NZ Day 5- belated, no photos:(

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New Zealand Day 5
Well tonight we are sitting in Queenstown......things didn’t quite go to plan, but that’s OK...sort of. We woke to a familiar sound- yep, rain again! Actually, we think we have this NZ weather sorted- it rains in the morning & then hopefully fines up in the pm. Was raining from before 4am- not heavy rain, more like heavy drizzle, but certainly enough to get you very wet if you were out in it. Which of course meant that hiking up to the Mt John observatory would have been a very wet event- & as Raymond still hasn’t thrown his cold, that wouldn’t have been the wisest thing to do. And as it is pretty cool/cold, aside from shopping (I can do shopping) & then the pub for tea, there really wasn’t a reason to stay. So, the next decision (which gave me nightmares overnight) was- given the weather forecast of rain for 2-3 days, do we take the safe route & head south & then to the east coast back up to the top. This would mean that we wouldn’t do the Milford/Doubtful Sounds or the glaciers. Now you have to know that I cack my pants when it comes to steep windy roads- I would be beyond shitting myself if it was steep windy roads & pouring with rain! Oh the dilemmas of being on holidays & having to make VERY stressful decisions. My neck has locked up in anticipation of the horrid roads I have conjured up in my brain.
So, we set off south & had to stop at Omarama & have lunch whilst we decided to go right to Queenstown & then back up the west coast (maybe), or left & down to Invercargill & Dunedin & back up the east coast where the driving is very safe......my sort of territory really. After upending my grilled sanga (maybe a sign?) it was decided that we would travel to Queenstown & then seek some advice on the road up the west coast. I/we would be very disappointed if we didn’t do either the ‘sounds’ or the glaciers as that is what the south island is all about. A guy we chatted to at Lake Tekapo said the road up the west coast was fine & in our vehicle would be no problem at all....still not convinced. I really wanted to go to the Cadbury factory at Dunedin, but as it looks like we would be there on a weekend, you can’t do the full factory tour anyway, but you can do a shortened version....hopefully still with lots of chocolate, which I need like a hole in the head.........still holidays are about wants not needs aren’t they girls???? You think you have enough time to do a lot of things & then you find you have to choose between one or the other- if only we had 6 weeks, or 8 weeks or...
Therefore, as we sit and contemplate our navels (Ray has far too much navel fluff....too much information!) in Christchurch, we are still not too sure as to what will happen. After driving down here today, through Lindis Pass etc, I am thinking it can’t be much worse than that......luckily I was driving, but not assisted by Raymond saying ‘crap- that’s steep..or ‘far out I can’t see the bottom...or just plain ‘shit its steep’! very helpful. Luckily the steep side was the passenger side & I was safe & snug in the middle of the road. I should add that we think the roads are great- certainly a lot better than some we travel regularly at home. They are certainly wide enough for our home & for semis........can’t imagine why you would want to drive a shortened version of our B doubles on these roads???? I have enough difficulty with our home- aaahhh well- each to their own.
Our trip into Queenstown was ‘challenging

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