Early Friday morning (7 am!) our flight to Queenstown departed. That meant we had to get up quite early, but it was definitely worth it. We had such an awesome weekend! We arrived in Queenstown close to 9 am. A short bus ride later, we were at our hotel (‘Scenic suites’; definitely worth its name!) and we were pleasantly surprised to find our room ready for us! So, we checked in, left our luggage and went on our merry way to the downtown area for a proper breakfast. It was only a short 10 minute walk to the downtown area of this small town (approx. 11,000 inhabitants – plus probably just as many tourists). The breakfast burrito we had at Halo’s was delicious! After that, we decided to check out the rest of the town, walking around and taking in the beautiful views of the mountains and the lake. The weather was nice; a balmy +15 degrees Celsius or so, which made it feel strange that we would be skiing the next day! After a lazy afternoon and roomservice for dinner, we decided to head to bed early.
Saturday morning we had to be ready by 8 am for our bus ride to the Cardrona Ski Resort, just over an hour Northeast of Queenstown. We kept going upwards; the views (and the ravines) were breathtaking. When we arrived at the Resort we picked up our gear and headed out for our first ski lesson! A Croatian lady taught us well, and after 2 hours, the 8 of us in the group could all more-or-less ski down the Beginners’ hill area. Nice, but exhausting! We definitely needed a lunch break, so we went to the restaurant and took a rest. After that, we had another 2-hour lesson with just 3 pupils (Bas, me and one other guy). We all did quite well, so the teacher decided after an hour, we were advanced enough to go up the ‘big’ hill and try our first real descent. Scary, but cool!! After that our feet/legs were sore, and we had to get back to the bus… the day just flew by! Unfortunately, I (Judith) have not been as car sick in years as I was on the way back to Queenstown… was I ever happy to stumble out of the bus and back in the hotel!! Oh my! A warm, relaxing bath got me back to normal and we headed out for a delicious dinner at the Waterfront bistro. And then it was time for a good sleep!
Sunday morning was check-out time, another nice breakfast at Halo’s, another walk around town (to see what we’ll be doing next time!!) and finally back to the airport. Our flight at 2pm came to soon for our liking; we would have loved to stay longer, but we’ll definitely come back.
And if we haven’t convinced you yet that we had a good time by reading this blog update, you can always have a look at our pictures (as always: click to enlarge and read the captions). Enjoy! 🙂