Dinner at JSH - Part Two

We enjoyed our dinner at the Jervois Steakhouse so much that we decided to go back a second time.  We had made reservations for Friday night, and dressed up for it since we had our fancy clothes with us.  Billy really does look good in a suit - after seven years I am enjoying seeing him in one!!  We had basically the same meal, except we swapped main courses - this time I had the lamb and Billy had the venison.  AND this time, we got photographs!! :)

Here is the first course - a caesar salad served with a scotch egg.  We asked for it to be light on the dressing, so they gave it to us on the side.

Before

After

I even tried to drink a glass of wine.

The rack of lamb

Truffled mashed potatoes, ginger and honey carrots, and white balsamic/ mint sauce for my lamb

The whole meal

The venison 

Neither of us had ever tried a Baked Alaska, the specialty dessert at the restaurant, so we ordered one to share.  It has hokey pokey ice cream underneath (A New Zealand specialty), but we both agreed it was too sweet for us and we would probably not order it again.

Baked Alaska

Tired, but full and happy!

Friday Funday!

When we woke up on Friday morning, it was raining again, but not very hard.  Soon, however, we heard a bunch of kids screaming "it's snowing, it's snowing!"  And so it was!  But not in Queenstown itself - just on the mountains around the town.  They were all covered in a lovely white layer of icing sugar.  I mean, snow.  But it looked just like icing sugar.  Or maybe I was just hungry. :)

Speaking of hungry, Billy and I spent a while catching up on emails, blogs etc. before heading down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.  The restaurant in our hotel is apparently quite a famous one, with a fancy chef etc.  We had tried to go there for dinner on our first night, but they were booked solid, so we went into QT instead and had our delicious dinner at the Fishbone.  We contemplated trying to go there for dinner one night, but the menu looked a bit too fancy for us in the end.   Anyway, here are our bikes in the kitchen of our apartment - no wonder we had to go out for breakfast! :)

After breakfast (sorry, no pics - we never seem to manage photos that early in the day!), we stopped by the concierge desk so we could book kayaking and horse-riding for the next day.  Unfortunately, the concierge said they were sold out, but said we could go kayaking that afternoon, out in Glenorchy (LOTR country!).  The water looked rough, but I had really wanted to go on a kayaking trip and I wanted to see the Glenorchy area, so we booked it.  It was all a bit quick and we didn't have time to fully think everything through - I don't like making decisions in a rush!  I was actually a bit upset as now we would need to keep the bikes an extra day in order to fit in our bike ride etc.  I was worried we had made the wrong decisions and this was all going to be a disaster!  However, as usual for us, our story has a happy ending!

We walked to town and went to the meeting place the concierge had told us to go to, outside of a hotel on the other side of town.  We had asked to be booked with a company called Rippled Earth, but as 1pm came and went, we decided to check our booking confirmation.  Sure enough, we were booked with a different company - Kayak Adventures Queenstown.  And they didn't leave from Glenorchy, they left from right there in Queenstown.  The guide, Glenn, was amazing and offered to transfer our bookings over to Rippled Earth so that we could still get out to Glenorchy, however, the winds had picked up even more in Glenorchy and they had cancelled their afternoon tour.  Even where we were, in Queenstown, the waters were rough and it looked like the kayaking would be a bit of a battle with the weather!  Again, Glenn was amazing, and he offered to delay our trip till the following day.  The trips weren't sold out, and he didn't know why the concierge told us they were.    We will never know!!  Gratefully, we told Glenn that we would definitely prefer to go kayaking in the morning, and that we would go for a bike ride that afternoon instead.  Well, as it turns out, Glenn was planning to go for a bike ride that afternoon too and he offered to let us join him.  Sweet!

Billy and I took a taxi back to the hotel to get our bikes and change again.  I stopped by to let the concierge know about the mix-up with the tour companies, but I think I just confused him more.  In the meantime, I had him book me on a horse riding trip the following day, as I thought Billy was going to end up biking with Glenn again and didn't want to be disappointed with another "sold out" event.  

When we first got on our bikes, I remember thinking that my butt was a little sore from our ride the day before.  But when we met up with Glenn, he suggested a two hour ride, which sounded like the perfect distance, and very do-able.  Little did we know!!! 

As it turns out, Glenn races bikes.  Very fast.  Which means he is very fast.  And this is his territory, so he knows it well and rides it almost daily.  I was beyond screwed before we even began!!  We did this massive loop, all around the Wakatipu basin and out to Arrowntown etc.  It ended up taking about five hours (with a 45 minute tea break in the middle!)  So much for two hours.  I spent most of the first 2/3rds of the ride thinking that if I could just hang on until Arrowtown, I could take a bus home.  But of course, when we got there, and I suggested it, the guys wouldn't hear of it and insisted they didn't mind going slowly for me.  And oh, was it worth it!  The scenery was amazing, the riding was tough, but not impossible, and the feeling of accomplishment at the end was phenomenal.  We got to see so much that we would never have seen on our own and although Glenn was usually a few hundred yards in front of me, (okay, maybe a mile or two at times!) he was a great companion and told us some great stories about the area.  We were so incredibly lucky and I am still thankful that it all turned out so well in the end!!

 The scenery was spectacular.  For parts of the ride we were parallel to the Shotover River.  Unfortunately, the reverse of that old idiom proved true - what goes down, must also go up!  At least when you are biking in the mountains...

Do I look happy here?  I don't think I was...

