Day 7 - Queenstown (Part II)

Lance Again:

Christmas Dinner

At last we left off Maggie and I got done with a great hike on Christmas Day.  Maggie signed us up for a special Christmas Dinner on the TSS Earnslaw, which is the original ship that was sent into Queenstown when the town was starting with operations in the timber and coal business.  It's still a coal fire powered ship.  You would think from the beauty of the surroundings and the lake that they would have decommissioned the ship, but Kiwis apparently don't care about that.  This is a picture below of the ship from the Internet.  Maggie and I were late (what's new) to getting to the ship so it almost left without us and we didn't have time to take pictures in front of the ship before boarding.



Took a few pictures of the boiler room and the exhaust- didn't realize that these things existed anymore.



Once on board we were able to relax and enjoy the beauty of the ride across Lake Wakatipu, which has my vote for most beautiful lake in the world.  I mean take a look at all of this beauty the lake provided.

James really enjoyed all of the new sights and the noises on the boat.  There was a piano player playing Christmas tunes on board.  As seen above he also tried his best to take down the Christmas tree.

Once the boat reached the other side of Lake Wakatipu, we were able to make out our dinner location.  A small little farmhouse nestled alongside the mountainside on the bank of the lake.

Ok, maybe not so small.

The Walter Peak Farm was off to a good start- they had Champagne waiting for us when we got off the boat.

Which James kept trying to grab out of my hands.  The little guy loves reaching for the alcohol, I blame his mother.

During Christmas out here they have these things called Crackers.  You twist off the ends and it makes a popping noise and gives you a 'fortune' inside similar to a fortune cookie.  James wanted to add a little bit of American culture to the Kiwi tradition by trying to eat it.  His look says, "It's Christmas, I want to feast."

Since we were having such a great meal cooked for us at the farmhouse, I figured James would want some too.

Nope, he just wanted to gnaw at the table.

I took this picture for my old roommate Jeff.  Everyone gave me a funny look when I loaded my plate with gummies and then took a picture of them.  Worth it, jealous JJ?

After dinner we were treated to the owner of the farmer showing us his sheperding techniques with his dog.  He sent his dog into the woods and a minute later it came back chasing a few sheep into the holding bin.  Once in there he was able to grab the sheep and showed us how they shear the sheep in an incredibly fast motion.  He took all of the wool off the sheep in one piece, it was incredible.

After the show, it was time to cruise back across the lake as the sun was setting over the South Island.  As James fell asleep on the ride back, we enjoyed the views and reflected on a truly special Christmas Day.  We still missed everyone back at home, but this was a great alternative way to spend Christmas Day.

Day 7 - Queenstown (Name truly representative) (Part I)

Lance Again:

Day 7 - Christmas! (Warning Lots of Pictures)

The morning started off pretty lazily.  The Weber family brought all of our Christmas cards from our family down to the South Island so we could open up some presents on the actual Christmas Day.  After going from place to place for the last few days, we didn't really have anything planned for the day, however we had a super fancy dinner planned for the evening so we were able to take our time during the morning to spend some "quality" time in the van getting ready for the day.  We made it to a church in town for Christmas morning service at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, however it was so hot in there I only made it 2/3 of the way through before stepping outside and listening in from a window.

After James got done trying to eat all of the Christmas cards and we got done with a Christmas Morning church service we headed into town.  We were going to meet up with our friends Megan and Rob who were also down in Queenstown with Rob's family who were visiting from Grosse Pointe, MI.  Before we met up with them, we decided to call our families from the beach to say Merry Christmas to everyone back home.  James got to take a nap in an 'okay place' on the beach and relaxed to the waves from the lake in the background.

After we met up with Megan and Rob, I convinced Maggie to do a small hike with me.  When I say convinced, I mean persuaded her against her will.  She really didn't want to put in a lot of effort on Christmas (she was all dressed up from Church), but luckily I was persistent because it was well worth it.  It was labeled as a 'Walkway' but knowing me, I pushed us to the top of the track.  It was about a half mile elevation climb in a very short period, so it was pretty steep.  It took a lot of coercing to get Maggie to not be in a cranky mood the entire time.

Luckily we found a herd of wild mountain goats right away up close and personal.  That made Maggie happy.  After that, the view became kind of incredible when we trudged our way to the top.

Even Maggie couldn't help but being incredibly happy once we made it to the top and saw the view overlooking Lake Wakatipu.

James decided to start snacking on the backpack at the top.

Little Stinker threw his hat over the cliff face.  Luckily he's got dear ole dad who's up for a challenge to retrieve it.

That little orange dot at the top of the hill in the middle is me.

It was an amazing experience to be some of the only people getting a beautiful view of the Lake.  There's only been two times in our lives that Maggie has really fought me tooth and nail on going for a hike (a third would come later on the trip).  The first was the time I took her to a hidden waterfall in Hawaii where we were able to swim around in the pool below it and were blown away by its beauty.  Safe to say Lance was 2 for 2 after this hike.  It was an amazing Christmas Day with some beautiful views.  After the hike we headed back to the campsite to freshen up for our Fancy Christmas Dinner on the TSS Earnslaw.  More to come on that later.

Note from Maggie on the Hawaii hike:  It was an 8 hour hike on our honeymoon.  Through a sticky rainforest with only 2 granola bars and a bottle of water.  I was promised a one hour hike.  I was tricked.