Queenstown, New Zealand - Day 1

Jan and Randy Robinson on the Earnslaw stern-wheel paddleboat, Lake Wakatipu

We were told to put our bags outside our door at 7:15am Sunday morning. At 8:30 afer a quick breakfast we boarded the bus to the airport and boarded the plane to Queenstown. Auckland is on the North Island and Queenstown is on the South Island, so we flew over a lot of beautiful, scenic New Zealand on the way. [our aerial view of New Zealand] - [one aerial view of mountains]. As we neared Queenstown, the views were 'postcard' everywhere you looked. The view as we were about to land was unbelievable [view of Queenstown airport]!

[group exiting the plane in QT] - [our plane with mountains] - [Regans at QT Aiport entrance] - [Robinsons at QT Airport entrance]

We walked around the other side of the airport (very small airport) and were whisked away in helicopters! [Jan getting in helicopter] [group shot from helicopter] In this picture, you can see the plane we just left (top), the small airport terminal (middle) the rest of the group waiting for their helicopter, and a small blue stunt plane (bottom) which does stunt flying - which you can ride in! That would have been fun, but we didn't get to it.

We flew the helicopters over mountains, over rivers, through valleys, and would have had lots of great photos if I hadn't run out of film with that river shot (my 3rd photo on the helicopter).  The ride was great fun for both Jan and me (and I assume everyone else) and I tried to talk them into taking me back and forth to the airport again, but there wasn't enough room <sigh>. We soon landed at a New Zealand ranch where we were scheduled for an outdoor BBQ . The ranch was called Moonlight Estates, and in this picture you'll see a tent structure in the center - that's where we had a great BBQ meal, New Zealand style (which seemed an awful lot like US style too, but had lamb meat added). On the left you'll see some horses and on the right are the stables. The sun was beating down and we found a few bottles of Watkins sun screen and everyone shared.

After the BBQ, they brought out dessert, my favorite part of any meal, and it was New Zealand ice cream. I didn't expect much, but it may have been the best ice cream I've ever had! It was raspberry, I believe. So after dessert, we divided into 2 groups, one group got in vehicles [group 1], the other got on horses. We headed out to a skeet shooting range. Of course the group in the vehicles got there first, which included all of the Summit Group members.

At the skeet shooting range, we all took our turn to shoot at the clay pigeons with a shotgun. Laurine Huston won the female competition and tied with the top male winners too with 7 out of 10 hits. There were 4 males tied for first place, Randy Robinson (the "me" in this story, even though Jan helped with the text), Walter Whitehurst, Shawn Bandick, and Bonnie's Guest (so sorry, we can't recall his name!). So we had a "shoot off" to determine the winner. As I was shooting my first shot, I had it, I knew I had it, it was right in my sights, I knew it so much that my focus was gone and I missed it! So Shawn Bandick won the competition.

As group 1 was getting close to finishing their competition, group 2 on the horses were just over the hill. And 3 steps away from getting off the horses, unfortunately, Watkins Corporate Staff Delores Antunes fell off of her horse as it came down a hill and she broke 4 ribs and her collar bone. She was in pain and we had a short time of anxiety wondering how badly she was hurt, but help came quickly and she went to the hospital in Queenstown. This was the first injury in Watkins trip history according to Lynn Zielke, trip coordinator for Watkins. When we heard that she had broken bones and did not have internal injuries or other very serious problems, the whole group was relieved, though still concerned about her.

Group 2 finished their skeet competition (and I don't know who won!) and it was group 1's turn to horseback ride back to the ranch. For some reason, there weren't too many people who wanted to ride the horses back. The Summit Group members took the van back. That's Susanne Bandick and Steve in front, and me, Peter, and Ann-Marie in back.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, 4-wheel drive vehicles had gathered, waiting for us. We were in for quite a ride!

We loaded up into the 4-wheel drives [part of the group, the 4-wheel drives, and on the far right, our driver] and headed out at a quick pace. We drove through rivers, over large rocks, and up hills/mountains. [riding through the river] - [rocky road] - [typical road up in the hills (I'd call it a mountain)] - [looking over the edge1] - [looking over the edge2] The edge pictures are what we saw looking out the window of the 4-wheeler - couldn't see road - just a drop of hundreds of feet down the side of the mountain to the river. All the time, slipping and sliding on the dirt road. If you look closely, you'll see the river at the bottom of the drop - it's the grey area. It was a lot of fun, a bit scary, and I'm very happy we did it!

As we are driving through all of this, our driver is describing how the river we are travelling through and over, is the richest river in the world for GOLD! And at the end of the thrilling ride, we all get out, get a lesson on panning for gold, [driver/guide giving lesson with Steve Bretzke, Jan Robinson, and Shawn Bandick watching intently] and are given our own pans and we start looking for the yellow stuff.

In my first pan, I found what looked like gold. I showed it to our guide. He said, "Oh, that's nothing." and promptly stuck it in his pocket. He did the same thing with Jan and several others. It's some kind of running joke, but I wonder if it's also how he gets his tips!

After a while, we got back in the 4-wheeler and experienced another thrilling ride back.

We rode vans to our "hotel" which we were seeing for the first time. It's called the Millbrook Resort. I don't know what to call our room. It was much more than a room. More like a condo. [outside look at our room] Full (small) kitchen with dishwasher, oven/stove, microwave, fridge, dishes, utensils, etc. Living room with TV and VCR [view from livingroom]. Bedroom with huge bed with thick down comforter - Jan and I agreed - the most comfortable bed we've ever slept in. When I layed down on it, it was like heaven. Next to the bed was a Bose stereo system with Bose speakers mounted high on the walls, with CD and radio. The bathroom had a huge tub  you could fit 4 people in and heated towel racks to keep your towels warm, glass shower stall, marble sinks and counter. Luxurious is the best description of this 'room.' [bedroom with part of view out windows] - [here's what the view really looked like out of our windows (with Jan and me standing outside)]

So, we got back to our room, freshened up, dressed and took off to board the Earnslaw stern-wheel paddleboat and boated down Lake Wakatipu. It was great fun. There were hors d'oeuvers of all kinds, drinks and the most beautiful scenery. [Jan and I on the bow (same pic as above)] - [Summit Group enjoying the hors d'oeuvers - Loretta, Jan, Peter, Walter, Steve]- [Jan and Ann-Marie talking and inside view of Earnslaw] - [view of lake and mountains from Earnslaw]

We went up the 50 mile long lake for about 20 miles to Walter Peak Station, a sheep ranch and more. There, we enjoyed a 3 hour multi-course meal in elegent Kiwi style. Towards the end of the meal, I wandered outside to enjoy the view and the quiet for a minute and saw an small animal wandering around the grounds. It was a wild hedgehog. It was fun watching it sniffing around for food. It didn't even notice I was there, until there were 4 or 5 of us out there watching. After the meal, we went out to the "barn" and watched a demonstration of their well-trained Australian Sheepdogs round up sheep with whistle signals. [dog and sheep] They brought out some furry cattle and let people sit on it and get their picture taken (we didn't do it), and demonstrated how to shear sheep [sheep shearing demo]. We all called this our midnight sheep shearing demonstration.

We took a fast hydroplaning boat back to Queenstown and taxis back to our rooms for a well-earned, great night's sleep in our wonderful bed.

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