2020 - South Island, NZ (Part 3 - Queenstown I)

Queenstown, Coronet Peak, Arrowtown and Glenorchy.

Tuesday 21 July 2020 - Thursday 23 July 2020
View 2020 South Island NZ on nzhamsta's travel map.

Tuesday 21 July

We arrived mid afternoon, checked into our motel and went for a walk along the waterfront.

The waterfront in Queenstown.

TSS Earnslaw.

TSS Earnlsaw.

We found an excellent pub for dinner with cheap but decent meals. I suspect they are having to lower the price to entice customers in. It worked. We ate there three out of the four nights.

Wednesday 22 July

The view from our motel.

The gondola going up Queenstown Hill.

After the basic breakfast in the motel, we decided to drive up to the ski field at Coronet Peak. Neither of us are skiers or snow boarders, it was just a trip to look at and play in the snow. We convinced the staff at the checkpoint that we were only staying a short while. And we did. It was very scenic but very cold in the car park several hundred metres up a mountain.

Us up on Coronet Peak.

It's cold up on Coronet Peak.

Look, it's snow!

Coronet Peak.

The view from the car park.

More snow.

The view back down the mountain.

The main ski area on Coronet Peak.

We left the cold of the ski field and drove down to the slightly less cold settlement of Arrowtown. This is an old gold mining settlement and is known for its Chinese gold miners, descendents of whom still live in NZ.

The main street of Arrowtown.

An old shop in Arrowtown.

Chinese dwellings in Arrowtown.

The river through Arrowtown.

The usual afternoon nap and a decent dinner and beer at the aforementioned bar.

Thursday 23 July

Today was a drive along Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy. This a small settlement about 45km from Queenstown and is popular tourist area, especially for trampers (as we call hikers / walkers), horse riders etc. The road there hugs the lake side the whole way and is especially scenic when the cloud is down over the peaks on the opposite side of the lake.