If New Zealand is on your bucket list, as many friends have emailed me, make sure Queenstown is the center (or centre) of that stay.
Worried about jet-lagged, I did not do the manic scheduling for Friday (yesterday) that I have for the rest of the trip. Today, we are headed to Milford Sound on a small plane, where we will kayak and take a boat cruise through the glaciers, fjords, etc.
Looking west as the sun rises in the east
(even down under, the sun still comes up in the east!)
Sun through the tall pines. Try to restrain
your admiration for my artistic framing!
We went into Queenstown to the Vudu Cafe and Larder for breakfast. The internet judges (the voice of the people. . .or at least the people who rate places) ranked it as best breakfast in the town. And, only having had one breakfast out, Carol and I have to agree. No pictures of the food for the blog, so I will spare you photos and descriptions of what we ate, but it was good, and we liked it, so that's a great recommendation for the next time you are in Queenstown. Two thumbs up.
Breakfast was easy and good. It was parking that was less easy and less good, although all is well that ends well. The sign on the street says P 15 8am-5pm. Our waitress told us that meant we had 15 minutes of free parking, and then they ticket, which they do ravenously. So we ordered, and I drove around a bit, finally finding a two hour parking area right in front of the police station, which is plenty of incentive not to overstay your parking welcome. The first pay machine didn't work (story of the day), but the second one did, and we had parking till 10:30.
After breakfast we walked around Queenstown, including walking around the Queenstown Gardens, which is a lovely park right on Lake Wakatipu on one side, and the Frankton Arm on the other side. (Is it "the Frankton Arm" or just "Frankton Arm"? I would google it, but don't care much).
Ho-hum -- another snow capped mountain
viewed from Queenstown
The mountains in the background
are fairly remarkable.
Queenstown willow. No need
to weep at its beauty.
Boat, lake, mountain. Picture.
Red tree bark, snow on the mtn.
A view back at Qtown.
Looking east down the Frankton Arm
Cherry blossoms. It's early spring after all.
Qtown Gardens fountain and flowers.
One last pic from the Qtown Gardens
We then returned to the house. The house is well down the lake, and well outside of Queenstown. I would love to know how high up the house is -- it is well above the lake, up one of the windiest roads you can imagine. The house (Muna Moke if you wish to google it) is rather spartan -- no central heating (as I mentioned before), but the windows and decks have the most stunning views of the lake and mountains. We are around some bends on Ben Lomond, so we do not have a direct view of Queenstown, but I cannot imagine there is a house in Queenstown with better views.
We can only see a handful of other houses from the deck -- and that's mostly at night when they have a light on. We have two decks -- a big one on the main level, with a smaller one off the master bedroom (which is the only room upstairs). The living room/kitchen dining room is nice and open, and now that the floor heating is working, it's much more comfortable than the first night in.
There is only one bathroom for the three of us, although that's really not bad (if Julia and Torie were along, one bathroom would be too small). There are no curtains in the bathroom, so you get a beautiful view of the mountains to the west as you come out of the shower. On the other hand, if someone is looking in the window, given how in the wilderness we are, it's likely an axe murderer. In case you are worried, no axe murderers yet.
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