NEW ZEALAND
2/28
Getting from the North Island to the South Island is a three and a half hour ferry ride from Wellington to Picton.
The Interislander Ferry ride was pretty uneventful. We found some really comfy seats to start the journey, but they were in the middle of the boat, and near what some noisy kids thought must be a jungle gym. So after trying to relax, we gave up our comfy seats and went to get lunch. After a bite to eat, we couldn't find 2 seats together anywhere on the main deck, I was a little frustrated until I walked over a bunch of lounging passengers and their backpacks and found a set of stairs that took us to a hidden upper lounge with two scenic seats for the remainder of the crossing. A good day to be inside the ferry, it rained almost the whole way across.
South Island
(click to enlarge)
Once we docked in Picton we had to head to the car rental counter to get our 'New Car', I can only say new in that it was new to us, and was a newer model car. When filling out the paperwork, she says there is a few scratches on the bumper. I had to come back into the office after seeing the car, and show her a picture of the missing Mazda emblem and damaged grill. I wasn't leaving without them acknowledging that the car was broken before I got behind the wheel, I mean you do drive on the wrong side of the road.
It actually was a nice little car, not quite as nice as the Holden, but it did have this weird habit of turning on the windshield wipers every time I used the "turn signal'. Or... maybe that was just me.
Our first stop was the iSite to figure out where to stay and plan our route a bit as we had heard the Nelson area was badly affected by Cyclone Gita. Turns out that our planned first destination was a no go, Kaikoura roads had been affected by what the Kiwi's call slips. Mudslide, landslide, road gave way, whatever you call it, it was bad, and the highway North and South of Kaikoura were closed.
So we started looking at a much longer inland route since we couldn't go West to Nelson (sorry very nice swinger couple), and we couldn't go East to Kaikoura. The iSite staff started looking at where to stay as things were booking up, her first suggestion was only an hour down the road, instead we started calling to the Hanmer Springs area, and booked a place to stay there.
Driving the winding highway through this area and you would swear we were driving through the Fraser canyon or interior BC back home.
Hanmer Springs
It was a long and sometimes damp drive down to Hanmer Springs. The Hanmer Springs Motor Lodge was nothing fancy, but it was clean, spacious, and most importantly conveniently located in the town.
Just a few minutes up the road was the Hanmer Springs Thermal pools and Spa, a great destination to relax after a long day of traveling. The complex consists of a whole series of different sized outdoor pools of naturally heated waters, or you could choose the private thermal pool and have your own little hot pool looking out into a serene garden. We chose the private pool.
After a lovely time relaxing in the Geo-Thermal waters of our private pool, we got dressed and headed across the street for dinner. Well, mostly dressed, since either someone stole my underwear or it got dropped on the walk in and put away by someone. Fully Commando we had a great pizza dinner at Piccolino's Cafe Italino, before heading back to our room.
3/1
Today was going to bring some excitement before we headed off to our next destination. Hanmer Springs is somewhat famous for their Jet Boat tours, a super high speed race through the sometimes very shallow and narrow Waiau river. They did offer a two-fer deal for bungy jumping and jet boat, but we saw the bridge, and chose to stick to the boat.
The Jetboats were designed in the 1950's as traversing the sometimes very shallow riverways was too difficult with a propeller driven boat. He designed a steerable jet spray nozzle just above the waterline that allowed him to travel in water as shallow as 6 cm. These jetboats can fly up to 90 km/h, and as we found out, can do a 360° turn in a very small space. Our driver gets on the boat and says, "well now that I have finished my gardening duties, I'll take you guys for a ride".
The driver stops every once in a while to tell us the history of the boats and the area, but before he got going he gave us the safety instructions, which mostly consisted of "HOLD ON". He told us about his hand signal of a spinning arm that would tell us we are about to do a hard 360° turn, and advised us that he would see who was holding on or not. Laughing, he says "I never have to tell anyone to hold on again after the first spin."
The rugged scenery along the river is amazing, but it's a little hard to hold on at 90 km/h and take pictures. Norine tells the driver how amazed she is at how close he gets to the sides, his response "That's just cause I'm blind in that eye".
