Guest post: Queenstown trip

Today we have a guest post written by my son. Enjoy!Last weekend I went to Queenstown. We had a very nice little cabin/apartment at 157 Antrim St. We did a lot of walking which was nice for a change.We drove to Queenstown from Dunedin on Anzac Day. We went through these towns on the way: Fairfield, East Taieri, Owhiro, Allanton, Waihola, Clarendon, Kapiti, Milburn, Helensbrook, Milton, Clarksville, Glenore, Mount Stuart, Manuka Creek, Round Hill, Waitahuna, Forsyth, Lawrence, Evans Flat, Bowlers Creek, Craigellachie, Beaumont, Raes Junction, Island Block, Millers Flat, Ettrick, Dumbarton, Roxburgh, Coal Creek, Roxburgh Hydro, Gorge Creek, Fruitlands, Alexandra, Clyde, Waenga, Cromwell, Waitiri, Gibbston, Arrow Junction, Lower Shotover, Frankton and Queenstown. We stopped twice on the way, once in Lawrence to get an iceblock (eg. we put an iceblock from Lawrence in Lawrence) and the second time in Alexandra to play soccer.We arrived kind of late in Queenstown, so my dad made a quick meal of fried noodles for me and my brother and mushrooms on toast for him and my mum. Lawrence and I went to bed in our bunks and went to sleep.In the morning, I banged my head on the ceiling (accidentally), climbed down the ladder and woke up my parents (quite easily — they aren't very heavy sleepers). After breakfast, we walked into town, bought tickets for the Earnslaw and figured out where my dad's bus to the concert he was going to see would leave from.We looked for a place to have lunch reasonably close to the waterfront, cheap, and with sausages. We found a Thai place with sausages, but it turned out that they were on the dinner menu. Then again, we still had a good lunch.After lunch, my dad went off to his concert and we went to the beach and threw stones in the water. (I accidentally hit a duck, but not fatally.) We went on the Earnslaw across Lake Wakatipu to a place called Walter Peak Farm.When we got to Walter Peak Farm, we met a guide that showed us around the farm. The animals at the farm were red deer, alpacas, merino sheep, Highland cows, chickens, ducks, paradise shelducks, a great crested grebe, puppies and sheepdogs.We had afternoon tea at the homestead and then saw how sheepdogs herded the sheep. There were two different types of dog: header dogs and huntaways. The header dogs make sure none of the sheep get away from the flock and they don't make any noise. They scour the area to make sure there are no loose sheep. The huntaways bark loudly to push all the sheep in the pen.Then the guide showed us how to shear a sheep. As my brother said, "At the start, there's a big, fluffy sheep with lots of wool on; at the end, there's a little, thin sheep with no wool on." He also said, "They have skin under their wool!" We went into the gift shop after that. We didn't buy anything, but I took lots of photos.After that we went back on the Earnslaw to Queenstown and (slurp, yum, munch) had hamburgers for dinner. My hamburger went: bun, meat pattie, tomato sauce, cucumber, cucumber, cucumber, cucumber, cucumber, lettuce, lettuce, beetroot, pineapple, pineapple, pineapple, pineapple, bun. That's one big hamburger! Then I had another one. And another one. Then I had a shower and went: reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, awake, awake, awake, asleep, asleep, asleep, asleep, asleep, asleep, AWAKE. Shortly after that, my parents went: snore (Dad), snore (Dad), snuffle (Mum), snuffle (Mum), sno..., snuff..., AWAKE.After breakfast and all that boring stuff that you don't need to hear about, we walked down to the lake and I went kayaking with my dad (my mum's better, but she didn't feel like it, so she climbed a fallen-over tree and had a coffee with my little brother). Then we went home and I drove around Queenstown taking photos with my brother in the back seat asleep.The day after, we cleaned up and went home. This is a collection of the photos we took (below).