As many of you have already heard, Queenstown is just like Banff but on steroids. Being my third time there, it didn't disappoint again. Queenstown has every outdoor adrenaline activity you can think of. Anything from go-karting, paragliding, jet boating, bungy jumping, 4x4ing, gold panning, sky diving. You name it; they have it! It is full of tourist and transient workers. It turns out that Banff only has 8,000 people living there compared to the 29,000 in Queenstown and surroundings. The people are very casual, walking and even driving with a drink in there hand seemed to have been a regular occurrence.

Flying from city to city within New Zealand is super easy. For the most part, only Air New Zealand is the carrier. They do no security checks with no ID required, and liquids are OK - no questions asked. You go to a kiosk for your tickets and walk your luggage onto the conveyor belt. You can be there as little as 30 minutes before your flight with no issues (ideal for us as we are ALWAYS late).

Our Condo had a stunning view of the lake and was in between a quieter suburb and Queenstown. Our view out of our window looked as though we were on The Okanagan Lake. Typically we stay in a location within walking distance to all of our amenities, however, in Queenstown, we needed to use our rental car to get around. We found that it was ok when we remembered to drive on the left side of the road - eeeek.

Chris ended up going Bungy jumping at the first in the world Bungee jump location. Now they have around 200 people jumping per day from this location. It was a stunning view off of a bridge into the bright blue river. Chris described it as the right balance of fear and excitement. Once it was all done, he said it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. Leading up to Chris booking his Bungy jump Chris did some research on neck and back injuries from it and was quite concerned. Of course, nothing happened, but the best part was that in the evening while going down the stairs he sprained his angle on the last step. No need to worry Mothers, it was just a minor sprain.

The Queenstown gondola takes you up to see a stunning view of Queenstown and the lake. They had a fun luge course at the top of the mountain for adults and kids to go down. We, of course, jumped on this adventure for Jada. The line seemed to have taken a very long time as you had to pass a little luge driving test first. With all of the Asian tourist there this caused a very slow line up as there driving skills are just not on par. Sorry to offend anyone, but it's true :)

We did a few little road trips, one in which was to a town called Arrowtown which is an old gold mining town. It looked as if we were right in Heritage Park, but it was an actual living town with lots of gold panning adventures that are still active.

As you know by now, we always have to update you on our food experience. Overall we enjoyed the food in Queenstown (and all of NZ). Pretty hippie like food, everything is fresh, organic, grass-fed, and with lots of Vegetarian options. We ate a lot of Lamb, and every time we had it, it was delicious.

Queenstown was our last stop in New Zealand. Off to Australia next...

Love the Joneses,

XOXO