As we head back towards the start point they are setup with cameras to catch the laughs and screams as we roar by and do another 360° spin before heading back in to their small dock, and up the hill to see the pictures (available at a nominal fee).
What a thrilling adventure.
Back on dry land, we crank up the Mazda 3 and start driving through the rocky hills on our way to Christchurch.
Even though I made sure to get the updated map files before leaving home, our GPS was not expecting this new highway and took us on a bit of a suburban adventure through the outer areas of Christchurch before getting to the city centre.
Christchurch
At first it's lovely metal artwork, and then it's the parking lot full of Graffiti, we just weren't sure what to expect when we left our car.
Some of the graffiti was pretty amazing though.
Christchurch is the largest city on the South Island and sadly, is still recovering from a series of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 in which 185 people were killed and thousands of buildings across the city collapsed or suffered severe damage. By late 2013, 1,500 buildings in the city had been demolished, leading to an ongoing recovery and rebuilding project. The Christchurch Cathedral was hit very hard.
It's a short walk to the cathedral square, and you quickly realize just how destructive the Earthquake was, although some historic buildings are still standing, the cathedral is being held up by temporary supports and it's 7 years later. Hardly anything has been done as the church and the government argue over how restoration and reconstruction should be paid for.
Christchurch Cathedral, before the 2011 Earthquake, and how it looks today
One of the promoted adventures in Christchurch is the Hop On - Hop Off Streetcar tour, a 2.5 km circle tour around the downtown core in streetcars from the 1800's. It was a unique way to see some of the different areas of town, but for the price and distance traveled, not the greatest value. We board the old streetcar right at Cathedral square and head towards the Avon River.
As you can see, some people enjoyed it more than others, and why can't he wear his hat like a normal person? There is an interesting mix of old an new as you pass the museums and universities.
There's also some hidden oddities around this city, once you see it, you can't unsee it.
Our favourite part of town was New Regent Street, the streetcars run right through the middle of this cute little shopping and restaurant street. Seems like a perfect spot to get off the tram, have lunch at a little cafe and watch the people go by.
There were two stops that were very popular, the parks that ran alongside the Avon river, and the 'Container Mall'. The container Mall was assembled after the 2011 Earthquake as a temporary measure to provide shopping options for the residents of Christchurch, it quickly became a symbol of post-earthquake Christchurch. As it developed there were over 50 container businesses and market stalls, but It also closed down this year, and very few containers remain as it transforms to a farmers market.
The last building to see on our visit to Christchurch was the Cardboard Cathedral, a temporary 700 seat church constructed a few blocks away from Christchurch Cathedral. It was built using reinforced Cardboard tubes, sides of shipping containers, wood and glass.
Leaving Christchurch we headed South-East towards the seaside town of Akaroa, but our GPS decided to send us on a little mis-tour down a tourist route. Although it took a little longer, it was well worth it, with hardly any traffic, and amazing views. Although we enjoyed the GPS mistake this time, when it tried to send us down a Stock Road (imagine dirt and cows), we turned around and took the main road into town.
Akaroa
We arrived at our pre-booked room called Akaroa on the Beach, it was a large home with many doors and numerous keypads. No signs to tell you which room was which, so I asked a lady sitting in the garden, and got the "I'm the owner, and all the instructions were in the email" old woman-splaining talk down. How were we to know that our 1 bedroom was at the top of a shared stairway? oh well, the bed was comfy.
After a bit of relaxing, we headed back along the shoreline and into town for a very nice dinner looking out across the harbour. After a little window shopping and planning for our adventures the next morning, we called it a night.
3/2
The next morning we got up early grabbed a quick bite and headed out for the Akaroa Dolphin boat tour. It was highly recommended in online reviews, was a smaller boat so less people on board, was conveniently located, and most importantly they had dogs.
We met one of Akaroa Dolphins dogs when we booked our tickets in their office, they have 3 dogs that are Dolphin spotting dogs. The theory is that the dogs can hear the high pitched squeals of the dolphins much easier and alert the crew (and passengers) that there are dolphins nearby. Sidney was our boats dolphin dog, I think he was more interested in the attention from the passengers than he was about any dolphins. We saw dolphins, usually because of our keen dolphin spotting eyes, and not because Sidney told us.
