20 degrees , sunny spells
Up and at ‘em this morning - part 2b of our trip - flight to the South Island. After a hipster breakfast of sourdough bread, eggs, and a NZ version of heuvos rancheros, we walk out of the hotel just as the airport bus is drawing up. They know who they’re dealing with!
We say goodbye to our hotel view.
And this sign on a nearby building... hope it’s tongue in cheek...
We see a bit of Wellington on the ride out: high rise office blocks in the centre, attractive town houses further out - a bit in the San Francisco clapperboard style. This is the first city we have seen that remotely resembles a European city.
Walking from the bus into the airport takes us through the multi storey airport parking, Jags, Mercs, Audis, VWs, BMWs. These are about the only European cars we’ve seen. Most cars are in NZ are Toyota’s, probably over 3 out of 5. The rest are other Japanese cars or Hyundai’s. We hear there is a thriving business in second hand cars imported from Japan (they all drive on the left as in the UK). We got the feeling that Wellington must be expensive from all the banks and insurance high rise buildings around and this confirms it.
Wellington airport obviously enjoyed referencing the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings connections.
Our flight was on time, we were served coffee and cookies on our flight to Queenstown with the pilot stating we might have a bumpy pre landing approach, the landing which would have resulted in enthusiastic clapping on an European flight was shrugged off by the hardy New Zealanders!
We sat next to a New Zealander who showed us various routes over the mountains we could see on our approach in to Queenstown.
We’re in for a treat.
We arrive in Queenstown - party town. There is a bearded, dreadlocked, pony-tailed, tattooed, braid wearing dude on every corner man. We checked in to our accommodation for the night - a back packers hostel calked Absoloot Value hostel! We have a penthouse ensuite room on the third floor with views right over the lake and in the centre of town. The young-uns in the cheap rooms are in dormitories, 8 per dorm - nice!
However we also have views of the Irish Bar - where the live music and enthusiastic Irish singing at 6pm did not bode well for a peaceful sleep! We had enough of that last year. Also we overlook the floating bar..
Queenstown is certainly a happening place. There are hipster bars galore, restaurants, adventure companies, bungie jumping, jet boats, paddle steamer rides, water sports, skiing, luge rides, nature walks, frisby golf, woodland walks, wonderful play parks for kids, and for the oldies, a crown green bowling club. Now, have you ever seen a bowling green with a backdrop of mountains like this?
Queenstown is based on the South side of a huge lake with several fingers. All around are mountains, with the town itself already out of flat room for building. We go for a good walk round the headland to stunning views and, yes, the wind was getting up before our main event of the evening.
We have a reservation at the Skyline restaurant at the summit of the Skyline gondola - Bob’s Peak-which sadly is engulfed with drizzle. The Skyline is a 450m gondola ride up to a leisure complex comprising of mainly a restaurant, bungie jump and luge ride. We have been allocated the best table - a corner window table, and the buffet meal is (unexpectedly) top class. We tried to be restrained in our choices - we particularly enjoyed the giant tiger prawns and green lip mussels as a starter, then had a kind of roast dinner with lovely rare beef and lamb, and a selection of mini desserts. We watched some of our fellow dinners pile up their plates with a mix of awe and terror! .
Our kindly sommelier managed to get our 2 drink vouchers changed to a bin end bottle of lovely Pinot Gris for no extra charge so we were well chuffed (Yorkshire saying!). Especially given the views we were treated to whilst dining.
Carol looking particularly tired as did not sleep well in Wellington and sadly tonight will not be good either - the young-uns in Queenstown certainly know how to party - not in the hostel I hasten to add, but outside. They called it a night at about 2am.
Mon 21st Jan.
18 degrees, windy, cloudy.
After a rather disturbed night of revellers, strong winds and sounds of small boats being tossed around on an angry lake, we did a bit of tourist souvenir shopping after another lovely breakfast Queenstown style. It really is a vibrant place!
We managed to persuade the hire car firm to let us have our car earlier than planned and headed off on a fantastic scenic drive to Te Anau. Guess what car it is?
Toyota Corolla, this time with a boot. A bit older, and more basic, but this still has a lane departure warning - this is normally an extra in the UK (I think - long time since I’ve had a new car - G ). I wondered why and then we caught the end of one of those Police Car programs on TV where they show Police stopping wrongdoers. Anyway it appears that driving over the white line in NZ is an offence and the cops lie in wait to catch the unwary. Cut the corner in NZ and get caught it’s a fine. So that must be why all the hire cars have lane departure cameras fitted. At first all the buzzing was annoying but actually when your eyes wander to the scenery it’s quite useful. The rest of the car though - oh dear.
I think I should update you on the road situation. Our initial thoughts when we first drove from Aukland to Whakatane and Mt. Maunganui were we thought the roads were busy. This is not the case elsewhere, once you get out of the towns they are very quiet, and mostly relaxing to drive. Incidentally, that first drive took us past Tauranga, which has made the news recently as having the fourth most expensive property prices in the world. Behind Hong Kong but more expensive than London. The Government is under fire for having failed miserably to hit its target for house building and is considering taxing 2nd homes. Sound familiar?
Anyway, back to Te Anau. Everyone we have met has said Te Anau is beautiful even when raining,which it is forecast to do. In fact they say the more it rains, the more beautiful it is. We will see...
The drive to Te Anau was spectacular -windy roads through forests, dales and mountains - a 2 hour drive which we enjoyed tremendously - and also managed not to cross any centre lines.
We arrived in a wind swept misty Te Anau and having had no lunch bought a pie at ‘Miles Better Pies ‘ - Carol a seafood one and Graham a vegetarian . We ate them sat on a bench overlooking the lake, with mercenary seagulls flying in for the kill! The pies were quite nice - but we’re struggling to get the gourmet vibe of the pie!
Pies seem to be the snack of choice of Kiwis, especially for lunch. Quite often masquerading as bakeries we initially wandered in hoping for some freshly baked bread only to be faced with a line of pies - often owned by a Chinese family - which struck us as an odd combination, but an OK pie.. In this case however, the name gave the game away, so we were expecting a pie. We could have had a cornish pasty but that would have been sacriledge.
A quick supermarket shop - Carol’s in for a treat tonight as Graham is cooking one of his signature stir fries. All the motels or homestays in NZ come with a kitchenette so you can save some money by not eating out every night" tonight is one of those nights. Also, one of us has bought some gin, so a lovely gin and tonic watching The Chase on tele for Carol as the chef prepares dinner. ( The TV is not as British standard but there are an awful lot of British shows- Corrie, Who wants to be a Millionaire, and a rather weird garden make over programme with Laurence Llewelyn- Bowen - this one made in NZ - for example - The Chase seems quite classy!) So you can see we know how to live!
Then early to bed as we have a long scenic drive to do tomorrow...
Short post today for two reasons: the blogging software keeps crashing so we’re cutting down the size - maybe too many photos? And secondly, the next post may contain a lot more pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment