Paul and Jean's Blog: New Zealand South Island (Day 7)

DAY 7 QUEENSTOWN FRIDAY 9.2.07

Slow to rise on an overcast morning. Fair bit of rain overnight but not like the heavy rain we see here in the tropics. Views out over the Remarkables from bed showed cloud levels down as low as our 5th floor apartment. Very beatutiful & relaxing.

Complimentory breakfast at the resort but then we had to check out of our luxury apartment as this room was available for one night only. Not far to go though as we were to be relocated to another unit in the complex though not in the rooms right on the lake. Still, very comfortable accommodation.

Jean wanted to go and attack the local wineries and after some initial resistence (10 seconds) I eventually let her have her way. Headed out towards Arrowtown - at least we knew where we were going for a change. While we were going that way we decided to check out where Millbrook Golf Club was situated so we wouldn't waste time the next morning looking for it. Only took us a couple of goes to find it - proof we were getting marginally better.

Then pulled in to a nearby winery at Amisfield (at the Arrowtown turnoff). A well presented winery with the premium wine of this region being Pinot Noir. I had elected to drive an Jean was the appointed taster for the day. I just chatted to the wineman and ended up upsetting him when I commented that I find Pinot Noir insipid. Here's a clue - if ever you want to stir up the local vignerons tell them their pride & joy is like cat's piss. He launched into an assault on Australian Pinot Noir saying that they are all crap and I agreed with him. Fired him up a bit more I think. He went & got his top of the range Pinot out to proove the point (probably much better than what he was feeding to the other paying tasters). I had to concede that it was pretty good ( which saved him from heading for a rope and a long drop) but give me a good full bodied red any day.

Next "dropped" in to the A J Hackett bungie centre and watched the fearless and brainless do their thing. Tried to negotiate three dives for the price of two but when they wouldn't agree I didn't bother. The highlight was a brave little 10 /11 year old girl who marched up to the edge and went straight off - too young to fear!

Gibbston Valley wines was our next stop. They had a wine information tour which was conducted by a very knowledgable & personable hostess who spoke of the trials & tribulations faced by wine growers in the region. Problems included snow in summer, frosts that had to be dispersed by hired helicopters, birds eating the grapes, rabbits ringbarking the vines etc etc.

Their wine was stored in a tunnel dug 70+ meters into the side of a mountain through schist rock. Keeps the wine at a steady 14 degrees in winter and summer. Tested a couple of their
wines (quite good) and at the conclusion of their tour decided to tackle a bit of lunch at the winery restaurant. Had one of the best anti pasto platters we have ever had the pleasure of demolishing. Washed it down with an aged Chardonnay for me and an oaked Sav Blanc for Jean.
Marvellous stuff.

Dropped back to the outrigger and rebooked into our new room - not as sumptious as our previous room but still very modern & comfortable just the same. Left the car there and hoofed it up to the gondola to walk off our lunch. A pleasant stroll and 20 minutes later we were headed sky bound in the gondola to the top of the mountain. Magnificient views out across Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables. This lake is really something - over 80km long and up to 1300 feet deep.

Good facilities up there with a bar , restaurant, games room, luge, bungy jumping into the forest , gift shops etc. Had a cold one sitting at the window overlooking beautiful Queenstown. A very pleasant way to spend a few minutes. Back down "the hill" then off to the Minus 5 Bar. In for the first session at 6pm and we were the only ones for the 6 o'clock time slot. Costs $25 per head for half an hour in the ice bar and that includes entry fee, your Antartic weather gear and your first vodka cocktail in an ice glass. Fitted out with mittens & heavy coat & away we went.
Eighteen tonnes of ice has gone into making this bar which is situated in a cold room. Except for the floor everything is made of ice - the walls, the bar, the sculptures and the seats - which even with deer skins spread over them were too cold to sit on. All cocktails are served in your own ice glass and at the conclusion of the tour you throw it in to the bin to break it (must be a NZ/ Greek thing).

Our hostess hadn't heard of Mackay or Brisbane or The Great Barrier Reef but had heard of Sydney , Canberra and thought she might have heard of Cairns. Yet another reminder when you are in an overseas country how little the rest of the world know about us - but I was surprised that our seventh state representative was this poorly informed. Regardless, she was an excellent hostess and the half hour passed in a blink. That is as long as you could take in there as it really is as cold as a mole on a polar bear's hole.

Back to the unit to change into some warmer clothes and off to town for dinner. Ever since I ate Korean in Tokyo I have been telling Jean how good it was. Well, here was my chance to proove the point as Queenstown has 2 Korean restaurants. Murphy's law - must have got the wrong one. The only "round eyes" in the place were ours and the food, other than the meat, was diabolical. "Tasty" asides included seaweed, spicy pickled cabbage, pickled raddish, noodles, soup that resembled dishwater in colour and taste and some slimy thing that ought to have been in a sewer rather than on our plate. This pile of tripe was "complemented" with a crap bottle of wine (from an expansive cellar of 3 bottles) at a ridiculously expensive price. I thought I'd have to catch a dog and lick it's bum to get the taste out of my mouth but fortunately we found the chocolate shop on the way home and grabbed a feed of chockies that achieved the right result.

The night finished on an even lower note watching Australia lose to the Poms in the first one day cricket final.

Visit: www.amisfield.co.nz

www.gvwines.co.nz