Living La Vida Loca

We have always had great experiences doing home exchanges – both in the US and internationally.  It’s not for everyone as we get either an intrigued or horrified look from people when we explain how it works.  To date we have exchanged in NorCal, St. George Utah, Sedona Arizona and a few others in the States…we have traded in Ecuador, Columbia, Sweden, Canadian cities and others.  It’s simple: We stay in someone else’s home, they stay in ours.  This can happen  simultaneously, or you can barter with “guest points” (no money exchanged) to travel elsewhere if you are traveling elsewhere and your home is available to host.  We have met the most incredible people along the way and love the convenience of a kitchen, home amenities, and the feeling of “living like locals”.  An added bonus is that we become neighbors – and last night was a great example of what can happen. 

When we were out for a walk the day we arrived, we passed a couple with a delightfully engaging teenage son and got in a conversation.  South African natives now living in the same development we are staying in outside Queenstown – we hit it off and they invited us to dinner the next night.  That was last night and it was delightful.  They cooked a yummy vegan meal and we shared family and professional stories as well as passionate love for our pets.  Their puppy, Dobby, was a cuddler just like our Kugel and simultaneously gave us joy and made us miss our four-legged buddies.

The house we are staying in is just outside Queenstown proper in a fast-growing development called Jack’s Point (https://www.jackspoint.com/).  It backs up to the Remarkables mountain range with a public greenbelt running past the row of houses we adjoin.  It’s a short walk to the shores of Lake Wakatipu that winds around to Queenstown itself. We are thrilled to have my brother, Noah, and his wife, Dalia with us, along with our dear friend, Kathy, from Seattle traveling with us!  The three of them have never been to New Zealand so it’s fun to see their “first time” wonder. We have a resident cat, Lotus, who choses her bedmate each night with a growing preference for my brother!

For Andrew and I, this return is going to be filled with different experiences in different locations on the south island but it is really fun to be able to show them some of the things we enjoyed first time around.  We took them to our favorite café in Queenstown – the Vudu Café (https://vuducafe.co.nz/) – right on the waterfront, and then took a beautiful path that runs around the lakefront. I was floored to see the Hydro Attack jet boats (https://www.hydroattack.co.nz/) that submerge at top speed underwater and then surface with a jump that looks like a breaching whale! Not sure my stomach could take the G-forces involved but man, that looks so cool!

Sunset is very late here this time of year – nearly 10pm.  Kathy and I went out last night to see how incredibly etheral the view was as the sun dropped below the surrounding mountains.  Incredible.