Queenstown

I headed to Dulles early in case heightening security and the holidays meant delays getting through security. In fact, I breezed on through, and had plenty of time for beer and a book. 

My flight was then delayed so I headed to the wine bar next to the gate. Starting off right with a New Zealand sav. After a 4 hour layover in Houston I was finally in the air on the way to Auckland!  Due to storms, the flight was half empty so I got a whole sky couch to myself! 

Finally in Auckland I stopped off at the koru lounge for a coffee and a shower. 

And then, 32 hours after leaving the house in Burke, I was finally flying in to my favourite place. 

First stop was atlas, our favourite brew pub, to enjoy the sunshine. 

Next up, I decided to ship some local wine back to the states to have on hand. The owner helped me pick out a lovely selection. And a benefit to hanging around with Nick is that I got the locals discount! Between that and the current exchange rate, each bottle was less than what I would pay at total wine back home (and that would be inferior wine!) 

Rounding out all of my go to queenstown activities, we headed up queenstown hill. It was wicked not for the South Island but worth it as we had our beersies at the top, quite literally in the basket of dreams. 

Nick channeling his inner American cowboy...

And some more views from the basket. 

We would continue on the day with dinner at blue Kanu and then a new craft beer pub called smiths. And then, after 9pm, a sunset. While already my favourite place in the world, Queenstown exceeded expectations by far.