Into the Kiwi

Well our vacation officially started yesterday morning, and I must say Queenstown has been more than up to the task as a superb ball roller. I have never experienced any kind of flight landing like it. We basically touched down nearly on top of a mountain before a field opened up just in time, got off the plane old school style (right on to the runway) and entered a smallish yet stylish structure that had the size of a small office building but still a functioning airport. After a half dozen wows and a quick look at brochures we boarded our Super Shuttle for Queenstown proper.
As one would expect a mountain town in the twilight of its winter season to be, it is cold, cold, cold. But it is also beautiful beyond words. Think Grand Tetons in overabundance. The ski bum, mid-20 travel hungry and career indecisive culture is rampant but so is genuine warmth amongst the masses. Our hostel has their groove down pat and we have found staying there so far to be a fairly painless yet still memorable experience. We have stayed so far with two guys, Damien and Benjie (from Australia and England respectively) and they are both good guys. Benjie as I have recently found, just cracked 3 of his ribs snowboarding today and is on the edge of coherency, loaded up with morphine and codine. Yikes!
Our adventures so far have included a fair amount of walking, including a two way, rather strenuous hike up a mountain to avoid high gondola fees (plus we just had a gondola ride in Keystone! Thanks R and K!), my very own and very first luge ride in the midst of gorgeous mountain top vistas, a famous eat in at Fergburgers which never seems to be devoid of at least 75 people at any given time (apparently in the top 3 things to do in Queenstown) and an all day tour to the Milford Fiord’s, which I cannot begin to tell you how gorgeous that was. The pictures can only do so much justice. Suffice it say, New Zealand, in aesthetics, has more than lived up to its reputation. This particular tour included the comedy of our driver Mangee, encounters with dolphins, seals and wild penguins and new friends made in an Aussie couple, Laura and Andrew.
As it stands we have been pleased as punch so far with everything we’ve experienced. Assuming I can work out an ominous email I received from Travelocity regarding our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Amman needing to be adjusted, we can fully enjoy without worry our LORD OF THE RINGS TOUR tomorrow.  Till then friends!