Queenstown Finale

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Sunday breaks bright and breezy. After consuming a snack prior to our first appointment we wait in the lobby before learning that our helicopter flight has been cancelled “due to high winds”. Plan B is to climb to the base of the Skyline gondola ride and rise to the cliff top overlooking Queenstown for a wonderful view of the area. The day is warm and sunny with very little wind (could we have been a victim of too few customers for the helo ride?). We note the special bungee jumping platform discussed by our hosts yesterday. On returning to the lower level we run into Tim from Seattle who’s been working here with his wife for 4 years. They share their experiences and places “not to miss” when we’re in Auckland. One observation he makes is that while NZ employs many ecofriendly practices their laws and overall understanding of eco principles are not strict enough to really protect the environment. He noted that that US has done a remarkably better job of completing the environmental cleanup process. Then we read about NYC’s snow removal dumping in the river, a practice outlawed by the US Navy on its bases 20 years ago!
At noon we boarded the lake steamer TSS Earnslaw, built in 1912 in Dunedin and railed to Kingston on Lake Wakatipu in pieces. It was then reconstructed and has been operated here ever since. The Earnslaw is 168’ long, 24’ wide and draws 7’ of water with twin screwed propellers. Its steam engine has been modified periodically but still uses coal and is one of the oldest operating steam engines in NZ (actually two triple expansion 250 horsepower steam engines condensing to jet condensers with two locomotive type, smoke tube boilers consuming a ton of coal per hour ). Since they opened up the interior flooring you get a great look at its operating environment. In the early years, prior to the construction of many roads around the lake, the ship transported everything from cars to (a max of 1,500) sheep. Now it takes people across the lake to Walter Peak High Country Farm where a filling BBQ served in the picturesque farm house is followed by sheep shearing and sheep dog demonstrations. Our Cappy has neither the hair for the sheering or the temperament/training for the sheep corralling work. Both were fun to watch and we got our dosage of lanolin from the sheared wool. The different types of wool (from different breeds) revealed why they’re used for different purposes. A new use is combining opossum fur with wool or just using opossum for soft gloves and sweaters. We returned on the steamship and talked with an American girl Fulbright Scholar completing her PhD in Marine Biology. I asked, after our trip ashore, whether they were going to give her a real sheepskin diploma. She laughed. Lacking that I thought opossum or stoat tails would be appropriate around the perimeter. She agreed noting she’s returning to the US to work at the Smithsonian.
Tomorrow we return to Auckland via Air NZ after a wonderful stay along the West Coast and in Queenstown.

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