Saturday - summer again

We woke this morning to blue skies and sunshine. It was still only 10 degrees, but felt so much warmer than the previous day. We breakfasted outside (avoiding the sand flies as much as possible) then walked the Lake Gunn nature trail.

The trail took us through a lovely section of forest, with several native trees, all covered with moss. Small interpretive plagues told us about the various trees and their uses by the Maori.

A highlight of the walk was this little bird, who greeted us, inspected us, then nearly landed on Mick's hat. Later on another bird of the same type actually walked along the trail with us for several metres.

We retraced our way back along the Milford Sound Road, this time stopping at Te Anau Downs to see where people started the Milford Sound Track. The sky was blue and yet there was still snow on the hills.

The drive to Queenstown is convoluted, as you have to drive south then east, before you can head north, due to the mountain ridges. We had a pleasant lunch stop at a small picnic table and got chatting to a couple from Invercargill which was very pleasant. By this time the temperature was about 22 degrees and we felt like summer was back with us.

A short distance from Queenstown we made a slight detour, and came across this house. His entire fence was made out of old tractor wheels. As my cousin said, 'only in New Zealand'.

The road to Queenstown ran alongside Lake Wakatipu, and the scenery was wonderful. Arriving at Queenstown was quite a shock to the system. Suddenly there were lots of people everywhere, plus traffic, restaurants and noise. The town centre is stuffed with upmarket souvenir shops, fancy clothes shops and bars. We saw about three groups of young women celebrating hen nights, and at least one stag night.

Suddenly we had wifi available as well (we have not had any wifi or phone coverage since we left Doubtful Sound) so I managed to get Wenesday afternoon's update sent. I'm still trying to get Thursday and Friday's blogs sent! We ate at the Bella Cucina, following a recommendation from a friend and it was delicious. Then there was just time for a wander about town, people watching, until the sun set and we returned to our small, but much loved, box on wheels, leaving the youth of NZ to continue enjoying the night on the lakeside beach.

 

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