Wow!

Queenstown is amazingly beautiful!  The airport is tiny but nestled right next to the mountains and we were already impressed.  It also helped that the sky was blue, the sun was bright and it was warmer than Christchurch.

Queenstown airport!

We got our bags and car from Avis.  Side note:  Renting cars in Australia and NZ is ridiculously easy.  Not only have the agents been super-friendly but basically they take our information and hand us the keys and a map.  No checking out at a gate and no checking in when you're returning.  Just drop your keys in the box and go.
Anyway...
Queenstown is only 10 minutes from the airport and we drove around for a bit looking for a place to stay.  It was a hard decision because most of the places were situated right on the lake and had great views.  We finally decided on a Quality Inn because the price was right and it was walking distance to town.
The receptionist was very friendly and gave us some tips on where to go for food and local attractions.  We dropped our bags off in the room and walked five minutes to town.

Walking from our hotel to the city centre

The town was full of shops, places to eat and tour operators.  We stopped at some of the tour operators to get some information on kayaking and bungy jumping.  Bernard needed to get a sleeping bag because he only brought a liner and did not realize how chilly it got at night in NZ.  He managed to find a cheap one and then we went looking for lunch.

We found a little sushi place that had reasonable prices and ended up being very good.  AM was later looking in the local food guide and discovered that it was actually a recommended place and had been around for 20 years.

We didn't get a pic of the sushi place, but here's one of the local Starbucks
... we didn't partake tho ;-)

After eating we walked around a bit more and got some tour pamphlets to take a look at. Then we headed back to the hotel for a bit. We ended up taking a little nap, probably because we hadn't slept much the night before. We called around to a few tour guides to get some information and before we knew it, it was 7pm and time for dinner. We walked back into town and, after browsing some menus, we decided on a place called Ballarat Trading Company. It was mainly a pub, but had an extensive menu. The food was great and AM sampled a local beer which was quite tasty.

Rocket and beet salad and tomato soup for B, Goat cheese Gnocchi with roasted pumpkin for Am

We took our time eating and chatting and finally left around 8:30pm. The sun was, of course, still shining brightly when we left and everything was still open. We passed a small gelato shop and decided to indulge.. it was delish :-)

Queenstown @ 8:40pm

We got back to the hotel around 9pm or so and went online to get more info on the tours. Here is what we decided on:
Sat 1/15 – 5 hour kayak tour on Milford Sound, Fiordland (spelled with an “i” here.. not sure why)
Sun 1/16 – 5 hour kayak on Doubtful Sound, Fiordland, followed by a 4 hour scenic cruise around the fjords.
Mon 1/17 – Bernard jumps off a cliff
Tues 1/18 – AM jumps off a bridge

Tomorrow we get started on our journey down to Fiordland!