Minus 5...literally!

This is our last day in Queenstown and we decided to make the most of it. Our original plan was to go paragliding, but as it's been predicted yesterday, the weather was crap. So we booked a farm cruise tour to visit a place called Walter Peak. We boarded this old but stylish boat, TSS Earnslaw, I don't know what TSS stands for but seems like every old boat's name start with TSS. O well...

On board was very nice and comfy, there was piano recital and food and drinks are also available. The whole boat was set up like a restaurant, so if you want to enjoy this 45 minutes journey, the best way to do it is by getting yourself some warm quiche and a cup of hot chocolate! Best of all, the view was spectacular. Everywhere you see is snow covered mountains. After the long and pleasant journey, we arrived in Walter Peak. A farmer met us there and started to guide us toward the animals. We saw some sheeps and of course the farmer's sheep dog followed us around everywhere. Then we see this fury cow that aparently come from Scotland, once again, I forgot the name....Scottish cow? Maybe.....

Then we enjoyed an afternoon tea with homade scones, some funny looking cakes I've never seen before (but delicious) and stayed inside the warm old style house near the fire while watching the snowstorm (not a big one). Too bad I can't capture the snow with my camera, the snow was too fine....

After enjoying all that treats, we went back to Queenstown. It was freezing when we stepped out of the boat, but since it's our last day, we force ourselves to go to Minus 5 bar. I've eyed this bar since our first day in Queenstown, because this bar is not like any other bar. Everything inside the bar is made of ice! That's why the room temperature is kept on -5 to preserve the ice inside. You have to wear this special jacket provided by the bar...unless you want to catch pneumonia.

You can stay inside the bar for a maximum of 30 minutes and first I thought, what?! NZ $25 for half hour? What a rip off! Then again, it's always my big mouth who speak first because I only last 20 minutes there. For NZ $25, you get a glass of cocktail too, not bad...!

The whole bar was decorated with ice sculptures. There were eagle, ram, even the bar itself where we get the drinks from were made of ice. The chairs were made of ice, there's a clock inside a block of ice (it's ticking too, it's really work!) and your glass were made of ice. We were told to hold the glass with both hands otherwise it might slip and broke. We stayed inside the bar for as long as we could and tried to take as many pictures. But as the cold started to sink in, we left the bar in a hurry and glad that we are outside this refrigerator. Overall, we rate our stay in Queenstown as superb. Imagine if the weather is bad everyday, we couldn't go skiing, jetboating or other outdoor activities. Provided it's winter time now and the chance of snowstorm could happen anytime, we were really blessed this holiday.