NZ +5: The Journey to Queenstown

It's actually Wednesday morning now, so really NZ +6,(and Happy Birthday, Chris Chappell!) but I'm going to post some photos of the journey yesterday which, although long, was just amazing. To be honest, if we had stopped at every view which was worth a photo, or greater appreciation than just zipping past at 120 (that's kph, so don't worry!). we would have never got here.

Here's a sample:



This was our first really good view of mountains in the distance. The first part of the journey (about 4 hours) was characterised by views like this, mountains which never seemed to get any closer and very long straight roads.



More of the same, which makes it seem very tedious, which it wasn't at all. Every two minutes the view seemed to change completely as the long straight road turned a slight bend into another stretch of long straight road.

And of course, we got our closest to Mount Cook, NZ's highest mountain, which, going the way we went, yout get a view of for about 5 minutes. You can't see it before you get to the viewpoint at all, and it disappears completely after you leave. Being as it is the middle of winter, there were about 3 other people there...



It was a bit hazy, and that photo was on 11x digital zoom. The next one gives you a fairer impression of how far we were away from it still..



We stopped at a place called Omarama for coffee, that's where I posted the last entry



The word fast was somwhat of a misnomer as I think the whole of the town communications infrastructure was carried thus:



Anyway, after Omaramamama, we got into the mountains. High passess and narrower, twistier, altogether more dangerous roads. But still with views British people would pack a picnic for...



Finally arrived at Queenstown about 5.30pm and settled into the lodge...



..and we were all a bit disappointed with the view from the window...



All for the equivalent of £40 a night, breakfast included. That's £40 for the room, for all three of us. Not each.