QUEENSTOWN

TUESDAY 10th MAY

  Got up at 8.00am and after a cup of coffee and toast, I loaded my luggage into the car and set off on the 40Km trip down highway 1 to Milton.  There I turned off onto highway 8 heading for Alexandra and then Cromwell.  It proved to be a very interesting and varied route.  Once I got past Lake Waikolo the road started climbing and

dipping all over the place.  The nominal speed limit was 100Km/hr, but it was not an attainable speed on that road!

Especially when we ran into low cloud which was the equivalent of a good old fashioned London fog!

But eventually we got through the cloud, but the road continued to twist and turn and rise and fall.

I must admit that I saw a lot of sheep on the way.  Although there were barren stretches, in the areas where the grass abounded, there were hundreds of sheep grazing blissfully, little knowing that they were going to land up as the Sunday roast!  But when it got barren, boy was it barren!

 I stopped in Alexandra where the original bridge over the Roxburgh River has been partially retained despite the erection of a steel bridge next to it, in 1958.  I parked the car up and took a stroll around the town.  I found a Wharehouse Store where I picked up a double CD of all the Drifters Arista, Bell and Epic singles for £4.00.  I was well pleased with that.  I also got a beanie hat, mosquito repellant and sun cream combined, and another set of the high powered batteries for my camera at two thirds of the price I had previously paid for them.

 I was intruiged to see that there was a clock attached to the mountain face outside Alexandra!

  Eventually I got all my purchases back to the car and hit the road for Cromwell.  Again it was a tricky road that precluded the speed limit being used to its full extent.

 I stopped at a memorial to the place where gold was first discovered in 1862.  This brought prospectors in from the four corners of the earth, and work on gold prospecting continued there for another hundred years.

 

I then came across Cromwell Lookout Point, which not only has a directional signposts, but also terrific views in all directions.  It has been renamed the Bruce Jackson Lookout after a local personality.                                                                             

 Further down the road in the Kawarau Gorge there was a former gold mining site along with a cafe where I had tomato and chive soup along with a panini roll.  There was a bridge over the gorge, which I must admit I did not look down on when I was crossing it!

 

Just a bit further down the road was "the stream that roared" (see below) and a hydro electric plant.  Between Cromwell and Queenstown there were signs for quite a number of wineries.  It would seem that the valleys laying between the mountains are ideal locations for growing grapes.

 And then I was in Queenstown.  I parked up and had a look around for a motel and went into the BellaVista.  I asked for the price of a room, and decided to go for it.  The view from my window is quite impressive.

   Queenstown is quite obviously a tourist town.  It is beautifully situated laying alongside Lake Wakatipu and backed by mountains with the Eyre and Thompson Mountains, which give an impressive background on the far side of the lake.  The town actually lies on a series of hills with the mountains rising behind them. I went for a walk around town, and my impression was confirmed by the number of eateries in town.  The town was apparently founded by a Mr Rees, whose statue, standing alongside a sheep is just at the end of Rees St., on the edge of the wharf.

Down at the end of Robins Road, where the BellaVista is situated, there is a cable car going to the observatory to the very top of the mountain.  I haven't decided yet whether to give it a go tomorrow.  On my trip to town I found a shop having a clearance sale and picked up a couple of books for $5 and 4 boxsets of Midsommer Murders for £4.00 each - reduced from £30.00 each  I have yet to figure out how I'll get them home!

                            
 Down past Mr Rees' statue there is a pub on the wharf where I went for dinner and treated myself to a Beef Wellington.  And let me tell you it was superb.  Washed down with a pint of Mac's Malt lager, and serenaded by a duo on guitars, it provided a very pleasant ending to my trip to town.