D58 & 59 -- Queenstown letdown

Thomas had really big plans to engage in all sorts of adventurous activities once we got to Queenstown: rafting, river surfing, rapelling, bungy jumping, and more. The weather, however, had other ideas. It was so cold and rainy that neither of us had the desire to do much of anything outside. We were also exhausted after the Milford Track, so we used our first two days in Queenstown to veg out, catch up with family and friends, and try to cope with the loss of our beloved laptop. I had hoped that it would still work after its fall on the bus, as we've dropped it from that height before. (Yes, we are big clumsy dorks.) I guess they just don't make them to be dropped from 6 feet, let alone dropped twice. Luckily, it looks like insurance will cover the replacement cost. Go USAA!

One of the things we did a lot of was watch movies. On the recommendation of our Aussie hiking buddies we rented The Dish. It's about the men that worked on the Australian satellite dish that transmitted the moon walk images back in 1968. Check it out - it has a nice story and had actual images and audio tranmissions from the mission. We also watched the first two movies in the Lord of the Rings triolgy. We'd seem them before but it was fun to pay more attention to the scenery and wonder where in New Zealand certain scenes were shot. The mountains right next to Queenstown, called The Remarkables, were in the movie. We could have gone on a tour of some of the other locations they used, but I think Thomas didn't want to "ruin the magic."

We did drag ourselves out in the weather to check out a Maori cultural show and dinner. They had a set up a small village to show how Maori people lived centuries ago, taught us some Maroi words and traditions, and performed songs and dances (haka) for us. For you rugby fans out there, one of the haka they performed was the one that the New Zealand All Blacks do before matches. All the men had to get up and learn the haka, and they were supposed to look very fierce while performing it. Thomas, as you can imagine, has a hard time looking fierce. It was pretty funny, and I was glad to have our camera with us. He got his revenge, though, when I had to get up with the women to learn the Poi dance. After all the dancing we were served a hangi dinner, which means that the food is cooked in an underground oven on hot stones. Some of the food, like pumpkin, was traditional Maroi, though I don't think the french fries were as authentic :)

-Elva