Panda-eyes?

Right, now that I've got the rugby out of the way, I suppose I'll post some vaguely interesting stuff.
With the holiday weekend last weekend, the fair Taff and I decided it was necessary to bring the road boat out for its maiden voyage. I think I'll spare the nautical terminology for the rest of the post but herein lies the tale, arrrrr!

Friday saw us up and about early enough and with our usual military precision (read: hectic scramble) we hit the road, car full to the brim and sang-widges and flaska tay at the ready. The road was pretty busy , surprisingly enough, but we were motoring along. Not 15 miles outside Chch it ground to a halt. There had been a car vs. milk-lorry smash ahead and we were stuck. We ended up losing 1.5hrs in total, not a great start to the weekend but despite Taff's boredom we made it, intact, almost 7 hours later.

For those of you who don't already know, Queenstown in winter really is the coolest place to be. Everyone has a healthy tan and panda-eyes (from wearing sunglasses on the slopes!). Easter weekend was a whole lot different. The place was mobbed with rich kiwis, annoying american teenagers and the ubiquitous asian tourists.

Our hotel was a cracker, it was no more that 50m from the main streets and Pog Mahones (where we spent New Years 2004) and right by the lake. Our bedroom opened right onto teh water, pretty snazzy, eh?

Saturday we decided to make an attempt at this bad boy


The tiny building at the top is the Skyline and the swathe through the trees is the gondola path. We started walking off to the left of the picture and made it in 50 odd minutes. It was a plenty tough climb, the paths were good but steep. You can imagine the state of me afterwards, I was dripping sweat, completely out of breath and cramping up. The poor ould asians didn't know whether to run away or take a photo!

Anyway, the rest of the stay in Queenstown was pretty uneventful. We managed to get hold of a bottle of the infamous Cloudy Bay. I'll report back on it later. we did however manage to eat well and have a few sneaky beers. I tried oysters for the first time. I went the scaredy-cat route and had them grilled and they were pretty nice, I think I could chance them raw you know!

The whole trip ended on a horrible downer. Those of you that cry easily should look away now. Our trip home brought us through Cromwell. Named for the "Defender of the Faith" you'd think a Connacht man would drive through at high speed and spit out the window. But Cromwell has a redeeming feature; apples. Millions of apples and with them some of the finest cider I'd ever tasted. The Young Lad and Break The Key will attest to the quality of the beverage.

So as you can imagine, I resolved to stop off and grab a few bottles for personal consumption and also to impress on my cider-brewing mentor, Danno, how a real cider should taste.

We pulled in and I got out of the car. I approached the counter and brandished some legal tender. "Cider, lots of it", said I. Reader, I can barely type her response..."I can't sell cider off licence as it is a public holiday, I can give you the bottles but they'll be uncorked".

Needless to say, I was, in the vernacular, "spewing" and I'm just getting over it now. Fair play to Taff but she has the patience of a saint!

Hmmm, vaguely interesting eh? I guess I'll try again next time.