Fairlie to Twizel to Queenstown - South Island New Zealand

Yippee Sat. 10-5-13

Today’s excitement was limitless. We headed out of Fairlie but not before we saw where Gavin’s family homestead was, where the picnic bench for his parents was, where his third cousin lived – you get the picture. Next on to see the world's biggest jersey – words can not express how in awe we were of the world’s biggest jersey which was a knit sweater displayed on a wall complete with a plaque from the Guiness World Book of records. What Gavin did not mention was that the owner really did have an amazing display which was a hand made mosaic of over 3 million pieces that took him decades to make. the mosaic covered three walls and was a reproduction of the tapestry of Bayeaux, which we had actually seen when we were all in France. Our next stop was the Church of the Good Shepard which was a charming chapel on Lake Tekapo in Mackenzie County. It is reportedly the most photographed church in New Zealand and Australia. The Church also had a bronzed statue of a collie sheepdog in recognition of the role of the country’s sheepdogs. Next we drove to the to of Mount John which has a huge observatory and they are trying to establish it a world heritage site due to the visibility. The views were definitely unrivaled. Next on to view Mt Cook which is also seen in photographs everywhere. Unfortunately by the time we got there it was socked in with fog, so no Mount Cook for us. We continued driving on through Twizel, and arrived late after noon to out final destination for two days, Queenstown. We booked into our hotel, then headed into town for dinner. We ran into Gavin and invited him to join us. One quick thing we have learned about Gavin is that he shamelessly flirts with any female he encounters – age, looks, speaks the same language - does not matter…..

Dorothy scored with breakfast sandwiches at the Fairlie bakery

Jon and I in downtown Fairlie

The Green Hornet

It's official, the world's largest Jersey is in the Guinness Book of world records !

And Ta - Da - here it is, the world's largest jersey !

Statue dedicated to the herding dogs

Next stop, Lake Tekapo - and the Church of the Good Shepard.

This is the view from inside the church at the altar looking out at Lake Tekapo

More views of Lake Tekapo

Jon at Lake Tekapo

Top of Mount John at the observatory

View from Mount John

It was a slippery climb to get on the rock but worth it because…….

When I am with my guy, I feel like I am on the top of the world !

You can see the windy road we drove to get to the top

Back on the road again heading south

This is at a view point looking at to Mount Cook that of course we could not see because it was socked in with clouds !

More scenery driving to Queenstown

This was a hungry little fellow

Jon is no stranger to danger, note the caution sign

Made it to Queenstown !

Downtown Queenstown

Downtown/waterfront of Queenstown

Jon, Dorothy and Dick

A whole committee came out to welcome us to Queenstown

Gavin found us and grabbed a seat…...

It was down hill from there for Gavin

Fun watching this "Hen Party" which is the Kiwi version of a Bachelorette party

and they are off

Dick and Jon

Who knew - a hat, scarf and mittens all in one….

Monday 10-7-13 en route to Te Anau

We were up early Sun. and can not express our great surprise to learn that Gavin’s girlfriend, Linda, of two weeks, had decided to join us – we all just looked at each other and you can again imagine what we were thinking – We first drove to Arrowtown which was a quaint old “western” town. We then drove back to Queenstown. We took a fabulous cruise on a steam boat over to a sheep ranch were we entertained by watching a sheepdog herd up sheep, then we watched a sheep get sheared. The dogs were so amazing – so intense when they were working. Poor Crew is still mad at us. He is part Australian Cattle dog. He really wanted to go to Australia so he could meet his “people”. I am sure in one of his lives he was a working sheepdog/herder. Next we rode a in a ski gondola, up a mountain, then hopped on a ski lift to the top, where we then each got a luge to ride a down a course. We got to do three runs – all I can say is EEEEEEEEW WEEEEEEEE ! I am convinced that there is no doubt I will qualify for the next Olympic American luge team – it was an absolute blast. This morning we were up and off to Te Anau followed by Linda in her car. We stopped first to take a jet boat ride. This was absolutely thrilling as we sped through river canyons at top speed with the driver purposely coming so close to the sides of the canyon you could touch them. I decided that when I grow up I want to be a jet boat driver. Gavin informed us he had never been to Te Anua and how excited he was to go. At this point we realized how lucky we were to be enjoying Gavin’s vacation of visiting his family and hometown, visiting with his girlfriend, and going places with him that he had never been before. We should be to Te Anau in a couple of hours…...