We learned about the French history of Akaroa, being one of the first French settlements in New Zealand in the early 1800's, and sailed past the historic Onuku Church built in 1880 for the Maori people of the region.
It didn't take very long before we started to see the wildlife of the area, assorted seabirds and Cormorants.
As we are heading out of the harbour the shoreline becomes much more rugged, and we start seeing the first of many dolphins.
I'd like to tell you how Sidney alerted us to the nearby dolphins, how he ran over to the edge of the boat pointing and barking to alert us... but he was busy finding a comfy seat on the deck and chilling out.
Sidney certainly didn't tell us about the small dwarf penguins floating in the water off the side of the boat either.
One of the advantages of the smaller boat was how close we could get into the shore and the blue water caves along the coast.
It wasn't long before Sidney didn't notify us about more dolphins.
The coastline here is very rocky and unique, a perfect safe haven for Fur Seals to rest, and raise their pups.
Baby Fur Seals play in a small pool on the shore.
Adult fur seals lounge on the rocks
From Fur Seals to more blue caves, this boat cruise turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip.
Such a nice day on the water, and a great way to see the other side of Akaroa harbour. Even if our Dolphin Spotting Dog Sidney didn't help us spot dolphins, he was a fun companion to have along for the ride.
"The Giants House" was named by a small girl looking up at it from the valley below, who said it was so big it must be the house of a giant. The house was built in 1880, but has been transformed by Josie Martin, for over 20 years as she has been adding concrete mosaic sculptures using her modern art, painting, sculpting and horticulture skills.
As soon as you enter the grounds of this house, you are overwhelmed by colours and shapes... and maybe madness.
Meandering paths wander up the hillside and throughout the gardens, every direction you turn there is something else to see.
You could see small thematic areas, with music in one section, animals in another, but it was mostly just fantasy and fun.
It's hard to believe this place wasn't even on our list of 'Things to See', after wandering the Giant's House we had to eat lunch, sit down and have and a drink to try and comprehend what we just saw.
The historic houses and French influence make Akaroa very different from other towns we had visited.
It's quite a unique little town, from where we had lunch, Bully Hayes restaurant that plays 24/7 Johnny Cash to the little stores that carry New Zealand wool and accessories to keep you warm, it was a nice break from bigger cities.
The last part of our afternoon would be spent wandering the all natural Garden of Tane, a scenic forest reserve just on the edge of town.
It's not a long hike, but a bit steep, and not well marked with criss-crossing trails, but well worth the views.
3/3
The next morning we left Akaroa and headed South, with a few scenic stops along the way.
If you're going to stop somewhere for lunch, may as well be where the giant fish is.
Lake Tekapo
Lake Tekapo was our wild card stop, we didn't know a lot about it, except that it is known as one of the darkest skies on the planet for star-watching, and has an Air Safari company for flights over Mount Cook and the glaciers on the West Coast.
We did plan ahead and looked to book a place before arriving, but quickly found there was little to no places to stay, except for a little pricey place called the Luxury Lakeview Apt. We picked up our keys at the visitor centre and drove over to our home for the next few nights.
To say it was nice, was an understatement. Very new and modern, you park and walk through an open patio area with an outdoor fireplace, and into an open concept living room and kitchen with giant sliding doors looking right across the lake.
We knew what the weather was like 30 minutes before it affected us, and we could watch the rain clouds pass us by. It was going to be very hard to leave this beautiful place.
Our initial plan was to go star gazing at the hot pools, but we were told that it was likely going to cloud over, and we should wait for the next night. It didn't cloud over very much, but there was a full moon, so we did our best to star-gaze from our balcony.
3/4
Right outside of Lake Tekapo is Air Safaris and they offer a Mt Cook and Glaciers scenic flight. This was great as we wouldn't have time to drive over to that part of the country. I had booked a flight for us a few days earlier, then re-booked the flight cause I lost track of what day it was, and booked it on a day we weren't even in the area.
When we arrived at the small airport everyone was distracted because a ferret, had somehow activated the auto-doors, and locked himself in the lobby area. Once the captain returned he was able to shoosh him out the door and back into the wild.
