Travel to Queenstown and Christchurch

I promised to provide some photos of our journey to Queenstown.
I fell in love with Queenstown on my first visit back in 1967 and have always had a photo in my bedroom but I realised it was not the town for retirement.   It is now a busy tourist centre, especially for extreme activities but I still think the views are some of the best in the world. I enjoyed showing them to my sister.
From Dunedin on Tuesday we drove through the Central Otago towns of Middlemarch, Ranfurly and Alexandra, finally passing through the  Kawarau Gorge with a stop at the Roaring Meg waterfall, into Queenstown.

Wednesday was a glorious blue sky and we drove to Arrowtown which was once a centre of gold mining and walked in the old Chinese settlement as well as the heritage main street.

 We returned to our hotel about 4km out of town and took the free shuttle into Queenstown where parking is at a premium.

First up the gondola for a view over the town and Lake Wakatipu

then back down and a walk in the gardens followed by a seafood lunch

and then a trip on the steam ship Earnslaw.

Thursday was a quick drive of nearly 500km to Christchurch, stopping to view Mt Cook and again I do not remember such a clear view in my previous visits.

Then to the Church of the Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo
and a stop for lunch in Ashburton.











I wanted to arrive in Christchurch by 2.30 to give my sister sufficient time to visit the Antarctic Centre which is excellent.  However I was so zonked that when my phone rang and I was told they wanted to deliver my new chairs, I said : "Sorry you can't, I am in Antarctica"

On Friday we walked around Christchurch and visited the cathedral

before my sister caught the 1.30pm plane to Sydney via Wellington and I drove the 360km back to Dunedin arriving home about 6.30pm