I wasn’t going to do a blog this time because we’re only going for 11 days, but I thought that I should put something down as a record, so here we are.
Got up early, checked the paper as usual and read the cheery news that a plane had crashed in Europe. Not a good start to our holiday.
Out of the house, on the train, then the Skybus to the airport with plenty of time to spare, I think it’s a record.
Saw a huge queue for the check in, only to discover it was for a different flight. Checked in using the kiosk, no luggage to check in so things were going well.
The flight to Christchurch was only 4 hours, then another 1 hour to Queenstown. Since the flight was so short the screaming baby a couple of rows behind me didn’t bother me too much, but I still scowled at the parents every so often, just in case they weren’t aware that their kid was annoying me.
Flying down to Queenstown was spectacular once we dropped below the clouds – the plane was flying below the top of the mountains as it approached the airport.
Getting through immigration took longer than I expected – we used the e passport gates which made you stand and stare at a camera, but it took each person about 5 minutes . Song got bored and went to the counter and was through before me.
Out of the airport, we checked the map and the hotel was only down the road, so decided to walk it, it took about 20 minutes. The hotel is next to the lake, we didn’t have a great view and the room was a bit small but comfortable. It was also a bit warm and humid so we opened a couple of windows. We went for a walk along the lake and took some pictures. The weather was overcast but pleasant, just needed a shirt, around 20c.
Hopped on a bus to the town and got a bit of a shock – it was 6km away and the fare was $13 for the 2 of us. I think that’s pretty steep.
5 minutes later we were in the town which was quite busy. We wandered around a bit and were feeling hungry, there were restaurants everywhere so had plenty of choice. I spotted one that was about no 3 on Tripadvisor so we popped in. It was quite pleasant, not too busy. I ordered the cauliflower and blue cheese soup to start, Song had salt and pepper calamari. She had pork belly for main, on a bed of mashed potatoes. I had venison with roast beetroot and potatoes, and feta. Mine was very nice, Song said hers was ok but not great. I also had a dark ale that was really good. Decided against dessert, waddled out of the restaurant after paying ($108 without tip, which was probably about the same as Australia), then went to catch the world’s most expensive bus back to the hotel; a bit disappointed that we hadn’t seen any Hobbits or Elves, but it’s only our first day here.
As soon as we opened the door of our room we realised we made a mistake by leaving the windows open because the entire insect population of Queenstown had moved into our room. There were big ones, small ones, fat ones and thin ones. Some had short legs, some had big wings but all were not welcome. We spent the next 30 minutes in a mad swatting frenzy until we got the number down to single figures.
Tomorrow we’re going on a cruise round the lake and wander around the town a bit.
I should be able to upload some photos tomorrow, assuming the remaining insects don’t carry me off somewhere in the night.