As soon as the rodent issue was dealt with, we were told that there was a lot of rain and clouds on the west coast, so we may have to detour our flight and skip some elements we were hoping to see, they offered a discounted price and promised we would still see amazing things.
Choosing to see amazing things, the 9 of us headed to the Cessna for boarding. The Captain asks the crowd, "Any of our bigger passengers want to ride up front with me?" I am pretty sure he didn't finish the sentence before my hand was in the air to be co-pilot. Norine was teased by some of the other passengers about how quickly I ditched her, but I didn't hear them, I was already in the co-pilot seat with my headphones on.
The views up the valleys were amazing, it's not a single river like we have at home, but a winding twisting web of rivers and streams.
As we flew towards Mount Cook and the Glaciers, the weather quickly started changing, and the ride started getting a little rougher.
The views were great, but when you can only see the bottom half of Mount Cook, and now it starting to rain, it was time to avoid the turbulence and head back to sunny skies. Norine was getting a little worried in the back of the plane, but the pilots assurances we were completely safe helped settle everyone down, and soon enough it was smooth sailing.
Once we were back over Lake Pukaki the skies were getting clearer again.
Such a contrast between the black waters of Lake Alexandria and the glacier silt fed blue waters of Lake Tekapo.
Lake Tekapo Village and their hydro river basin
Safely back on the ground, we could take a breath and just think about the amazing views we had just experienced, even if the flight was re-routed due to inclement weather.
Stomachs settled after our flight, we had a great Chinese lunch looking out at the lake. The view encouraged us to go for a lakeside walk. It's a short walk along the hydro canal, and over a bridge to the can't-really-describe-that-colour-blue lake.
Situated right on the shores of Lake Tekapo is the Church of the Good Shepherd, which, in 1935, was the first church built in the Mackenzie Basin. It is probably the most photographed church in all of New Zealand.
Not far from the church is a bronze statue of a New Zealand Collie sheepdog. The statue was commissioned by Mackenzie Country residents in recognition of the indispensable role of the sheepdog in their livelihoods.
Hot and exhausted from staring at so much beauty, we headed back at our place to look at it some more.
As we're looking out at the lake, we noticed right below us is a farm, with sheep, rabbits, and alpacas, how did we not notice this before?
After visiting with our new friends, we headed back to our place to have some food before going stargazing since we missed it the night before, We were all ready to go tonight... and then this happened. I guess we won't be stargazing in the dark skies of Lake Tekapo.
3/5
We woke up to cloudy skies, and packed up to head further South. It was very hard to leave this place, between the blue blue blue lake and the amazing house, we would miss this place. By the time we got past Lake Pukaki the skies were already turning blue.
You always see some of the cutest things when in you're in the smallest of towns like Twizel.
The Kawarau gorge was the site of much activity during the Otago Gold Rush of the 1860s, and the preserved remains of several miner's cottages are above the banks of the river. This area is now known as the Roaring Meg hydro scheme.
We decided to skip past Queenstown heading South, but still took time to stop and admire Lake Wakatipu and the scenery.
This area known as the Devil's Staircase runs between Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables Mountain range. I am pretty sure we stopped at every pullout along this road.
Te Anau
We arrived at our southernmost destination, Te Anau, and quickly found our pre-booked home for the next two night, Birchwood Cottages.
The Waitomo Caves on the North Island and the Te Anau Caves on the South Island are the best known habitats for the cave dwelling glow worms. Waitomo on the North Island was not on our planned route, so we decided that on the south Island Te Anau Lake's glowworm cave tour was a must, and we didn't waste any time before heading there. It's a nice boat ride up the lake to the caves.
It doesn't look like much when you arrive, a few lights on a suspended platform and some buildings. Our group is split up because only so many people can fit on the small pontoon boat that they navigate the caves with, some go right away, and some get taught... we got taught.
Our group gets an overview of the bio-luminescent larvae known as Arachnocampa luminosa, commonly known as New Zealand glowworm or simply glowworm. It's a species of fungus gnat endemic to New Zealand. Both the larval stage and the imago are luminescent. The species is known to dwell in wet caves, grottoes and sheltered, humid places in forests. The interesting element to them is they glow to attract other insects, and create fishing lines made of silk with mucus droplets around them to catch and trap their prey.
