Queenstown & Arthur's Pass

With the striking scenery, dashing damsel and brilliant looking beard you might mistake this photo for a scene in the Two Towers. Indeed this area is where Gandalf was photographed for his promotional stills, and was depicted as the trail to Helms Deep. Specifically just behind us is where Legolas miraculously mounted Gimili's horse after shooting Wargs. After taking this brief photo we jumped back into our Helictopter! We were then whisked back towards the airport flying over Queenstown. We had tried to land on the top of the mountains of Mordor, the Remarkables, but gusting winds forced our retreat to this lower landing. Both Regina and Jay's first time in a helicopter, and very memorable! Thanks for this Christmas present!
This view shows the incredible cloud patterns and weather movement of the 'high' country . We are riding the chair lift to the 'Luge' after riding the Gondola to the top of Bob's Peak. The Luge was Regina's favorite activity in Queenstown, however there were slim pickings: 60 Mph Jet boat ride with 360 turns, 2.5 hour horse trek, LOTR helicopter ride.

A view from the gondola as we ride down. The gondola rises 1200 meters vertically at an average angle of 39 degrees, very very steep and impressive to ride. The Remarkables are in the background where we tried to land on the far left ridge before retreating to the lower hill in the foreground.
In Queenstown we also took a trail ride that followed a creek through a canyon and then turned back to follow the ridge back to the stables. This brief instant is when we may or may not have had actuall control of the horses during our 2.5 hour ride. The scenery here was very stark and very beautiful, a little on the hot side it was a nice feeling when crossing the stream (we must have done this over 20 times) and the horses ahead and behind would splash water on us. A bit of an adventure: one of the other "experienced riders" took a tumble when 'cantering' on the way back. The guide leading us inexperienced green horns took off to check on the lady (she was fine, with not harm done to her Mercedes Benz brand sunglasses and matching water bottle) Jay took this smile of fate and tried to get his own horse 'Sid' to a canter. Sid wasn't having it though having just hauled 90% of his body weight around the hills and had had quite enough work for one day. Jay did succeed in getting Sid to trot for about 30ft. Jay didn't consider this a defeat, it was definitely a tie. The guide mentioned that Jay made their biggest horse look small.
With the sunsetting on our Queenstown adventures we headed up the Crown Ridge Road (The highest paved road in NZ) on our way out of town. We are headed back to Christchurch, via the scenic route to fly back to Auckland and ultimately back to our cover identities as business owners in Colorado.

This sign on the inn (used as the inspiration for the Prancing Pony) just made sense as we drove past.

'Speights' The beer of Rugby players. Regina had a sip and had high praise for its bouquet of rich barley and hops with a strong medium flavor and a smooth finish. She commented "it's nice, we could have been drinking this the whole time." Jay thought it unwise to spoil the moment with the common Rugby terms revolving around Speights. "Getting Pissed, Piss-up, and Shit-Fight, came readily to mind but Jay thought "why can't this beer be all things to all people?"

Here is a photo of the now most wanted thief on Interpol's most wanted list. Jay and Regina always keep a wary eye out for the forces of darkness that would prey on the blissfully ignorant and naieve international traveller. However, this local was a born natural with a real talent for deceit and betrayal. The heist began with a darling touristic photo op of the perpetrator in the trees. Regina and Jay were lulled into a sense of awe and wonder at this most beautiful native, the furthest thing from minds was the sense of danger that should have presented itself. Our little friend then started to lull Regina and Jay into a sense of amusement as he came closer and comically ate a cracker that Jay gave him after a loud 'awwwkkk'. Little did they know this was just the cold calculated movements of a real professional.

As soon as the novelty of the feathery visitor wore off, the game was afoot. The kea first feigned fatigue and moved to the creek for a sip of water returning nonchalantly to the campervan and displaying the "i am so cute, would you happen to have any other snacks in there" act, morosely pecking at the crumbs of the first cracker. By this time Regina had busied herself organizing the front of the campervan and Jay was reluctant to dole out any of the heavily rationed lemon crisps. The kea then wandered back down to the water and pulled the "pitiful" card by lifting out old scraps of food left in the creek by previous campers.
Suddenly the wind seemed to shift and Jay realized something was not right. The kea had been spending too much time by the creek and Jay decided to investigate. The awful truth struck home when Jay discovered one of the waterbottles that had been placed in the creek to cool after boiling drinking water had been pecked through. But the nightmare had only begun. With an outtcry of disbelief Jay alerted Regina to the predator in their midst. It was, of course, too late. The bait had been too finely laid and the trap had been sprung. In half horror and half amusement, Jay watched as the kea disembarked the back of the campervan with the entire tub of canola-oil softened margarine table spread gripped firmly in his curved-fruit-eating-forager beak. Regina was just in time to see the kea loping across the campsite because the weight of the butter tub denied the crook a clean flying get away. The kea had set its sights high and scored big. Awkwardly, yet expertly, he disappeared across the creek, over some logs and into the underbrush, gone forever. Jay and Regina opted not form a possee to attempt a recovery as they were both stunned and surprised into paralysis. Paralysis gave way to tears of laughter, the tears stung when the realization of their betrayal took hold and finally turned to the bitter taste of ashes in their mouths. That dinner of noodles, corn and black beans could have used more butter.
Talking to locals in a cafe the next morning they were consoled. After telling our story to the lady behind the counter she said "Oh, cheeky Keas. I've seen one unzip an entirebackpack with it's beak!" Another lady came out of the back to say, "Are you talking about keas? They are so cheeky!" We learned that this type of bird is apparently the most intelligent creature in the entire animal kingdom per brain size. This information would have been useful to us YESTERDAY.

On our way through Arthur's Pass going to Christchurch we saw some unique Kiwi engineering as exhibited in this photograph.