Luge

Imagine climbing into a fibreglass toboggan on wheels, checking your brakes are working, then zooming off down a steep polished concrete ramp at full speed. Oh, you are at the top of a mountain too, overlooking NZ's adventure capital, Queenstown.
Today dawned blue and gold so we headed for the gondala that carts people up the mountain looming over Queenstown and Lake Wakitipu. After boarding, we soared upwards through the pine trees in our little plastic cube, with epic view across the Remarkables and the lake. Once up top, we were fitted out with helmets (brilliantly colour-coordinated with our hoodies) and given instructions on stopping. Always handy, that.
There were two routes, scenic and advanced. We had to do a scenic one first to prove competence and whizzed down it with no permanent injury. I managed to rather spectacularly spin off track on a corner and career into the fence but I'm used to bruises by now.
We had bought five goes, so after the scenic slope we had a practice run of the advanced before our competition began. We had three races. Only one could win. Who would it be?
Both outrageously confident, we set off from the top. I raced ahead, taking the corners at breakneck speed. Alex drew up alongside and for one brief instant managed to ovetake me...but then I got back in the lead at the next corner and was laughing all the way to the finish line!
Second go down, luge car rattling along as if it was going to shake itself apart, we kept side by side, each edging forward a little then slowing on the corners. Finally, on a straight about halfway down, Alex took over my position and try as I might, I could not get up enough speed to overtake him again.
Last race, the tiebreaker. The guy supervising our cart usage was amused by our attempts to best each other. We set off from the top, down the slope and into the first corner. Steeply turning, I took the inside while Alex whizzed around the outside. The first ramp was approaching and the speed we could get from that would determine the winner...Argh! I wheelied my cart around the ramps following corner and smelt burning rubber as Alex flew into the lead yet again! I couldn't catch up and he waved at the cameras as he crossed the finish line ahead of me.
After our exhilarating racing moment, we sat and admired the view for a while. We were looking straight down over an evergreen forest, across the massive lake of Queenstown which was a steely blue colour and at the higher peaks of the snowy Remarkables. The radio forecast snow last night and we could see the fresh dusting on the lower slopes. Bizarre, as it was warm and sunny on our mountain.
We took the gondala back down in order to get back to our car before its parking ran out and then moved on to grab a good lunch at the food court. Curry goodness was had by all and we are now very full of food.
Eeep! Another siren just went off right outside!

All good, its fine. No one started running for their lives. All the odd noises and emergencies that no one cares about are things that definately should be mentioned to strangers so as not to panic them unnecessarily!
We are heading on to Dunedin this afternoon. It is right across the country on the opposite coast -this is as far down as we go! It can only get warmer from here, yay! We thought we'd update the blog in case we stop half way across and have zero signal due to elevated landmasses.

Hope all is well back home and everyone is doing good. Love to all xxx