Spending up on fun

“As the brochures proudly boast: ‘Whether you crave adventure daily, or just like to have your pants scared off occasionally, you will find what you are looking for’ in Queenstown,” Alan Ferguson reports for The Vancouver Sun. “As one devotee put it breathlessly: ‘However long you plan on spending in Queenstown, double it — and bring plenty of cash, ’cos it’s easy to spend up large. But I promise, these memories will last a lifetime! You will be coming back year after year, and leave a little bit wilder each time.’” Ferguson suggests heli-skiing through the driest powder in the Southern Hemisphere; hot-air ballooning; whitewater rafting; and clay-target shooting. “Catch your breath after the exertions of Queenstown — in Christchurch, a.k.a. the Garden City, on account of its many public parks and well-tended residential gardens.”