Queenstown

Well, Friday today and I have moved from the YHA to the place that Jan and I stayed in in 1999. It's up the hill along the lakeside with fantabulous views of the town, the Remarkables, the lake and the hills further up the lake! I could stay here for another day or two as there's so much to see and do here at Queenstown. The almost island in the above pic is a beautiful park where I went for a walk today. It is ANZAC day today, equivalent of our day to remember the men who died during the World Wars, so there were several gun salutes while I was there, ricocheting round the mountains like thunder!

After the walk I thought I'd have a teabreak at an unusual cafe by the water that I remembered from the last visit, the Royal Bathhouse, but sadly it was closed for the day, and only open at night for meals! Instead I headed for the Skyline Gondola for the ride up one of the mountains - Bob's Peak - to the cafe up there.

It's a long steep way up but the views down to the town and the lake are pretty stunning!

This photo isn't actually taken from the skyline viewing gallery, but probably from Ben Lomond the next peak! It's higher than our Scottish Ben Lomond from which this one probably got its name!

After admiring the views all round, browsing the souvenir shop - outrageous prices - having my photo taken by a kindly kiwi, devouring a banana and chocolate muffin and a bottle of tropical fruit juice, it was time to descend once more to get to the Kiwi and Birdlife park in time for the special shows they were putting on! I had an hour looking round the park, seeing different bird life from moreporks (little owls), kakariki and lorikeets, to NZ ducks and teals, and of course kiwis! They are nocturnal so their kiwi house is kept dark but with infra red lights so they can be seen by the public, albeit with difficulty! I was lucky in that one was quite close to the front of the enclosure so I could see it quite well. There were some more tuataras too, in their own enclosure. After the tour around the park there was a conservation "display" in a netted enclosure, where one of the girls who works there showed some of the birds and gave a talk on the conservation of various endangered species!

I loved this picture that they had on display. The Maori greeting is to touch noses!

Following the talk in which kakariki and the lorikeet flew back and forth from one member of staff to the other, there was a change of venue to see a trio of Maori people perform songs and a couple of haka - the sort of thing the All Blacks do at the start of a rugby international! They got us standing up to do a song and dance which turned out to be the Hokey Kokey in Maori! Hopi hopi! Well, it was fun! Unfortunately I forgot to charge the camera battery last night and it ran out just as I was about to come down in the gondola! So I will be relying on leaflets for the photos of the birds and the performance.

This evening I have been trying to put my photos on disk! Ken in Invercargill did some for me, so I thought it a good idea to follow suit. Only I got all the pics copied, ready to burn to a disk, clicked on "write these files to CD"..... and "There is no disk in the disk drive" it told me! Yes there is! Anyway it wouldn't recognise it, and now it won't even open the disk drawer to give me back the CD that IS in there! Technology! I can see I'm not meant to upload my photos yet!

So tomorrow I am continuing on my way north and onto the west coast. I must make an early start. There's a lot to see on route and I know I am not going to make my planned destination of Franz Josef. Maybe I'll get to Haast instead! So, till I get to the next backpackers with internet facilities, I'll say bye bye!

Talk again soon.