Bloody cold

The rain and cold finally hit today, most of the mountains hidden behind snow clouds. None of that snow made it down to where we are, just teasing us.

A semi planned trip to a ski field was postponed due to, ironically, the snow. Mostly the fact that we wouldn't see much because it was so cloudy and bleak.

Queenstown is insanely busy, but with limited infrastructure. It's such a pain to find a car park without throwing silly money at Wilson's, the roads are full of choke points and every cafe seems to be crammed into impossibility small vintage buildings with twice the number of people wanting to eat than there are seats.

After a very slow drive due to ??? (I'm definitely missing Auckland's relatively flowing traffic) and a 30 minute wait we got a table at The Boat Shed. Louie was definitely happy with his French Toast. I'm pretty sure any French person would be aghast at this version but they're French. Who cares.

My bacon and egg "buttie" was less than impressive. It was also less than warm. It could be the literally frigid temperatures but when the cheese doesn't even melt - that's a bad sign.

The Boat Shed. Known for a small waiting area and cold eggs.

Tomorrow is Louie's birthday so we are going up the Gondola for lunch and luging before a boat ride to Walter Peak farm for a buffet all you can eat BBQ dinner and Dog Show. If they don't play Flowers on the Wall I'm going to be devastated. Anyway, we grabbed the tickets for the Gondola etc and realised it's a buffet all you can eat lunch. Tomorrow's blog may be as food heavy as our bellies. 

Next stop was Ayrburn, a collection of wanky restaurants and wine guzzling rooms. It looks like it would be fantastic during summer for things but today it was mostly sleet, coned off muddy paths and loud Australian Millennials guzzling bad craft beer and ignoring their demon spawn running amok.

Lunch was a pulled chicken BLT (nope, no idea why they thought that BLT was the best name they could use. Once again it was barely warm. Do they not like hot food here?

Louie had a pizza that was okay, but the base was undercooked. Add in a lychee lemonade and this little lot cost just over $100. We found the silly money Queenstown food. 

The highlight of this trip was it finally started snowing on the way back into Queenstown. It was mostly sleeting but we did get a couple of minutes of proper snow. 

It is as cold as this photo looks. Such a difference from when we arrived. There's even snow at the top of the gondolas. Can't wait for tomorrow!

We felt it was time for some sport so glow in the dark mini golf was on! It was great fun, especially since you could change parts of each hole and there were mini games between the holes that you could display your complete lack of physical coordination.

As a bonus I now have my new profile photo for work. 

Weirdly quickly the weather decided it had mostly finished being cloudy and we got a look at all the fresh snow on the surrounding mountains. Just like a postcard. One thing about Queenstown is that the central area is so small it's quite quick to walk around. We've done the lap a few times now.

Vile. Chilli does not belong in a drink.

One of the YouTube recommended places was Devil Burgers. After waiting half an hour for a burger and then being told it would be a other 20 minutes we got our money back and ended up in a pub called The World Bar.

It was after we had ordered some food and drinks we realised the big sign on the screen. After a very small amount of coaxing from the drag quiz master we got our answer sheet and chose our team name " Two Boys One Quiz"

It was bloody great fun, with challenges between each round. We were the oldest ones there by a good 20 years I'd say, and definitely passed on a couple of the games. One where one person had to kneel down and blow up a balloon between the other's legs was definitely off the cards. Mostly because I probably couldn't get back up again and keep what little dignity I had left.

After the "name that song" round, we had no dignity left. 7 of the 10 songs were absolutely unknown, and absolute garbage. The other three we kind of got right but I forgot Alison Moyet was in Yazoo when she sung Only You, not a solo artist. I was probably the only one in the room who knew that! 

Our knowledge of pride related trivia was sorely lacking, but I did get to announce "I've been there" when they mentioned the Stonewall Riots. I meant to the memorial in NY but everyone probably thought I was so old I was actually there at the time.

And that's a wrap on the coldest day I've had since tramping around Kuripapango in my teens during Winter. I'm definitely more suited to the climate of Auckland.