LOVED… Luge riding, in Queenstown, New Zealand

Before we even got our helmets on for luging, we had the thrill of a ride in the Skyline Gondola to the top of the hill overlooking picturesque Queenstown, in the South Island of New Zealand.

The views from the gondola ride were beautiful – but we were in for a lot more excitement. The luge rides are higher up the mountain still – and the only way to the top (other than walking or biking) is to take the chair-lift. With helmets on – and a couple of luge carts hanging off the bottom of our chair-lift, we braced the sunshine and fresh air to ride on up for our exciting descent.

A quick instruction of steering, stopping and starting, was all that was required, before our hands were officially ink stamped with the word ‘LUGE’ to signal we’d passed our training. We were off!

Except we didn’t quite look like cartoons riding down the hill, though we were pretty hysterical riders. Whooping, screaming and laughing all the way down. The scenery was stunning and the rides a blast.

We loved it so much that we visited twice on our week’s holiday in Queenstown! Young Alice, 3, riding with her Daddy, whilst the older girls and I drove independently. Daddy was definitely the speed demon!!

Sophie and I racing down (with me paying more attention to the scenery than the track ahead!).