Our New Zealand Vacation: Day Five

Day Five:  25 December 2013


Happy Birthday to Me!

Breakfast was to be served at 08:00.  I think we made it into the dining room by 08:15.  :)  Unfortunately, this was the most unpleasant bathroom we had the whole trip.  The toilet paper was nice and the bathroom was large, but the shower itself was extremely small.  Plus, the floor was linoleum (I think).  It could have really used a nice rug at the vanity and other small touches to make guests feel more comfortable.

Once that was done, though...  the breakfast that was served was really great.  Rosemary served an awesome variety of hot and cold breakfast.  There was yogurt, cereal, homemade bread, chocolate croissants and egg/bacon cups.  The coffee was nice and hot... there was anything you could want.  We met a couple from Germany who were in New Zealand for four weeks and their luggage had been lost.  I felt so bad for them.  Can you imagine?

After they left, we spent some time in conversation with Rosemary and Grant.  It was nice to spend some time getting to know them a bit more before we had to leave.

So it's Christmas morning and it's cold and raining.  Bummer!  I had planned to go bungy jumping.  But in the end it just wasn't going to happen because no one was doing it and also because it was so cold and wet that I couldn't imagine doing it.

We kept hoping we would find a fuel station.  Finally, we found one and stopped for gas.  While there, we bought pre-made sandwiches for lunch along with a couple of cookies.

Then we continued driving to Skyline Queenstown.  I prepaid for 5 luge rides and a gondola ride each.  Thankfully they were still open.  When we got there, it wasn't raining.  It was just cold.  We went in and got our tickets and headed up the gondola.  The gondola took you straight up the mountain.  And up and up and up.  It was very high.  Then you had to get a helmet and take another ride up to the top of the luge.

OMG!  The luge was so much fun!

On the way to Queenstown

Me on the Gondola up to Skyline Queenstown

The Luge Track !!

Me on my luge

Luge track - and now it's raining!

Going back down on the gondola  :(

We did not want to pay $125 per person for dinner at the Skyline Queenstown, so we drove into Arrowtown which is a small village on the way to the Mt Rosa Lodge (our accommodation for the next two nights).

We found one restaurant that was open for dinner.  Bonjour Restaurant gladly made us dinner reservations at 19:00 for Christmas dinner.  That done, we drove to our bed and breakfast to check in.

Mt Rosa Lodge is in the middle of wine country.  It's set quite far behind the vineyard on a gravel road.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  And, of course, you know me.  I just walked into the main house as if I own the place.  I walked straight into Brian as I barrelled in.  LOL

He and Maureen welcomed us with coffee and chocolate cake for my birthday.  What a surprise!  It was totally unexpected.  We sat and talked for quite a while.  We needed to get going for our dinner booking, so Maureen showed us to our room.  The room is perfect and is accompanied by a dream bathroom.  Jim had arranged for cupcakes to be waiting in the room for my birthday, as well.  There were three flavours:  lemon meringue, raspberry and carrot cake.  They were beautifully decorated.  We offered to share them with everyone later.  :)

Our room at the Mt Rosa Lodge

Our balcony overlooking vineyards

Lucy is joined by a friend - Rudy

We changed into warmer clothes and then headed out for dinner at Bonjour Restaurant.  I had the ham, egg and cheese crepes.  Mr. Smith had the mustard chicken on fettuccine.  He also had some French cider.  It tasted like sparkling apple cider we have had in the States, but an alcoholic version.  Because it's Christmas, they add 15%.  :)  Dinner was good and we left to go back to the Lodge.  We were quite tired and had to leave by 07:00 the next morning.

Ugh.

I'm going to need a vacation from my vacation.