We learned about their lifespan, how they will attack and ensnare their own kind if they get to close... we also learned that it will be pitch black in the caves, and we can't take pictures as it scares them... poor little scaredy cat larvaes.
Stolen sample photo of what it looked like inside of the cave 
Close up of glow worm fishing lines inside a trailside hole
We did a short forest walk around the area, and then were taken into the caves. The first portion was a boardwalk style walkway, you had to duck and crouch a few times to get through, but it opened up into large caverns, with a river and a small waterfall, there was even large catfish in the river. Eventually you go deeper into the caves and it gets to a dark area where you board the boat, the lights are turned out and the guide uses a rope/bar to guide the boat around the clusters of tiny glowing lights. Some areas are much lower than others, you can tell because the glowing dots get very close to you, and numerous times our aluminum boat bumps the cave sides.
At one point our guide must have leaned over Norine, as i heard Norine gasp out "What the F... was that", she was terrified now as something soft had just draped across her face. Turns out, it was the guides hair, but she never said anything until we were back on dry ground, and Norine asked about it. "Oh, was that you?". Needless to say, she didn't enjoy the rest of our glow worm boat tour, expecting there was something going to touch her again.
But the boat ride across the lake back to town was very nice with the sunset. The place we were staying also runs a small bus tour company that does trips to Milford Sound, so the next morning we are heading their with a nicely discounted tour for being a guest at Birchwood Cottages.
3/6
We woke up early for our Fiordland tour, a combination bus and boat tour through the fiordland area of Southwest South Island. One of the best parts, the small bus picked us up right outside our front door. A couple stops to pick up some other passengers, and a couple stops to get our snacks and lunches, and we were on our way.
Milford sound
As we leave the town of Te Anau and work our way North towards Milford Sound, the views across the lake are a little grey.
Our first stop is at the pretty green Lake Gunn, a chance to stretch the legs, have a look around at exotic mushrooms, and use the bathrooms.
Before we leave, our driver says, if you can wait, the next stop isn't a "long drop", we all looked around confused. He was referring to the outhouses as being a long drop instead of a flushing toilet... this is new lingo we used for the remainder of our trip.
Next up was a cute little trail over a suspension bridge and views of the Hollyford Valley
Right on the side of the trail were little holes, and you could shine your phone light inside to see glowworm fishing lines.
Just a little up from the Hollyford lookout is the Marian track, a very popular starting point for a massive hike, or a 30 minute return walk to a nice river cascade.
Gunn's Camp was originally thought to be a key destination when a roadway had been planned to travel past. WW2 changed those plans and it became a small camp owned by Davey Gunn, a local cattle farmer. Over the years they fought to get the road built but it never was. Davey Gunn started guided walking and riding trips in the area. The camp, as well as being a convenient stores depot, also provided accommodation for the increasing number of people coming to do Davey's trips. After Davey drowned in the Hollyford on Christmas Day 1955, the camp was taken over by his son Murray who made improvements in his own distinctive and often humourous style
We were served up a nice little mix of cookies, scones and Tea or Hot Chocolate before continuing our adventure. The mountains and low clouds provided a scenic and constantly changing view through the windows of the bus.
Our next stop was the crashing waters of The Chasm, the stone worn away by thousands of years of waterfall activity. It's a nice walk up the trail, and we are all laughing to ourselves as there is a group of young girls walking behind us, "So, like, what even is a chasm?" (pronouncing it like chocolate... ch-ass-em)
Do you see the creepy snowman?
We finally arrive at Milford Sound, are loaded up with a lunch bag, and sent off on our Boat Cruise.
The entire area is very similar to the Fjords of Norway. Milford Sound is not even a sound, It's actually a fiord. Sounds are formed when a river valley is flooded with the sea, whereas Milford Sound was carved out by an erosion of glacial ice. It's also one of the wettest places on Earth, it rains here 182 days of the year, so we were lucky to only have clouds at the start of our cruise.
With so much rain, and sheer cliffs, waterfalls are in abundance, just like Norway's Fjords.
