Day 15. Christchurch to Queenstown

Day 15 Christchurch to Queenstown

The day has come where I am off to a new location. I am off to Queenstown. I chose to fly to the town as I would spend all day on the bus just to get to the town around 5pm when leaving around 9am. I thought it best to have around half a day extra especially as I have washing to do. Something I have noticed about Christchurch is the No Vacancy signs in front of many of the motels and some hostels. I don’t think this is the sort of place you would not have a booking of some sort. Especially after being asked by the bloke the other day. The food is not cheap either and I don’t know if street lights work, so I have been inside well before dark..

The trip to the airport was uneventful and I have plenty of time to sort everything out. I thought going through the airport lounge would have better food. I was wrong, so had to walk out as I had seen some decent food places. I found a bar and cafe that had breakfast and strong coffee. Just what I need early in the morning. Apparently it has been cold enough that more snow has fallen in the mountains. The news was talking about the Royal visit and that Wellington would be cut off when there was an earthquake. Since I was flying with air NZ they did show the Lord of the rings Safety video. I still think that is pretty cool though and while in the air I could see plenty of snow. Queenstown airport was small and seems Jetstar flies in New Zealand too. I have heard about the price wars over here too with air NZ.

Once landed we were driven to the hostel with several stops along the way. I was still pretty early to checkin and it was really a very warm day. I had to do my washing so that killed some time for me and then had lunch too. By the time I took pictures and wandered the local cemetery, it was time to checkin. I think I was annoying the lady especially when she asked what I was doing during my time here. I said I only had tomorrow planned and will plan the day after. She did suggest throwing me out of a plan or off a bridge. I said no, I don’t want to be thrown out of a perfectly good plane and bridge. I said that I was thinking of going out to Arrowtown as I thought I had some family history there. Turns out I don’t, not according to my family history records.

The rest of the afternoon had me head up to the Gondola and jump onto the luge especially when I had been on last time I was in town and it rained. Something I learnt, do not take a hand off the steering or else you will get hurt and my grazed knuckles told me so. Ouch. It was so pretty with very few clouds and a clear day. I had no jumper on and I was enjoying the day. So was everyone else who was in town. The next place I went was the Queenstown gardens for a wander. At least this was free and they have games of Frisbee gold type game that I have no idea how to play other than throw the Frisbee. After getting back to the town, I was looking across the lake and noticed a big wall of rain closing in and the lake becoming choppy. This told me I should call it a day or else i would get a wet tail. I am going to check out the Ice bar while I am here too, which sounds interesting being all ice. I suppose today was basically a rest day for me as I had nothing better to do.