Texas Friends Arrive!

Our friends, Karla and Tom arrived the next day and were so glad to finally be off planes. Considering the travel time to get to NZ, they were dealing with the jet lag pretty well. Collected their luggage, loaded the van and headed south for Dunedin. On the way there, we stopped at the the Moeraki Boulders. I've never seen anything like them!

So here's the explanation about these boulders. They are classed as septarian concretions and were formed in ancient sea floor sediments. They were formed by a process similar to the formation of oyster pearls where layers of material cover a central core. For the boulders, the core was a fossil shell, bone fragments or a piece of wood. Lime minerals in the sea accumulated on the core over time and the concretion grew into perfectly spherical shapes up to 3 metres in diameter. The original mudstone seabed has since been uplifted to form coastal cliffs. Erosion of the cliffs has released the 3 ton boulders which now lay jumbled across the beach. Further erosion has exposed a network of veins which gives the boulders the appearance of turtle shells.

We arrived in Dunedin around 4 pm and arranged to tour the Speights Brewery and have dinner in their restaurant. It was a great tour and a super dinner. They still brew their beer in the original copper tanks. The next morning, we boarded the Taeiri Gorge train for an all day excursion. The weather was pretty cold and that suited our Texas friends quite well! They views were fantastic.

The next day, we left for Wanaka and several days exploring around Fiordland and Queenstown. While we were there, there was snow on the mountains, the winds were really wicked and then it snowed overnight.

Here's when we arrived.

Here's the same mountains after the overnight snow. Again, our Texas friends were ecstatic! We drove to Queesntown one day and had a great time. We drove the Crown Range to Queenstown and it was an amazing drive - had snow down to the road and thankfully none on the road. I must admit though that the drive out of the range down into Queenstown was one of the scariest I've done in a long time. There were at least 7 switchbacks down the mountain, one right after another. I was having trouble making it around some of them with the van, I can't imagine a large truck trying to navigate them. Queenstown is absolutely beautiful laying along the lake and with the Remarkables (mountain range) in the background.

This photo was taken from the gondola at the top of one of the mountains surrounding the city

Actually, before we rode the gondola, we road the jet boat on the Kawarau & Shotover Rivers.

Here's the boar we rode. These boats travel up shallow channels at speeds of up to 50 MPH in water less than 2 inches deep. They do 360 degree turns and try to drive as close to cliff walls or bridge abutments as they can - all for the thrill of it. It was GREAT!

Here's Ernie all prepped for the ride. I'm already in the front of the boat waiting for everyone else to load on

A shot of the Remarkables from the boat.

Another view of the Remarkables as we stopped at this resort to pick up two more riders.

 After the jet boat ride and lunch, we rode the gondola and then rode the Skyline luge a couple of times (see skyline.co.nz) to see what the luge ride is like. you ride down a concrete track on a wheeled sled. The handlebars are the brakes (pull forward to apply brakes, push forward to release brakes and fly down the track.) What fun!

Having so much fun created an awful thirst for us so we just had to go to the Below Zero Ice Bar. Yes, an ice bar. The bar is made entirely from over 30 tons of crystal clear, hand-sculpted ice. The walls, the bar, the furniture, the sculptures and even the glasses are all made out of ice.

I'm going to end this post at this time since I need to put the turkey in the oven and start getting food ready for our Thanksgiving dinner. While New Zealand doesn't celebrate this holiday, Joelle and Trevor do. They all had to work today and Jasmin is in school. We'll have our dinner tonight when they all get home. What's sort of cool is that while it is Friday today, it is Thursday in the US and we are celebrating on the real US holiday.

Hope y'all have a happy thanksgiving and don't stuff yourselves too much.