It's especially exciting as the captain noses the boat right under the waterfall, of course us crazy Canadians stayed in our positions on the bow of the boat, as we didn't want to lose our great viewpoint... we may have gotten wet.
As we work our way back down the fiord on the North side, we spot a group of Fur Seals sunning themselves on the rocks.
One of the options available was to do a helicopter flight around the sound and land on a glacier. We signed up right away, but unfortunately the clouds just didn't cooperate, even though the skies had now turned blue.
Back on dry land we have some time to wander around the harbour before loading the bus. As we are wandering the area and looking down the fiord, there is something that strikes me as very familiar, I've seen this before. Was it Deja Vu? No it was one of the movies I watched on the flight to New Zealand, Alien Covenant. I had to go look on the internet, and sure enough...
Scenes from Alien Covenant shot at Milford Sound
The drive back was a little quieter as we were all wind blown, but the stops were just as nice.
Tutoko Suspension Bridge (built in 1940)
Cleddau Valley
Although the scenery was great, it wasn't quite as fun as when we turned around to a parking lot where I spotted a Kea, a large parrot native to this area of New Zealand. They are known as being very mischievous, stealing items from tourists, even eating the rubber trim off of cars.
There was a pair when we pulled in, the female flew off to watch us from afar, but the male kept wandering around us, and tried to jump in our bus. He was quite disappointed when nobody would feed him, apparently overfeeding is a problem with this birds, and they have quite a few health problems because of generous tourists, and their theft of food from cars and picnickers.
The view from this valley is awesome, and I can see why the birds would know this to be a good tourist stop.
The 1.2 kilometer long Homer Tunnel was finished in 1953 to connect Milford Sounds and Te Anau
It's an interesting stopping point, but what's really funny is that someone has created a Kea jungle gym to entertain the parrots.
Falls Creek, now including Falls
Our final stop on the way back was the very reflective Mirror Lakes, just a short walk from the road.
After a full day in a bus and on a boat, we are dropped right at the door of our cottage. Follow that up with a nice New Zealand pizza dinner, and your day is pretty darn complete.
3/7
Te Anau Bird Sanctuary is famous for their collection of native birds, especially the Takahe, which is a flightless bird thought to be extinct since 1898. However, after a carefully planned search effort the bird was rediscovered near Lake Te Anau in 1948. We joined a ranger as they fed the Takahe and other birds at the sanctuary.
Uncle Aka is a retired boy and enjoys the quiet life of the Sanctuary with his new companion Wheto, who was hatched on Mana Island.
Kawa and Tumbles are an infertile pair however they play a unique and important role in the takahe breeding program, they still have all the instincts for making a nest and have successfully hatched and raised chicks from other takahe pairs. Now they have a newly adopted "baby", it's almost the same size as them, but still prefers to be fed by his mother instead of getting the food himself.
The lighting wasn't great for taking pictures of the other birds they had there, two different parrot types knows as Kaka and Kea, kereru (wood pigeon), the colourful tui, ruru (morepork owl) and paradise shelducks.
It was a nice little morning guided walk around the sanctuary, and after a quick visit to Manipouri lake, we hit the road.
In a lot of restaurants in New Zealand there is Venison on the menu, right beside your beef, chicken and pork options. It made a lot of sense then why we started seeing so many Deer Farms alongside of dairy farms. It's just not something we're used to seeing at home.
The views along Lake Wakatipu on the way to Queenstown are just stunning on a bright blue day... and we pulled over a lot.
Queenstown
We arrived in Queenstown and found our pre-booked hotel. We really like the QT Hotel in Wellington, so took a chance on the QT Hotel here, boy did we luck out! Nestled on the side of the lake, and unbelievable views into town and across the lake.
When you can just sit on your balcony and sight see, it really saves a lot of time.
We took a walk into town, and along the beach. This city is really quite beautiful, it's like a combination of Banff and Osoyoos. Small town feel, with shops, restaurants and a thriving marina and beach area.
William Rees, founder of Queenstown
The town is laid out in a horseshoe around the end of Lake Wakatipu, with the main marina on one side, the sandy beach on the end, and around Queenstown Gardens park on the opposite side.
There's always certain things that strike me as funny when you wander new towns, here it was this Ice Rink in the middle of a big city park.
