Day 78 (23 August): Extreme

I spent the morning wandering around Queenstown before driving onward to Franz Joesph (which is on the South Island's 'Rugged' West Coast.) This meant driving across several mountain passes for about 6 hours and only passing 2 'towns' the whole way. There were a number of cool waterfalls that I stopped at along the way.

Observations:
1) Queenstown is the world headquarters for any sort of exterme activity. Bunging jumping was invented there. Also on offer is sky diving at the world's cheapest rates, driving ATVs over boulders, mountain biking on the same boulders, jet boating, paragliding, and anything else you can imagine as long as it means being outdoors and putting your life on the line (or at least feeling like you are.) I didn't really have time to get to risk my life with any of these activities unfortunately.
2) Towns seem to be definied by having a small church in NZ wheras cities are definied by having cathedrals (most of which are Anglican.) (As a side note, in the only rural part of Australia I was in near Melbourne town seemed to be defined by having a hotel/pub in them.)
3) NZ Lamb is not special. Obviously given the large number of sheep around it shouldn't be expensive and it isn't at restaurants. Its also one of the cheapest meats in supermarkets. I wish someone could explain to me why buying a 'rack of NZ lamb' in the United States is one of the most expensive meat purchase you can make when the country has over 40 Million of the animals that produce the stuff.
4) Land mammals. NZ had no land mammals until the 1800s when the Europeans arrived. The only mammals it had were bats and whales. It was a country entirely filled with reptiles and birds, meaning there are a lot of interesting looking birds around, including the Kea which is the world's only tempeate zone, alpine parrot.