Saturday 22nd February - A walk into Queenstown

Last day in Queenstown. We have spent a week here resting and now it's time to head out again tomorrow. Today we took a slow stroll the five miles along the shoreline into town and hopped on the local bus back. There was a Saturday market in on the harbour front and Catherine had a Chinese neck and shoulder massage, ouch! 

Friday 21st February - A gentle day in Queenstown

Today we had a rest. We only cycled 10 miles along the shore track with a coffee stop and three lakeside bench stops.  We are now recovering nicely from our cycle touring. Over a morning coffee at the camp site we got chatting with Beth and Lynne who are on a short holiday here.  Bev lives in Alexadra, a town we plan to be staying in next Monday.  After a good chat during which we all put the world to rights, Bev very kindly invited us to stay with her overnight when we travel East towards Dunedin.  I promised to provide the evening refreshments for us all, so I am looking forward to continuing our discussions over a nice glass or two of wine. Just one more rest day then we have about 5 days planned to get from here to Dunedin, on the east coast, where we hope to meet up with Carole, our friends daughter, who emigrated here a good number of years ago now.  

We found a few friends on our short trip today

Should be a pleasant evening!

Thursday 20th February - Just another day in Queenstown

Today started gently with the idea of a gentle stroll along the lake shore line.  It ended after over a 12 mile beautiful stroll on a peaceful quiet path and a wonderful lunch spot just at the right time. 

Wednesday 19th February - Falling for Queenstown

Woke up to blue skies with no wind.  Just a perfect day for ummmmm, yes a skydive.  So I somehow was booked onto the 10.30 a.m. flight or should I say, fall.  I went for the full works, 15000 feet up with Greg and video and photos.  As you can see I loved it all.  I do recall an earshattering scream as I left the plane, think it was me.  Just a natural reaction to leaving a plane at that height.  Smiled all the way down and would recommend it to anyone.  In the meantime Tony enjoyed the harbour side in Queenstown, people watching and listening to the numerous musicians on the lake shore. 

Tuesday 18th February - A trip to Arrowtown

Our friend Bob predicted that we would see bungy jumping on the way to Queenstown and yes we did. He then suggested that a cycle trip with no luggage to Arrowtown would be a good day out. It was!

We met up with our Auckland cycling friends and headed off on the Queenstown cycle track . Our bikes are not well suited to the tracks but we managed ok. There is lots of loose stones and having feet cleated in to the pedals was unnerving at times. On the way back Catherine's bike slid and she could not get her foot out on time. She was fine although she fell onto a dead rabbit! She assures me it was dead before she fell on it, I just thought it would be a good story to tell. Not everyday that you fall from a bike is softened by a dead rabbit. Don't tell to too many people though otherwise dead rabbits could end up compulsory for cyclists.

Steve, Annette and Michael. Ready for the off

The Queenstown trail

Arrowtown. A lovely church but dwarfed by this massive redwood

Chatting in the shade. 

Arrowtown high street. Nice but a bit Disneyland. All tourists shops so not really authentic in any way.

It was attractive though! We bought some fruit for lunch!

Then had coffee and cake!

We overlooked the boat ride that we had been on just yesterday.

Monday 17th February - Our first day staying at Queenstown

We stayed another night at the campsite at Frankton and cycled the 8K along the lake into Queenstown. Everyone said Queenstown was a big and busy place but I guess everything is relative and we both thought it was a lovely place. Queenstown is host to numerous outdoor activities from Heli-cycling to gentle cruising on the lake. We decided a Jet Boat ride may be fun.  One of us was more up for it than the other however we both loved the 43 km fast ride up the Shotover river and Kawarau River as well as fun on Lake Wakatipu. If you want a sample of the Jet Boat trip here is the link https://www.dropbox.com/s/k6t56j1coglz78o/Video%2004-04-2010%2008%2047%2016.avi On the cycle ride back to our cabin at Frankton we saw some children being trained to cycle correctly, it all looked very familiar!  We have decided this may be a good place for a few days of centre touring so will base ourselves here for a while before our cycle tour continues towards Dunedin.