Queenstown

Today we are motoring to Queenstown in the southwest of New Zealand. We have a mountain range, the Southern Alps to cross, which has at its peak Mt Cook.

In our journey across New Zealand we have spotted many bee hives and have noticed that honey is very popular in their grocery stores. These were the most colourful beehives that I saw.

The road was very windy with speed limits posted at many of the bends. This one had a speed limited of 15 kph (9 mph).

This sign indicated a speed bump ahead. The bump turned out to be pebbles inserted into the concrete. It certainly slowed our speed and rattled our car.

Talking of the car, Gary is driving an automatic Toyota and he is having great difficulty differentiating between the wiper blades and the turn signals due to their position in the car compared with our car in the U.S.. So, we have the cleanest car windows in NZ due to the wipers being turned on instead of the turn signal!!.
Our journey took us past the Franz Joseph glacier. I managed to get a nice shot with my camera.

In one of the small towns we went through there was a house with tractor wheels used as a fence. It was quite unique and colourful.

One of the many bumble bees seen on our trip.

Oh my, this was one of the coldest days of our trip so far. The car thermometer read 2 degrees C, 35.6 degrees F. I had not packed for weather as cool as this so I just about froze when getting out of the car to take my photographs. On the top of one hill I got out of the car to take photos of the fog when it began to snow very slightly. It was foggy on the tops of the hills when I noticed an airplane come through the fog and hills on its way to Queenstown. I'm glad I was not piloting that 'plane.

I think this photo is out of order but never mind. It is a photo of Puzzle World, which is an amusement attraction that sells all different types of puzzles. It also has a 3D maze in which you can try and find your way through. I was not amazed enough to try the maze.

We have finally made it to Queenstown. A good friend of mine, Sigrid really enjoyed being here when she was on holiday. We decided to take a ride into town to explore before finding our hotel. Smack bang in the middle of the town and traffic was a mother duck and her ducklings. They seemed to know where they were going which is more than I can say for us.

We parked the car at a roundabout that had daffodils and heather growing on it. When I see daffodils I think of my Dad as he loved daffodils because they were a sign winter was nearly over.

 The views from where we parked the car were really nice.

We decided to take a ride on Lake Wakatipu on the TSS Earnslaw, a twin screw steamer. The coal-fired steamer had its maiden voyage on the lake in 1912 and is reputed to be the oldest working commercial passenger carrying coal-fired steamship in the southern hemisphere.

 I have fond memories from many, many, many years ago of riding on the Humber Ferry and seeing the engine rooms with the pistons and the smell of coal. I hoped those memories would be re-ignited when I went downstairs to view the Earnslaw's engine room.

 Unfortunately, it was difficult to take photos of the pistons as the space was small and my camera was unable to take good photos of them. I did get to see the deckhand loading coal into the boilers (there were 4 of them altogether). We were told the ship used 8 tons of coal per day.
The ship took us out onto the lake and then to a small resort called Walter Peak. We had paid for a round trip which unfortunately did not allow us to leave the boat at the resort. I had to be satisfied with taking photos from the boat.

A nice photo of my hubby.

You might not be able to see the brave soul para-sailing as he is very small in my photo. He was wearing a wet suit as the water was very cold.

 Returning to Queenstown we had a nice view of the city.

 The lake water was so clear you could see the bottom.

The funny looking boat in the above photo was of an enclosed 2 seater power boat. I do not think I would have enjoyed riding in it as I would have been claustrophobic.

 The next photo is of the only Kiwi we have seen so far.

 Queenstown had very nice Botanic Gardens which I could not miss seeing.

The above couple were not feeding the ducks. The ducks descended upon anyone they thought had food.

After the boat ride we took a car ride to the town of Glenorchy at the head of the lake. The town was very small but had managed to raise enough money for a WW1 and WW11 war memorial. What was nice was beside the memorial was a list of the men who had given their lives for their country and a short description about them. It seemed to make the memorial more personal.

What would a blog be without a close up photo of a flower. This one is of course a rhododendron.

 In Glenorchy we stopped at a cafe for a drink. I had a hot chocolate with a beautiful design created on the top. My brother would be envious as he has been practicing doing this with his coffee maker.

On our trip we stopped for a drink in Kingston and spotted this old steam train.

The Kingston Flyer turned out to be a vintage steam train that dates back to 1886. It was an express train that carried passengers between Kingston, Gore, Invercargill, and less frequently, Dunedin.  The train was operated by the New Zealand Railways Department from 1890s until 1957.