Queenstown

Apr 25, 2011| by administrator

Saturday

We got lucky with another day of mostly great weather. It rained a good bit last night and there was a prediction of 40 percent chance of rain, but we only encountered some light showers during our horseback ride this morning. We started off crossing a fairly deep river, and many of our group members got water in their boots and some of our guides were in up to their saddles (brr!).

I, unfortunately, had a stubborn horse (is there any other kind?) that wanted to eat along the way and for whatever reason, he got spooked or something and bolted, leaving me on the ground! I was so glad it happened on soft ground and not rocks. I fell on my left shoulder and back, but thank goodness no major harm done. Also, riding with an English saddle did not help, but I’m fine. I got back on the horse and continued the ride, which lasted about 3-hours through some fabulous scenery (the valley was “Middle Earth” in Lord of the Rings). I think we are all feeling it tonight—although we have some very experienced riders on the trip. They divided us into two groups—ours being the less experienced bunch. I don’t feel as bad because one of the guides was thrown off her horse, too, and it took off galloping towards the barn.

We headed back to Queenstown from the ranch, which is located near Glenorchy, at the west end of Lake Wakatipu. We had lunch back at the lodge and then we were off to Arrowtown for a rugby game on a beautiful sunny afternoon. This quaint gold rush town looks colorful with its leaves from introduced trees such as willows, maples and oaks. The town is hosting an autumn festival next weekend. The colorful trees were brought in from England and other places; most of the native New Zealand trees (beeches) do not change.

About 4:30 p.m. we arrived at the lake for our parasailing adventure. What a thrilling ride that was! It was really gorgeous from up there too, I was so busy taking pictures I had no time to be scared. You take off and land from the boat. The view of the lake and surrounding mountains was magnificent. As I mentioned earlier, Lake Wakatipu is 1200 feet deep, 6-9 degrees C, 53-miles long and over 100 feet below sea level at the bottom. It is 98 percent pure; you can drink the water!