Cloud 18

A quiet day. We have no specific plans for our stay in Queenstown other than a jet boat ride tomorrow. The fun couple strikes again!






We got off to a late start sleeping in till 830, I guess some well needed rest from the last 2 weeks of driving, taking pictures, seeing stunning scenery and wine tasting. Had a nice breakfast followed by interesting conversations with our hosts.







The day started off rainy and we headed off toward Queenstown just behind the double decker London tour bus. After about 60 seconds 2 cars back from the bus, and being the patient person that I am, I saw a sign for Coronet Peak and immediately made a right turn. Coronet Peak is the mountain out our windows at White Shadows. It is a skiing mountain in the winter, with a small amount of snow remaining. Although still raining lightly and we ended up driving into the low clouds, we had some beautiful views of the valley below, the surrounding peaks and Queenstown in the distance.



We spent about an hour on the mountain and then headed off to Arrowtown rather than Queenstown. We would go to Queenstown later in the day and grab an early dinner.







Arrowtown is a former gold mining town of 2,000. Very nice little town with one main street, a couple of churches, nice houses and plenty of tourists and tourist related stores.







We walked around Arrowtown for a couple of hours and then headed off to Queenstown.



We arrived just in time for the rain to return. Queenstown is a ski resort in the winter, is the birth place of bungi-jumping and jet boating, and has no shortage of tourists. We walked around a bit and ran into the people we had dinner with at Wilderness Lodge. The same couple we ran into at dinner last night in Arrowton. We had dinner at a place called Winnie's, a 2nd floor pizza place, and then headed back to White Shadows.

On the way back in the rain, Nancy mentioned that there would be a rainbow somewhere around here as the sun came out. I took a wrong turn on the way back and we headed back up the Coronet Peak road. Rounding a corner was a stunning rainbow across the valley below. The photos don't do the rainbow justice.


After a nice evening at the main house, nibbles (hors d'oeuvres in NZ), a bottle of Pinot Gris and great conversations with our hosts, we retreated to our room for a movie in front of the fire.

Tomorrow, the jet boat, our last scheduled "activity" in NZ. Our first wake up call in a long time.