It's so nice to have a large sandy beach right on the edge of a busy entertainment district. Whether you want to catch some rays, have a picnic lunch, or take part in the many water based activities, there's something for everyone here.
Long before we arrived in Queenstown I had been hearing about the famous Fergburger, maybe the worlds best burger. So that was our plan for dinner, until we got there and saw the lineup. The Fergburger lineup was an entire block long... NO BURGER is worth that kind of wait, so instead we went to the Ballarat Trading Co. There was no lineup if we wanted to sit inside, so we sat at the open window right beside people that had to wait for tables on the street.
Another funny thing about Queenstown was this Wine sample Vanagon, for a small fee you could sample from hundreds of wines, right in the middle of the street. You know that wouldn't happen in Vancouver.
This town was hopping, bars and restaurants were packed, lots of people just walking on the harbour, or sitting on the sandy beach. It was a very nice day in Queenstown, and time to call it a night.
3/8
This morning we would take a nice Lake Wakatipu cruise on the historic TSS Earnslaw. The TSS Earnslaw is a 1912 Edwardian vintage steamer. It is one of the oldest tourist attractions in Central Otago, and the only remaining commercial passenger-carrying coal-fired steamship in the southern hemisphere. When the ship comes in, before we can depart, they have to load it up with coal to drive the steam engine. I'm sure it's clean coal imported from the center of Trumpville.
The TSS Earnslaw is not the only unique boat on the water, There is the Dolphin like Hydro attack boats that can dive under the water and shoot out like a leaping dolphin. There's also the jet ski driven hoverboards, it's all about adrenaline filled excitement here in Queenstown..
It's just a beautiful area with it's calm blue waters and the rugged mountains as we work our way down the lake, and you can see where New Zealand gets the "Land of the long white cloud" nickname.
Our destination for the afternoon is the Walter Peak Station, a High Country Farm at the far end of Lake Wakatipu.
Walter Peak Station (24,000 hectares) was founded in 1860 by the McKenzie family. Today it is home to 20,000 sheep and 800 cattle. As part of our adventure we would start with a demonstration of sheep shearing, in about 2 minutes, that sheep was naked.
With the dog and sheep show over we were treated to a large BBQ buffet lunch in the ranch-house. It was definitely meat central with a wide variety of meats, cuts and cooking types on display, but they also had some amazing desserts. With lunch over, we had some time to wander the grounds, check out their gift shop, and watch a guy spinning wool.
The TSS Earnslaw arrived with another boatload of visitors and it was our time to leave this nice high country farm.
Back across Lake Wakatipu and past the Remarkables Mountain range, yep, that's what they named it.
As we pull into Queenstown we have great views of their beach area and it's just packed, well, not really, but it should be.
It was early afternoon, and the Queenstown hill walk had been recommended to us. We followed the signs from town and worked our way up the streets to a nice wooded trail. It's a bit of a steep climb with many stairs, and it's damn hot. Feeling pretty proud of ourselves we come back out onto another street with great views across the lake...
... and that's when we walked up a little higher and found a small parking area and the sign. We had just hiked to the start of the Queenstown Hill Walkway, well that's a bit demoralizing. But, the views were amazing.
When we finally got back to our room, we were hot and tired, so instead of heading back out we decided to check the restaurant in our hotel. It's called Bazaar, it looks like a buffet, but they refuse to call it that... it's an interactive Marketplace. At $79 per person and a substantial wait because we didn't have a reservation, we decided to go and order room service instead. An hour and a half later the food finally came, they didn't even provide a spoon for the soup, and I could hear them mumbling as they wandered down the hall that we didn't give them a tip. An hour and a half for food, no spoon when you order soup, and nobody tips in New Zealand, what did you expect? Mumble away!
For the rest of our evening we could sit on our balcony and watch the TSS Earnslaw works its way up and down the lake, we could watch the Dolphin boats leap in and out of the water, we could watch inexperienced hover boarders smash themselves into the water again and again. Queenstown would definitely make our list as one of the best cities of New Zealand.
3/9
Our time on the South Island had come to an end, so we woke up in the dark, and drove our rental car to the airport for our early morning flight back to Auckland, where our adventures would continue...