Saturday 21st August: Cloudy and cool and misty rain 5°C to 10°C
Brisbane to Queenstown: Flight Departed 9.15am, arrived Queenstown 3.40pm:
Accommodation: YHA Quenstown
2 packs inside Chinese Laundry Bag
Graham, Jenny Jan and Ian in Queenstown
The alarm goes off at 5am - a 30 minute walk with the 2 dogs, Chester and cousin Franklin, as Will and Cass have gone to the USA on a belated honeymoon. A quick shower abd breakfast and we're out the door with our two backpacks, stuffed inside a Chinese laundry bag and belted together to save on baggage costs. The whole lot weighs only 17kg.
At 6.45am we're at BAP, pay $22 for the Prado, ready for Bonnie and Kane to pick up on their way back from Japan after driving up from the Coast. Onto the next mini bus to the International Airport. The Virgin queue is 40 minutes, and who should we see in the zig zag queue but Bettina and and her husband Stan, also on their way to Queenstown. A small world.3hrs 30mins later and we're in Queenstown, after a spectacular landing, coming in across the lake. We declare all or food - coffee, tea, sugar, dehydrated potatoes and dehydrated peas. And the ONLY thing they confiscate are the peas - Made in New Zealand it says on the packet. There's also another backpacker at the customes counter picking the peas out of his soup mix laid out in a tray.
Once through customs and out the door, it doesn't take long for the Number 11 bus to pick us up. $4.50 for a 1 minute ride to the Remarkables Shopping Centre just around the corner, where there's a New World, NZ equivalent of Coles. $1222NZ later, we walk out the door with cheeses, dried hams, butter, meusli, powdered milk, apples, peanut paste, rice cakes, enough cashews to last a month and 3 packets of dehydrated peas identical to the ones that customs tokk from us and threw away. Back on the Number 11 bus, $7.50 and 10 minutes later we're in Queenstown centre, and wait for the Number 8 to take us to the YHA Lakefront just 800 metres out of town on the lake.
Graham and Jenny Queenstown
Gotta check out the MacPac shop
A quick skype to Bonnie, time to dump the packs in our 2 bed room, not a dorm, and then 300 metres back towards town to The Lodges to catch up with Jenny and Graham, who, co-incidentally, are also in Queenstown for the night on their way to Mt Cook for a cycle ride with the Gold Coast Hash House Harriers. After a drink with the crew in someone's apartment, it's just a short stroll downtown looking for a place for dinner.
It's already cold, 10°C and misty rain, and after a quick look in the Macpac shop (of course) we choose to eat at The Pub on the lake front, and sit inside right next to a fire. Too cold outside. Ian and Jenny choose Monk fish, Graham and I the lamb duo (some grilled, some stewed), with an entre of calamari and mussels and a bottle of Pinot Gris to wash it all down.
A cold walk home to the YHA and off to bed at 10pm with our bags of cold food hanging out the window, way out of the possums reach.