in Australia as well!

What we don't appreciate are gas prices - $2.38 per litre!  OUCH!

We just got back from a great meal at Kim's Korean - the food was on par with Matsu Sushi's Korean food (but we still missed our Mr. Kim).

Tomorrow we go jet-boating and then go on a cruise that includes dinner at a local sheep farm.  Look for details tomorrow!