Day 3 - Coronet Peak, Queenstown and Adventure day

Settled into the Queenstown Novotel right by the lakeside on Tuesday night. A comparison with this and the hotel in Te Anau was undertaken during the trip (free Internet access was a good bonus) Today was when the adventures began.



Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown by day



Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, evening



First up was a trip in convoy of all three vans to Coronet Peak ski field. It was closed for the season but there was still a fair amount of snow for everyone to enjoy snowball fights and slides down the hill on inflatables provided by Esther. Richard in particular was keen to get up high on the mountain for a bit of freestyle descent!




Richard letting things slide





Girl racers!



Snowball fight!



Adventure afternoon

After Coronet Peak, the real adventure started. Meeting at the station in Queenstown the group was taken to the Shotover River Canyons for a jetboat trip. Lucky that it was such a sunny day as everyone got wet during the race along the river and 360 degree spins.

If that wasn't exciting enough, it was time for a helicopter ride! In groups of six we were taken for a spin over Queenstown and up to the luge. Again the great weather allowed for some amazing views and photo opportunities.

Queenstown from a helicopter



In the cockpit



Safe landing



After that the group headed for the relatively sedate experience of the luge. This group were hardened 'lugers' after a previous trip to Roturua. However it was great fun racing down the hill to an amazing backdrop of Queenstown. Click here to see a rather cool video of the luge. All that remained after that was to take the gondola back down into Queenstown, soaking in yet more scenery along the way.

Oh and being the last night of the trip, the opportunity to see what the bright lights of Queenstown had to offer at night. Some of the students went to Minus 5 - the coolest place in Queenstown.

All in all, an awesome day!!