We left Fox Glacier in the morning to drive down to Queenstown, which was about a four hour drive. There were so many scenic stops on the way there, including Lake Wanaka, Lake Hawaea, lots of waterfalls and snow capped mountains, that it took us longer to get where we were going due to all the pit stops we made.
We decided not to do one of those Lord of the Rings tours because it looked like pretty much anything in New Zealand could have been used in the movies. Once in Queenstown, we checked-in to the Scenic Suites. The rooms were nice, but walking in the hallway was strange, it sloped down and kind of looked like the hotel was converted from a parking garage. Clean, modern, and convenient was all that mattered to us. We then took a five minute walk to city centre. Queenstown reminded us of Tahoe, a cool, small ski town. We had a late lunch at Winnie's Pizza. With a name like that, we had to eat there. Theresa had a pizza called "Zucha" which was made with roast pumpkin, spinach, olive, feta and roasted almonds while I had the "Tre Factor" pizza made with prime rib, bacon, mushrooms, and caramelized onions. Both were pretty good.
We then walked around the marina and decided to have ice cream at Patagonia for the free internet access. Since we were not hungry at dinner time, we went to Sky City Casino to play Black Jack. It was a pretty small casino with just a five dollar table and ten dollar table. A few differences as compared to Vegas - drinks at the tables are not free, dealer cannot accept tips,dealer gets his second card until after we've all hit or stayed, and there is a side bet called perfect
pairs where you win if you get the same number card with either 1) different suits, 2) same color, or 3) the same suit. We were doing well. I was getting a lot of blackjacks, probably ten in all, but unfortunately, half of it was on a $5 bet. Theresa was winning some money off of the perfect pair bets. I walked away up $150 and Theresa up $108.We played with one couple who were betting at least $25 at a time and knew how to play. Can't say the same for every other person who played at our table. There were a couple of people (yes, more than one) who split their tens with the dealer showing a high card(Dealer just grinned at us and said, "Sometimes it works."). Another woman kept hitting when dealer had a less than a six showing and staying when she had less than 17 but the dealer was showing an eight or higher. I could not believe what I was seeing and I think Theresa was getting
annoyed because some of these crazy hands were hurting us. The all-time worst was a guy at the table who hit on 17! The dealer kept on asking, "Are you sure?" Even the dealer recommended to us that we bet the minimum. That was our sign that it was time to leave. We hightailed it out of there with our winnings. We were slightly hungry by the time we left the casino (around 10:30pm) but sadly nothing was open to eat. We ended up finding a KFC (which, btw, happened to be in every city we visited on our trip) and had a snack there.
Back in our room, we called Star Alliance to change our flight from Auckland, NZ to Cook Islands. Because we liked New Zealand so much, we extended our stay by two days and shortened the Cook Islands trip. Star Alliance made the change right away, no charge or hassle. It was so easy. We're fans of this "Around the World Ticket" and highly recommend it to anyone that has the time to take advantage of it.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5409719272161486897&authkey=Gv1sRgCJCUyOCJi8CtiQE&feat=email
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