Ski Season? What Ski Season?

We arrived in Queenstown around 1pm on Wednesday. We still had lots of time to check things out so we went down to the i-site to look at a few options and make some bookings.  The Shotover jet came highly recommended so we tried it out. No much in the way of pics and for $129 NZ dollars I wsn't allowed to GoPro it. Fine. They zipped us around the river for 15 minutes racing us close enough to canyon walls that you could slap the stone. It was fun and zippy and they did their 360 degree turns. I nice bit of fun for someone who's not up to throwing himself off a bridge or out of a plane. Over priced a bit though. I think this is the sort of thing my Mom would have enjoyed.

On the plane ride into town I was looking out the window. I could see some snow higher up but for the most part the hills were a greenish beige colour. I couldn't convince myself that there was much skiing going on in QT.  When at the i-site we were told that there wasn't any mountain biking this time of year. Over at another shop, set up with ski stock, the same thing. Finally we made it up to near where the Gondola was. A small station had been set up for bike repair and rentals. Better yet, they were open and riding bikes. We told the guy that everyone says there is no mountain biking in QT right now. He said "I have no idea what they're talking about. There's lots of trails open." I thought to myself "WOOHOOO!".

We ate dinner that night then got ready for a busy day.  We hired a couple of Specialized Pitches  at 10am and started Thursday off with a quick 2 hour ride (push actually) to the top of the bike park. We had some great views from up high.

 

 Hopefully I'll have to Gopro footage to add here as well. 

We had to hustle back to the hotel and be ready for our wine tour($129 nz each) pick up at 12:30. The tour took us to 4 different wineries in the Central Otago region just north of QT. The region is quite well known now for it's Pinot Noir wines. In fact the worlds best Pinot Noir came out of here last year. They do however produce some nice white wines as well.

 Our first winery was at Gibston Valley. I quite liked their Pinot Noir but didn't buy any. I probably should have but it was the first visit and I wasn't yet plied with enough wine to pull out my wallet. 

 Stop 2 was at the Peregrine Vineyard. Not much in the way of whites that I liked here but a very nice Pinot Noir.

 I think stop number 3 was my favorite. Not only we're we the first tour group to get a chance to visit the Chard farm, but there were a number of nice tie ins to my personal interests as well. For starters, a famous yearly XC mtb  race here in Queenstown has it's finish line on this property. Cool I thought. Someone had made a mountain biker out of grape vines.

 The house had a nice Italian rustic feel.

 And the farm is located right above one of the Lord of the Rings film locations, this is where Aragon and the rest of the group are canoeing down river and past the 2 stone kings.

Our favorite Chard farm wine was the Closeburn Chardonnay. Quite tasty and dry. We picked up a couple of bottles.

We visited the Amisfield winery last and took a bottle of their Sav Blanc.

We wrapped up the day with a Gondola trip to the top of the local hill for a tasty buffet dinner. I gather that the restaurant business is pretty competitive here. Everywhere we ate the food was epic in caliber. We forced ourselves out of the buffet restaurant before I was to fat to fit in the Gondola.

The buffet dinner was a good idea though. We had a big day of riding planned for friday and we'd need our mojo.

We rode out to the 7 mile scenic reserve, literally 7 miles away from down. Along the highway we peddled until we got to the smallish trail network. It was a fun day and it was good to get out for  longish ride. 

 

We wrapped up our day with a visit to on Onsen hot pool to help ease our aching muscles.

I'm really glad I got a chance to ride on both Islands. Queenstown was all I've hoped it would be and out timing with the weather was uncanny. I'd like to get back here again sometime when it's a bit warmer. Just for the riding though, and maybe the wines. As a tourist destination, QT has just about every adrenaline activity you can image. If you let it, this place will empty your back account.

When we realized mountain biking was available to us,  we made an effort to change our plans so we could stay longer. The fees for changing flights were too high though. Sadly Saturday morning we started our journey back to Sydney. No worries. We're back at my favorite hotel now. The Rosano-Kylie Paradise Inn. I doubt there will be much in the way of stories to tell over our last 5 days here. Unless Nic and I decide to pull something out of the hat, the plan is to just hang out, read and watch movies. It's back to Canada on Friday.