Sunday 22nd March: Cloudy and cool 5°C to 18°
Queenstown: Day in Queenstown
Looking down on Queenstown
It's supposed to be rainy tody but when we wke at 8.45am (5.45am at home) it's overcast but dry. Breakfast is meusli and rice cakes with peanut paste and butter, plus an apple. Followed by a hot, hot cup of tea.
A short walk downtown, and the first dtop is the DOC (Department of Conversation, to pick up our tickets for the buses, boats, ferries and huts for the Routeburn Track. Then to the travel agent, Info and Track, to confirm the 8am bust to the Routeburn Shelter at the start of the walk, then to Kiwi Discovery to confirm our bus from The divide to Te Anau at the end of the walk. It's 11am when we decide to walk up to the Skyline Gondola at the top of the hill - about a 500 metre ascent over 3km. It's a steady up hill climb and takes 1hr 15 mins - we both feel it in the calves - clearly we're not mountain fit yet!
Queenstown from top of Skyline
Ambulance waits for MBX riders at bottom of steep downhill section
Queesntown from Top of Skyline
Gondola on way down
Fergberger is the place to be
Pies are famous in Arrowtown
Wine Tasting in Queenstown
The track criss crosses the mountain bike route, and we encounter several mountain bikers hurtling down at breakneck speed - any wonder we passed an ambulance waiting at the end of a crucial steep down hill section. At the top, a mug of hot late revives us and we're soon in the Gondola heading down into Queenstown. We're amazed at the number of international tourists in Queenstown, many middle aged Chinese, and also many young European backpackers. NZ has certainly done well in the tourism stakes.
There's still several hours left in the day, so time to catch another bus out to the touristy Arrowtown. a $33 pas allows us to travel all day. It would have been $30 return anyway. It's a pleasant ride out through the hills behind Queenstown to Arrowtown, site of a gold rush 150 years ago. The first thing to do is find the pie shop. It's 2.30pm and we're starving. The narrow street is lined with old timber shops selling souvenirs, and we find the pie shop at the end of teh street. I have a sausage roll and Ian has a steak pie. A stroll around town finds us at the Chinese settlement down by the river, where the Chinese gold diggers lived in tiny shanty huts. Very interesting.
The 4.50pm bus takes us back to Queenstown where we find the wine shop for a wine tasting at $4.00 per 25ml sip of several Pinot Noirs. None re as nice as our own Shiraz's. Up to the 4 Square store to buy some rump steak for dinner and a Bottle of Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir from the local BWS. Back to the YHA where the large kitchen is buzzing with backpackers cooking their evening meal. We have steak, mashed potatoes, mushrooms, onions and tomatoes with green spinach leaves. A quick skype to Bonnie before heading back to our small room to pack for tomorrow.