Day 23
Summary: Browsed shops in Queenstown, visited Kiwi Birdlife Park and saw kiwis, rode the luge
Friday, January 24th
We had a great view from our hotel room – we could see the hill where they filmed some scenes from Lord of the Rings!
We had breakfast at Joe’s Garage. I had a delicious avocado toast and an apple juice that was more like apple cider (which was fine with me).
I drank more apple juice on this trip than I have probably in the last twenty years! It started when we were at the Australia Zoo and we were sweating so much and drinking tons of water, but I wanted some sort of juice for lunch just to drink something with flavor in it. Apple juice sounded refreshing and it ended up being so good! The brand was Keri, and if you are ever in Australia, you should try and find it! I actually had several different brands of apple juice during our trip, including Presha Fruit. The label specifically said it was made from Pink Lady apples and it was so good! I feel like the regular apple juice I remember when I was young was super sweet but the ones I tried on our trip were very refreshing. As someone who doesn’t drink alcohol, it was fun to try lots of different juices made from local apples!
I was on the hunt for a souvenir shirt that had a “cool” design instead of a corny touristy design. Since Queenstown was our last stop, we checked out a few shops that seemed promising. We finally found Roam Clothing and it was exactly what I was looking for! I got two shirts and Greg got a hat.
Then, we headed towards the luge, stopping at the Kiwi Birdlife Park along the way.
Kiwis are the unofficial national icon of New Zealand, so we were wondering how we could see one while visiting. It turns out they are nocturnal, so it’s a difficult thing to do! However, we were able to see them at the Kiwi Birdlife Park (but there are no photos allowed in the kiwi exhibit, so you’ll have to trust me!). They have a 100% guarantee that you will see a kiwi. Pretty strong statement, but if you go here, you will definitely see one!
Since they are nocturnal, the caretakers use lights to flip-flop their schedule so visitors can see them. During the day, they keep their indoor enclosures dark, using only dim red lights so humans can see. They spend the day foraging around in the dark thinking it’s night, and then the lights come on in the evening and they go to sleep! It’s pretty clever.
The kiwis were so cute! They looked like chickens with long curved beaks. The caretakers keep the enclosures stocked with logs and bugs for them to find using their long beaks. Kiwis are the only birds with nostrils on the tip of their beak, which they use to find food in the dirt.
We learned that the only native species to these islands are birds, fish, insects, lizards, and frogs! The only native mammals are bats and marine mammals. Since the introduction of four-legged mammals to New Zealand, ground birds like the kiwi need some help. The park runs a breeding program there to raise kiwis until they are strong enough to be able to fight predators using their strong legs. So not only do visitors get to get a rare glimpse at the famous birds, but the park is helping to bring up the population and teach people more about them.
There is more to the park than the kiwis, but the tickets were good for us to come and go for three days, so we stayed for the kiwi presentation and left to check out the luge!
When I think of the luge, I think of the winter Olympics!
This luge is a downhill paved track that you ride down using sleds with wheels on the bottom. You turn the handlebars to steer and pull them back to slow down and stop. It was so much fun!
At the very bottom of the hill, you can buy tickets for how many rides you would like. Their motto is “once is never enough”, so clearly they recommend purchasing at least two rides. We bought 5 and that was a good amount, but honestly we could have gone forever!
Once you have your tickets, you ride a gondola up the hill. People take the gondola up for multiple activities, including mountain biking, bungee jumping, and just hanging out at the restaurant at the top and enjoying the views of Queenstown. After you get off the gondola, there is a chairlift that takes you to the start of the luge track. The track ends at the chairlift base, so you take the chairlift up, ride down the luge, take the chairlift up, ride down the luge, and repeat. Then when you are finished with all of your rides, you take the gondola all the way back down to the bottom of the hill. It was pretty cool because the chairlift also carries up the luge sleds – they have a whole system.
There are two luge tracks: one for beginners and another that gets you going a little faster. When you arrive for your first ride, the workers briefly teach you how to use the sled and you have to go down the beginner track for your first run. After that, you can choose to go down either track. The tracks were pretty similar, but the easier track had all the beginners on it so we stuck with the fast track.
It was so much fun! And not to mention an amazing view of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu!
There were definitely a lot of people at the luge when we were there, but it wasn’t too crowded. I also noticed a wide range of ages, from very young to very old! For us, the trickiest thing about the luge wasn’t controlling our own sled, it was avoiding people going slower, stopped on the track, or cutting you off! It was very apparent that kids didn’t know general road rules because I was stuck behind one little girl who was literally zigzagging slowly down the track, making it impossible to pass her!
She was just having fun, but it would have been so cool to go down the track with no one else on it and see how fast we could go! Some of the leaning techniques I learned from quad biking the day before came in handy.
After lots of walking and luging, I needed an afternoon snack and a moment to rest. The blogger whose itinerary I referenced for our trip had recommended Patagonia ice cream in Wanaka, but there was also one in Queenstown so we gave it a try! I got strawberries and cream and Greg had banana split flavor. It really hit the spot.
Revived, we walked back to the Kiwi Birdlife Park to check out the other animals. They provide headphones with recordings so you can do a self-guided tour of the park.
The lizard in the photo is called a Tuatara. They they go into a form of hibernation called torpor when it’s cold out. They go into their burrows, hardly move, and slow down their breathing and heartbeat to conserve energy.
They had two Keas, New Zealand’s alpine parrot. One of them was playing with little corn kernels and we had fun watching it.
So cute and inquisitive!
After seeing most everything at the park, we hurried back to our hotel to change and get to the restaurant at the Sherwood for our dinner reservation at 6:30. We loved restaurant’s aesthetic and the food was really interesting.
I had a barley/ricotta/broccolini dish that sounded good, but I didn’t really like the taste. It was a bit sour, but maybe my palette is not refined enough.
We also got these potato dumplings that were yummy.
Greg got the lamb with black currant.
For dessert, we got the blueberry pie. The blueberries on top were all sliced in half so they laid perfectly flat. The filling tasted like fresh blueberries, not like blueberry syrup. The ice cream was pine nut honey ice cream and it tasted just like honey nut cheerios. Delicious!
We headed back to our room to pack our bags for the final time and we booked our last activity for the next day.
Thanks for reading!
-Rebecca
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