Skyline Gondola and Buffet

dinner on the first night was up at a fancy restaurant. the gondola or cable car is the steepest in the southern hemisphere. we couldn't make it to any of the lunch times in our trip, so booked a dinner sitting. originally it was $88, but i booked through an online discount site, and payed around $60ishpp including the gondola and dinner. lunch is a lot cheaper, but there's less variety of food, and strictly limited to 2 hour sittings. then again, in the daylight you have a clearer view. a gondola ride itself is $30, so i guess the buffet is worth it. there's also a Luge during the day time, but i've been on one of those before.

restaurant is the tiny thing on the top left. walking up to building here, we had to walk up a lot of steps and a very steep hill.

going up

its pretty steep.

snow

snowww. don't even have to go to the mountains/snow fields for snow (: this snow up here was the nice powdery snow

yay

later did i realise that i took off my right glove to take a photo, and realised going back to the hotel that i must have dropped it ): it was a touchscreen glove, so you could still use your phone with the glove on, but i took it off since i wanted a better grip of my touchscreen camera.

that night view <3

buffet!

we originally had an 8.30pm sitting, but got there at 7pm to take photos and luckily there weren't many people that night, so they let us in at 7.30pm, and could stay until whenever we wanted. food was really good. i now understand what my dad says about RSL buffets being 'rubbish.' i haven't had a good buffet in ages, and this was filled with fresh salmon, mussels, scallops. i didn't have too much meat since i wanted to save space for desserts, heaps of salads and cold meats as well. loved the pumpkin and ginger soup of the day. loved the window seating, and the waiters were very efficient in collecting dirty plates (:

dessert!

finally had a creme brûlée! it didn't have the really loud crack, but it did have some crack which is commendable for food which has been mass produced. New Zealand ice cream is a lot creamier and less milky than Aus, and also not as sweet. all these dessert were definitely not as sweet as here in Aus. like the pavlova has a lovely crunch on the outside, and usually the inside is just a bite of sugar after sugar, but this one was soft and not too sugary. only disappointment was the fondant which didn't ooze out, so i didn't finish that. didn't bother trying all the cheeses and desserts since i was that full.

last to leave (: they have tiered seating so everyone can have a good view outside

coming back down

so full that we didn't have breakfast the next day, and a little bit of lunch. a really good place to chill if sightseeing is on your things to do list.