Queenstown, NZ

Hey again. we had a great afternoon here in queenstown. it is a really nice, quaint resort sort of mountain town. actually, this is the "adventure capital of the world." so, we'll start out with the Luge tomorrow. we're taking the gondola up (we decided to wait) and then do the luge down. it will be so much fun and scary. i want to splurge for another adventure before we leave. my choices were paragliding off a mountain, skydiving, or riding in a hot air balloon. julie is hesitant to do the heights stuff with speed, so i think we can compromise and do the hot air balloon. it is a sunrise ride! so, we're going to stay another night tomorrow and do it early saturday am. tomorrow we're going to drive a short 20 kilos to Arrowhead and see Lake Hayes, famous for it's picturesque mirror lake and known for it's autumn leaves. we are truly seeing every shade of yellow and orange and red on the leaves. i bought a Lord of the Rings book today of all the places it was filmed so we can go see them. i also bought another NZ picture book so we can find the pretty places and go there. hey, that's the way i know how to go where.

well, julie tried driving a little and it freaked her out too. i kept screaming b/c she was going to the left and about to hit parked cars in town. i have to admit, driving on the highway wasn't that bad, but driving in town is too hard b/c of all of the weird ways to turn. trust me on that one. so we opted to park and walk the city today. the camp site is really not bad. last night we stayed in a hostel with people from scotland and colorado. fun! tonight we met families next to our campervan's spot and they are so nice too. everyone does this campervan thing here. the facilities are nice too. i was surprised. this is a first for both of us. tonight will be interesting. i hope we are warm. we have a heater. there is a huge lake here and we are surrounded by mountains. this town has a young adventurous spirit to it. tonight we even got free dinner by some place having a special. we're now going to download pics on to cd's. if i'm able to email it i will. we can't use snapfish here b/c there's no quickload upload tool. we'd have to do them one by one and it won't work with all of them.

i'm so excited we are finally here and living out our dream to come! we just met a girl from austin, texas who went to t.u. and is traveling here for 7 months! people are so lucky! i'm just thankful we have these two and a half weeks here!