Queenstown, billing itself as the “Adrenalin Junky” city of New Zealand sits beside expansive Lake Wakatipu against a backdrop of precipitous mountains.
The Skyline gondola provides quick access to numerous exciting mountaintop activities including mountain biking, paragliding, zip lining, and a “luge”.
Approach to Queenstown 
Gondola 
Lakeside 
We chose zip lining: a first for both of us! It was a real challenge for us to clasp our hands behind our backs and fall backwards off one of the bases 40-50 feet up in a tree!!!! Lana took a much more relaxed attitude and style.
On a more sedate note, we took a three-hour cruise across the lake and back on the Twin Screw Steamship Earnslaw (TSS Earnslaw), a belching, coal-fired vessel. The vessel visits a farm where there are demonstrations of farm activities and where large numbers of bicyclists disembark for an arduous trip back to town (around the mountain). We chose not to disembark for either of these offerings.
Quayside 
Oops – who’s that holding the camera? 
The farmstead – not bad! 
Off they go . . . 
Bicycle storage 
Engine room below 
Engine room from above 
There is a way off 
Loading coal for the boiler