After our morning glide, we took off up the Gondola to test out the Queenstown Luge track. It was hard to believe but the views here were even more beautiful than Rotarua. The beautiful blue lakes with the mountains in the distance and the small city below made a perfect back drop.

View of the Luge Track overlooking beautiful Queenstown 

Armed with 5 luge runs this time, we made our way to the top of the track to get our race on. Surprisingly despite the runs being shorter than Rotarua, they had some great features including several sharp turns and a number of bumps that gave you some wicked air!

Kart 10 (640x360)

In typical fashion, Jordan and I raced down each lap, chasing one another down the track with our GoPros running, but in the 4th run Jordan took it a bit too far and bumped the back of my cart, sending me diving into the curb and flipping my luge. Let’s just say I was not impressed. With a few tears in my clothes and a bruised elbow (and ego :P), once back in my cart I continued down the run to the finish line. Despite his several apologies, he still insists that bumping carts is completely within the rules of Mario Kart 😛 Unfortunately the video evidence was inconclusive as my camera was facing forwards, and his back, but the loud thud just before my crash is evidence enough of an uncalled for ‘nudge’. 😛

Chasing after each other down the track 

After a few more checks for damage, we took for the last lap, but with a bit less gusto than before. All in all it was a fun afternoon and with no broken bones and we both came back in one piece (more or less).

On our way to grab a few groceries, as we strolled down the main street in Queenstown, we bumped into our friend Ryan from the Abel Tasman trek! I feel like this country is really quite small. He had just arrived in Queenstown that morning with a few friends he has met along the way. We’re still interested in hitting the Kepler track and hope to meet up with him there in a few days!

 

Check out Episode 9: Skyline Luge