December 17

Drive to Queenstown

Today was relatively clear and sunny. I packed and headed toward Queenstown. On the way out of Queenstown, I planned to stop by the lake again for some more pictures in the nice weather. I saw Orey along the road hitchhiking, and gave him a ride. We stopped at the Wildlife Park by the lake, and went to a pretty spot with palm trees and yellow flowers to take a picture in the sunshine. I also took more pictures of the takehe birds.

On the way to Queenstown, we talked about the English system of measurements vs metric. I dropped Orey off in the center of Queenstown. He had been here before. Queenstown is much larger than Te Anau, with many shops and booking agents for the local tourist attractions. This is the tourist center of the South Island. There were many traffic circles, making driving confusing. I saw some familiar fast food restaurants, including a McDonalds, a KFC, and a Pizza Hut. Queenstown had gotten a lot of rain recently, and the lake had flooded. Some streets were still under water.

The YHA is a big one, on the edge of town near the shore of the lake. When unpacking, I realized I had left most of my food in the kitchen at Te Anau, so I went shopping for some more. The supermarket here was not too impressive, but adequate. I had everything I needed for the Routeburn walk, fortunately. I walked into town, and stopped at a gourmet vegetarian cafe for an olive-feta pizza. I found the DOC office, and bought my bus tickets for the Routeburn Track at the office next door. They were rather expensive, due to the long five-hour ride back, which cost $45 on a Kiwi Experience bus. I also stopped in a big information/booking center and made a reservation for a ride on the Shotover Jet boat upon return from the Routeburn Track.

Later, I went up the gondola for a view of the city and lake and the Remarkables, the nearby craggy mountain range. It was now clear and sunny, and the views from the building at the top of the gondola were fine, with the sun shining on the bright turquoise lake below. This was supposed to be the best gondola in New Zealand. It would be possible to walk to the top also.

I stayed on top of the mountain for a while, and had a venison pie with ginger beer and capuccino, and then wrote a couple of post cards to my brother and parents. I found some interesting circular stamps to mail them. I went back down to town around 5:30 and mailed the cards at the post office. Then I walked around town a while before going home to fix dinner and pack for the Routeburn Track.

A couple of men from Minnesota in my dormitory room had just returned from the Routeburn Track, and had gotten very wet. I went to bed at 11PM. Roy was here now, staying in the same dorm room. His family was in another room. I set my alarm for 6 AM, since I would be getting a Backpacker's Express bus to the Routeburn Track at 8 AM.

Copyright Scott A. Yost, 1996. All rights reserved.