Queenstown

The Airbnb place we rented did not let us down when it came to views. We love the location which is just about 15 minutes outside of Queenstown.

The view from the driveway

LOVE.

Jackson ready to go exploring

We headed into Queenstown to find laundry because we were running incredibly low on things like socks and underwear! Our Airbnb listed a laundry place in town as "the best" so that was where we went. They lead us a little astray on this one! First, the place had no parking so I parked in a place marked a little boutique next to it while I waited for Jackson to find an ATM to get New Zealand money out. He had to try three banks before one had an ATM! Hello, 2017! Then the laundry place only took $2 coins and did not have a working change machine. WHAT?! Off we went to try to get coins. In this time the boutique ticketed our car and put a "boot" on the tire. UGH! They wanted $200 for parking there for under 10 minutes. Color me annoyed. Thankfully, the owner just wanted to berate us for about 10 minutes (his name was Norm Fagg...could you get a more New Zealand sounding name if you tired) about minding signs before removing the boot and showing us where to park. Sigh. We eventually had enough coins to do laundry and the rest went off without a hitch.

A real New Zealand parking ticket

It was quite the way to kick off our first full day in town, though. From there we made a stop at the pharmacy and a smoothie shop (so good) before heading back to recharge at our county cottage for a bit.

This isn't the Bed, Bath & Beyond you'd see back home!

MacK taking a snooze

Once we'd unpacked our now clean clothes and taken a break after the wild morning in Queenstown, we noticed that the neighbors were checking in on us. The sheep!

Nosey neighbors ;)

We did not want to day to feel like a total loss to bad parking and laundry situations so we went exploring. We came across this lovely area with free public parking so we stopped in and looked around.

Edith Cavell Bridge

It cooled down!

Shotover River

Pure New Zealand

Check out the water color!

Jackson thought it would be fun to go up one of the popular skiing mountains here in Queenstown to see the view from the top. We knew it wouldn't be busy since there is no snow on the ground. What we did not know was that New Zealand doesn't believe in guardrails. We made it about 80% of the way up before I called "uncle" and turned us around!

Coronet Peak

VIEWS!

We went back into town to explore some more. This time we were very careful about where we parked. It turned out to be a really cute town which was a relief based on our morning's impression of the place. It is quite busy this time of year! We are shopping for a sheepskin rug to use as MacKenzie's new bed near our fireplace so we poked our heads in stores all over town checking their prices on this very popular good down here. It is so funny to tell people that we want it for a dog bed. Talk about a spoiled pup!

Lake Wakatipu

The country cottage has satellite television (which is more than we have at home) so we caught up on some of our favorite shows and just kind of hung out. It was a nice, relatively calm day here in NZ!