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The fine sunny weather keeps following us and this morning dawned fine and clear.OK it did take a while longer than we might have expected for the sun to infiltrate the area where we are staying opposite Kingston Heights but with a cruisy day ahead we were in no rush to get up.
The apartment has a gas heater that is very efficient even on a low heat and we left it on all night and the temperature inside was just perfect without being stuffy.
It was a bit too chilly to sit out on the deck area in front of the lounge and watch the planes come and go into Queenstown airport but we had a good view from inside anyway.
One must admire the skill of the airline pilots that get to fly in and out of Queenstown airport with the narrow approach to the runway because of the towering mountains on both sides of the approach.
As a passenger the approach to land from the north is the one that leaves us not wanting to look out the window as the plane weaves left to right to avoid hitting the mountainside as it descends
before thumping down onto the runway with the air brakes on full !
By the time we got ourselves together and headed downtown it was nearly midday. Everything is so compact downtown that it is a wonder there is anywhere to find a carpark.However there are a number of them available and we had no problem finding a space with just a short walk to get to the shopping area.
Queenstown has been greatly affected by COVID19 with no overseas tourists evident and even though it is school holidays there isn’t a large number of Kiwi families downtown today.
There are so many restaurants downtown that you could holiday here for a month and still not get to eat in them all. The same can be said for the number of accommodation places and the sooner the overseas tourists can start coming back then the sooner the town will get back to the way it was and make use of all the facilities the town has.
After strolling around the downtown area and the lake front we headed over to the gardens which were established in 1867 with many different specimens of trees with the most
visible being the Douglas fir.
There is a memorial to William Rees who was the earliest settler to arrive in the area and clear the matagouri to be able to farm here. Just along the road from where we are staying his name is still remembered today with a hotel name after him.
Down on the waterfront the TSS Earnslaw was arriving back in from its morning cruise on the lake. The only remaining commercial passenger carrying coal fired steamship in the Southern Hemisphere was built in Dunedin and transported to Kingston at the southern end of Lake Wakatipu in pieces, rebuilt and sailed up to Queenstown in 1912 and has been here ever since.
Also out in the water are a couple of more modern additions to the lake namely a ‘shark ‘that speeds through the water and then suddenly diving only to rear out of the water shortly thereafter giving the adventure seeking passenger a scary thrill.
We were quite happy to keep our feet on terra firma and on the way back to the car stopped in at Starbucks for a coffee and a muffin.
Tomorrow, weather dependant, we might just venture
a bit further in search of places we haven’t been before.
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