Thank you, George

Adrenaline Junkies: I hear this expression quite often, especially preparing to travel to New Zealand, and I don't really know what it means. I guess, it refers to people with an insatiable craving for fun, risky, pulse raising experiences. That we are not. Ileana (my daughter) wants for some unclear reason to try bunjy jumping, she thinks that I promised her that she can do it in Queenstown, but she is wrong. Ileana (my wife) would always choose a merry-go-round instead of something faster and she would never climb in a roller coaster. Ioan is more interested, but is careful and cautious and doesn't get much kick out of hair raising experiences. Maria might do something, if anybody could get her off her books. As far as I am concerned, I rode three cabs in Kathmandu. It was much cheaper, it was unplanned and uncontrolled and much more dangerous than anything they could offer in New Zealand.

It all starts with being locked in a small box and carried away

We got a significant donation from George, labeled "for fun only." It came as a nice surprise, right before Christmas, when we were in New Delhi. We travelled a lot since then, but there were not many chances for fun activities, per se. So when we arrived in Queenstown, we had some money to spend, great weather, a magnificent landscape and lots of options. Queenstown is well known as the "adventure capital of the world." The first commercial place for bunjy jumping was started by Mr. Bunjy in 1988 on the historic Kawarau bridge. Nowadays there are many more options, along with jetboating, riversurfing, white water activities, flying, parasailing, skydiving, etc. Queenstown had 8000 people just a few years ago, now they say 13300. Many more tourists come here from all over the world to soak in the great landscape and try all sorts of the above experiences, many would do trekking, tramping and mountain biking. We chose to ride the gondola up the mountain and go to the luge, two racetracks where people ride little three wheelers down the mountain, then come back up the lift and go again, and again, and again. Both children and parents had a lot of fun. The pictures say a thousand words, it was great and thank you George. We will remember this day in Queenstown for a long time.

With some luck you emerge at the other end

but you have to climb in another thing that is open this time...

trying to catch a glimpse of the children

carry the little three wheeler under the chairs

One or two pictures for posterity

ready to turn use the first tickets

Getting the instructions and taking the official pictures

After a few tries it goes really smooth

Posing for pictures even at high speed

Some people can smile...

This is Queenstown, in New Zealand

And then you add a few smiling faces

Unbelievable, we are closer to the North Pole than to New York!