Adventure Capital of the World

Luging on Bob's Peak.

Queenstown is dubbed the adventure capital of the world. This is the birth place of bungee jumping. It is a multi million dollar industry here. There is also luge, river surfing, para sailing, para gliding, hang gliding, abe sailing, hang gliding, just about anything a person can dream up.

Today we walked down to the city center. We took a wrong turn and a 30 minute walk turned into 1 hour. It was a beautiful morning. A flying acrobatic show was going on, it was raining para-gliders doing neat tricks. They could go head over heels, so the sail was below their bodies.




















We crossed a cemetery on our way to the Gondola to Bob's Peak. Ironically it's the mountain the bungee jumpers and para-gliders are on. We joked that a person could dig his own grave on his fall from the bungee platform. Bob and Mike wanted to watch the view on the way up, which was fine with Linda and I.



We each signed up for 3 luge rides. From the top of the Gondola we had to take a chair lift to the start of the Luge ride. We all went down the scenic route the first time. Bob took off like a bullet, I was behind him and quickly pulled over for Mike to pass. The track is switch backs down the mountain. You can see over the side of the mountain on the way down. It's pretty scarey. Linda and I both got stuck behind some lady, she wouldn't get out of our way.



Bob luged down the advanced track on his second ride. Mike, Linda and I stuck with the scenic route. Linda started out before me, I quickly caught up with her, she got stuck behind someone again, I tried to push her to get her started. I think she got a bum cart.

We all gave the advanced track a go on the third ride. This is where we really let our hair down. It wasn't that this track was that much faster, just that there were not so many people/obstacles in our way.



At the bottom of the luge we had to rack our carts on the conveyor belt, they would hook onto the chair lift and ride up. While I was doing this, some idiot kid decided to slam right into my ankle which pinned it between two carts. Then his idiot friend slammed into him like bumper cars which rammed my ankle again. Boy was I mad, yes the teens got a mouth full from me, then Mike. I tattled on them, but they didn't get kicked out and kept on being idiots.

We went to the lookout bar at the top of the gondola for a beer. We had a great view of Queenstown and the flying acrobats. We figured out where the para gliders were launching from, we walked over and watched for close to an hour. It was pretty cool.



In the picture below, Linda was taking a picture of a mom and daughter that were going to tandem para glide. Mike actually said, I hope this isn't your last picture!



Our walk back was the short route, but straight up hill. The city is built on the side of a mountain. This makes Duluth look like it has ant hills.

Grilled steak and potatoes for dinner then a dip in the hot tub with a glass of wine.