A day on the mountain.

Our accommodation was within an easy walk to Skyline Gondola, the southern hemispheres steepest - which doesn't make the ascent any less intimidating. We were still trying to work out how to divvy up Team Martin (each gondola only takes 4) as the gondola "usher" tossed the three kids in and sent them on their way. There was much nervousness, whining and perhaps a tear or two - while the kids were fine.

View from the completely unnecessary
(in my op) rear window.

Somewhere up there, a person is contemplating a bungy.

Upon reaching the top, we made our way to the Luge - our first activity. The 450 metre gondola ascent was an apparently insufficient height to luge from - so we got to take the chairlift event further up. I was particularly impressed that I was able to wear the green helmet (ie not the largest one!). To be fair - if you stuck some wheels on an upside-down XL helmet, it would likely serve as a luge for a child by itself.

I'm pretty sure the XL comes
with a complementary neck brace.

The first run down was on the Blue Track - the easier of the two. We all pretty much survived the first run, with the older two Martin kids immediately proceeding to the Red Track (which clearly goes faster), that includes some charming drops along the way. Hamish was delighted to "get some air" and got creative in over-taking slower participants.

Hamish

Lily

Josh and Jen

Jen and I took turns in chaperoning Josh as he went from collecting the wall at nearly every bend - to mastering the blue run and progressing to the red (not competitive at all).

Someone pointing out that he
meets all requirements for red.

There was a disconcerting smell of burning rubber at times, as well the chance you may encounter a pile-up around any corner (they didn't enforce gaps between runs). I was particularly impressed by people with clearly no idea how to turn the luge - who nevertheless went screaming down the course. One father/daughter combo nearly took out the assistant at the end (apparently forgetting to brake entirely).

We were fortunate enough to have booked into Stratosfare Restaurant at 11:45am, so had enough time to take a look at Queenstown and surrounds from the viewing platform. Hamish and I both preferred our views just a step back from the railing where possible.

The structure jutting out from the blue walkway is the bungy launching site. No thank you.

While we were waiting to be seated at Stratosfare, we could people-watch to our hearts content (a popular past-time to be honest).

Stratosfare was awesome. While I won't go into all the details of my meal (a dietary intervention would certainly follow), there may have been laksa (build your own), mussels, sushi, monk fish and Canterbury steak. In my defence, I went easy on the dessert...

Four desserts is just not that many
after all that luging (I think I may have invented a word).

Fortunately, we had plenty of digesting time on our hands prior to our scheduled afternoon of zip-lining. The zip-line course and the mountain bike track share the mountain - with the start of a bike run crossing the path to the zip-line entry. Jen inadvertently became a new obstacle to a kitted-out rider - whose brakes worked perfectly as it turns out.

Lily rocketing in.

There were a series of "challenges" along the way (aside from not fainting away entirely). An earlier one was to zip-line upside down. Still contemplating my tiramisu / brulee combo (as well as my raging acrophobia) - I thought I'd remain up-right. Hamish, Lily, Josh and even Jen had no such qualms. Hamish was the first to go.

Lily - about to go inverted.

Another challenge included falling backwards off the platform - not grabbing hold of the tether attaching you to the line (trust exercise - of which I have none clearly). Prior to this - you got to take a photo with one of the instructors. Josh was very keen to pull a face - the instructor more than willing to join in.

We had a blast, the walk back to the top wasn't too bad - and allowed us some fairly close-up views of riders hurtling down black runs (which made zip-lining look pretty tame to be honest). The gondola ride back down wasn't so bad (the finger-marks I left in the upholstery should buff out), and we had the bonus of not having to travel anywhere that evening.