Queenstown

The drive here, from Christchurch, was the most beautiful route I have every driven, not only that, it was also one of the easiest and most enjoyable too.

This morning, with the murky weather cleared, just look at the view from out apartment…

Queenstown is a former gold rush town on the shore of lake Wakatipu, it is a small place that is known as the extreme sports capital of the World and the place where bungee jumping was invented.

We decided to take the cable car to the top of the hill that overlooks the town.

Queenstown is the most beautiful of places and the views from the cafe at the gondola station are awesome in both scale and beauty. Photos can never do full justice to the real thing but here are a few that may give a taste of what is on offer…

From the gondola station, you can participate in all kinds of extreme activities. We decided to spend some time watching people hurl themselves off the mountain…

We then decided to walk through the forest and down the mountain, back to Queenstown.

Here is a picture of Morna showing how clean her boots are…

In general, the South Island of NZ is having a very dry summer. This is because all of the rain is falling on Queenstown this year. As we were sitting outside a lakeside bar drinking a well earned beer, a squall associated with a belt of rain travelling towards us, scattered parasols and sign boards across the quayside and the rain began again.

This place is well endowed with good restaurants and bars, and, without too much trouble, we found the Irish bar and dined well on fish and chips, meat pie and Guinness - to the sound of some excellent live music…