Sorry this has taken so long. Let me tell you about all the other adventures in New Zealand.
Friends had recommended puzzle world in Wanaka which served as a great place for lunch (a pie and a tangram) and then some imromptu exercise in the mid day heat, as we attempted to solve the maze, a devilish and huge thing, with bridges and the objective to get to the four corner towers (we took selfies to prove it) and out again. I wish I had switched my garmin on, as I'm sure we moved several miles, used up all our water, but we make it through to tell the tale.
After that, the air conditioned luxury of the mystery rooms kept us entertained, with everything from a room at an angle to make you feel drunk/fall over, holograms and optical issusions, and one of those rooms that makes you seem big at one end and small at the other. Make sure to see the video on Facebook or when we get home.
After this it was onwards to Queenstown, and we checked in to our beautiful studio with a stunning lake view (another win for AirBnB) and had dinner at Fat Badgers Pizza (amazing pizza) before walking back via the town "beach" which was full of beautiful people, either slacklining or sunbathing.
The next day we drove up an endless gravel track, to the start point of the half marathon we had entered. And lined up with a hundred hardy fools (although not as hardy as those doing the full) to basically run up and down a mountain a few times. And through some rivers. Proper knee deep rivers, about 20 of them, and proper hands on the thighs to get up the hills. Stunning views, great fun, and beer at the end, we took it fairly easy, took lots of photos, finished together and got beer at the end. It was pretty awesome. I thought I had finished in 5th place for all those in my new category of 40-49, but the official results found some more and apparently I was officially 8th. In the evening we found a Mexican restaurant and ate our body weight in cheese.
We finished off queenstown the next morning, with an epic breakfast, a little Pokémon hunting and watching some of the crazy people doing crazy things with jet packs and shark boats in the town centre, and bungee jumps as we drove out (from one place we could see the view from lord of the rings with (or without as we didn't have the benefit of CGI) the huge statues on either side of the gorge, and a massive bungee jump off a bridge where they had people dunking their heads in the water as part of the jump. We didn't partake.
The rest of the day was another pleasant drive to Millers flat, a town chosen based on its distance between queenstown and Christchurch, where we also found a lovely community swimming pool, so did a few gentle lengths before dinner.
Another day of driving and stopping to admire the view and driving and having lunch in pretty little towns and driving followed, ending up at a horse farm, where we patted horses, were fought over by cats and a friendly dog, drank wine on the veranda as the sun set, and repacked our bags ready for the flight the next day to Melbourne
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