January 5th - Te Anau to Queenstown

We left Te Anau in the rain, and it went on raining all the way to Queenstown. Sometimes pouring, sometimes only spitting, but rain nevertheless. Not what the professor ordered! Paused in Kingstown briefly to photograph some railway stuff for Alex – alas, nothing was going anywhere – arrived in Queenstown, unpacked – and the sun came out 
So we spent a very happy afternoon wandering around Queenstown – the public gardens have a golf course on them. Only it’s Frisbee golf, and there were loads of Leon-type lads (and lasses) all going round with their Frisbees, playing the course. Now I’ve seen it all. Queenstown – adventure capital of the world – is full of young lads with shorts, flip-flops and bare hairy legs, all looking very fit and healthy. The other major players are the Chinese, and a lot of the gift shops are setting their prices for the rich Chinese – i.e., astronomical.
The apartment is lovely, with huge views over the lake, and the best equipped one we‘ve stayed in yet – proper kitchen, dishwasher, washing machine, another 6 foot bed (they’ve all been huge, the beds. Good), bath and enormous glassed-in shower. And outside the window, my very own bird reserve – the motel looks to be quite new, and they’ve planted the surroundings with native plants, so there’s loads of birds, bell birds, tui, and I saw another one I hadn’t seen yet, a New Zealand pigeon. As Rob said, it’s like having your own bird hide, but with heating and soft seats.