D Day +39

Latish start of 9:30 this morning as 2:00am bedtime is not really normal. I think we are both a bit jaded and find that for some inextricable reason we can’t open the lock on one of the suitcases and as it is the one with the passports in thats a bit of an issue. Still its an issue that can wait until we get to Queenstown. We hop over to the village to get some breakfast but find everywhere packed out with Chinese Tourists. I suspect that these are now the major contributors to the NZ tourist industry. We decide to get on the road and breakfast later.

Now just a bit about driving in NZ. The roads seen very well maintained but are all pretty narrow and in most cases windy and hilly. Very sensibly there is a 100Km maximum speed limit and judging by the number of police cars stopping motorists during todays drive, very well policed. Now Kiwi’s are very friendly people, until they get behind the wheel of a car, when they will tail gate you when you are doing 99km/h until the smallest opportunity to overtake presents itself when they will shoot past and then drop back down to 99km/h. Now this would not necessarily be an issue but I also have a fishwife for a sat nav that if I go 1km/h over the speed limit admonishes me with “Please observe all traffic regulations” Still it passes the time.

We finally start to head up into the mountains heading for Lindis pass, The summit is 971m above sea level (3186ft) so it’s quite a climb. The scenery is quite different to anything we have seen to date being mainly tussock grass. There is what I suspect is a weather station at the summit with both solar power and an emergency generator as further down the road we see gates to close the pass off presumably when it snows.

We stop off at a lake, try to miss the hoards of Chinese doing Tai Chi and taking selfies and Chris finds a quite spot where we can just sit and look at the wonder of our natural world for a while.

Moving on we stop at Twistel for a late breakfast early lunch at one of the ubiquitous bakeries. This one is a bit like Gregs but fills a need. Stop off at a hardware store on the way back to the car and pick up a junior hacksaw. No lock is going to defeat me.

The drive down to Queenstown is through a number of spectacular gorges steep sided with hairpin bends with rivers at the bottom. Really nice to drive but but nowhere to stop. One of the places we pass through is the Gibson Valley. It is full of vineyards and orchards but the bizarre image of a vineyard with snowcapped mountains behind still lingers.

Arrive in Queenstown and find the hotel quite easily. It’s a Holiday Inn Express. Now Chris and I have stayed in HI Express in UK and it’s pretty basic but functional. This one is anything but and I suspect from the state of it quite new. It’s very nice. If the truth is known we’re both knackered so we head up to the room to sort out the luggage. Chris fiddles with the recalcitrant case and gets it open. Somehow the combination has got changed 🤔. Thats $11 I didn’t need to spend 😂

Just downstairs to type up the blog and grab a bite to eat as we really are to tired to go out looking for somewhere. nothing special but quite nice.

Blue Cod and chips for Chris

Nasi Goreng and prawns for me

Look forward to the next exciting blog tomorrow when hopefully we will have caught up on sleep.