Billy, on the other hand, looks very happy.  As I toil along in the background trying to catch up!

Did I mention the scenery?

Another hill???!!  It might not look like much, but that uphill went on for a ways...

Yes, we climbed up and over those hills, thank you very much!

There's still gold in this river!!

The Southern Discovery Bridge - a suspension bridge - yikes!

Glenn and Billy hang out waiting for me.

This is just past the spot where gold was first discovered in Arrowtown

The fall colours are starting to show

My new friend

Recovering with food and hot drinks at the Millbrook Golf Resort

 Today I had decided not to eat too much as I was worried all the rich food was getting to my waistline.  (Plus those pictures in the MTB shorts from yesterday - ugh!).  Anyway, BAD IDEA.  Today was the day I needed fuel most of all.  So when we stopped at Millbrook, Billy and I shared a ham sandwich, an Afghan cookie and we each had a cinnamon roll.  All washed down with a pot of tea.  It certainly helped on the ride home - if nothing else, it gave me some extra speed on the downhills. :)

I know I posted this before, but it is just so beautiful...

My new pet - Henry the Hedgehog

Even our bikes were tired at the end...

All in all, it was a fantastic ride, despite being WAY above my skill level.  Or fitness level. Or something.  But I was incredibly lucky to have such patient riding companions who gave me good tips - Don't hunch over the handlebars!  Change gears when you go downhill so you are ready when it evens out.  Don't be scared of going fast on the downhills (I'm still working on that one!)

Billy and I made it back to our room and we both collapsed.  It was just after 7 o'clock and we had an 8.15pm dinner reservation.  The question is whether or not either of us would be able to move in time!

An Adventurous Thursday

When we woke up on Thursday morning, the skies were blue and it had all the indications of a beautiful day.  The temperatures have started out in the mid-40's in the morning, warming up to the high 50's/ low 60's in the mid-afternoon hours (4pm is the warmest time of day!), before dropping to the high 30's at night.  Absolutely perfect weather, as it has also been accompanied by blue skies almost every day, except for the brief interlude of rain yesterday morning.

Billy and I spent a while catching up on emails, blogs etc. before walking into town around 11am.  We stopped and had a late breakfast at a restaurant called Halo.  I had my favourite, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on a bagel with tomato and avocado and Billy had an omelette.  Both were delicious, especially as we accompanied them with a freshly made carrot, apple, ginger juice -our favourite!

Then we walked over to the bike shop, Outside Sports, and after much negotiating and debate, we ended up renting two full-suspension, 29'er Specialized mountain bikes for the next two days.  Unfortunately, by requesting a 29'er, I gave them the incorrect impression that I actually knew what I was doing, so the guys in the bike store tried to convince us to go on this massive bike ride in the mountains etc.  Now, I should point out, I do enjoy riding, but I rarely do it, as most of my spare exercise time is spent running.  And let's face it, there aren't a lot of mountains in South Florida, so my climbing skills aren't great.  I have only been on my bike a few times in the last year or two - the last major riding I did was in Park City in 2011!  Luckily, Billy could see that I wasn't comfortable with the ride they were describing, and agreed to do an easy ride with me to ease me back in gently.  I wanted to ride the Queenstown Track which loops past our hotel, all the way round the other side, a 50 or 60k ride on fairly smooth, easy trails.  So smooth and easy that the bike shop guys referred to them as being built for Mums with prams, but I refused to give in to peer pressure!!!  I knew this was the ride for me!  And Billy was just happy to be on a bike...

The weather was quite cool still, so we bundled up and took off.  I had bought a pair of mountain biking shorts at the same shop earlier in the week, and although they are very comfortable, they are not particularly flattering, so please ignore the lack of photos of me below.

We crossed over the Shotover River

Clio finally learns how and when to shift gears...thanks to Billy's excellent teaching skills

Billy is so happy to be back on a bike!

King of the mountain!

Uhm.... I have no idea what I was doing here!  A victory dance? A temper tantrum?  Stung by a wasp??  Hmmm...

All better now. :)

 On the way back home, we stopped at the Hilton, which is on the opposite side of the river to our hotel.  They have a lovely little bar with a blazing fire.  For Clio - cold water on tap.  For Billy - cold beer on tap.  Everyone is happy!

Billy is now even happier

That fire felt good!

On the one-way bridge that crossed the Shotover River

For dinner that night, we decided we needed to refuel.  Time for some pasta!  We went to an Italian restaurant that had been highly recommended, called Bella Cucina.  They make all their pasta in-house and it was indeed delicious.
 

Billy had pappardelle with wild boar and mushroom sauce.  Not only was the presentation great, but it tasted good too!  He let me eat most of the mushrooms. :)

After seeing those photos of me in the bike shorts, I was trying to be healthy, so I ordered the fish.  Which came wrapped in bacon.  Hmmm... I unwrapped it and ate it - it was good, but not outstanding.

 For our side dish, we had grilled pumpkin wedges, served with fried sage leaves and a garlic aioli.  Yum - but too much food for us!

 Billy finished with an affogato - a scoop or two of ice cream with a shot of espresso poured over it.  He didn't love it as much as I thought he would - I mean ice cream AND coffee?  You'd think it would be his favourite thing ever!  But apparently the combination of cold and hot was a little odd.   Needless to say, I didn't try it, so I can't give my opinion! :)

 It looked pretty though!!
And so ends another exciting day in Queeenstown.  Fresh air and exercise and lots of good food!!