Monday - the longest day

[I wrote this on my tablet over the course of the day]

I woke up about 7:30, which is about usual for here. Took a shower even though I knew I didn’t need one nearly as much just then as I would by lunchtime. But it was my last access to a shower for quite a while so I did it anyway. Then I had the free breakfast at the lodge. It wasn’t much, cornflakes, toast, and tea, but I had enough hiking food still so I wasn’t worried.

The Remarkables really are Remarkable

The house had a great view. I became slightly obsessed for those few days with the changing light over the lake.

From the skyline gondola looking back over Queenstown. Our house is circled in yellow.

Some gratuitous helicopter pictures

Apparently there are more helicopter pilots per capita in Queenstown than anywhere else in New Zealand, and possibly anywhere else anywhere. Not a big permanent population in Queenstown to begin with, and not a lot of good roads. So you can do heli-weddings, heli-rafting, heli-skiing in the winter, heli-tours of the fjords. Pretty much heli-anything.

The happy day

Here are a few photos from the wedding that I processed quick on the day so that people could share. I'll probably come back and add more from that day once I have been through everything.

The second helicopter is not that much more

All the other birds

The Dunedin post was getting unwieldy now that I added photos, so here are all the rest of the birds that we saw in those few days. If birds aren't your thing, move on to the next post.

Baby ducks

A couple days in Dunedin

Tuesday
We packed this day so full I'm finding it hard to remember what we did this morning. Ok, so first we went to the Otego Settler's Museum. They did in fact start with the original Maori settlers, but they quickly moved on to the Europeans, or at least the history once the Europeans arrived. The one room they had was good, but I still feel like I need to know more about the Maori. I'll keep trying.

Happy New Year

Today is a bit of a relaxing day. We are checking out of Te Anau, but are in no rush to really leave town. So leisurely breakfast, then a bit of souvenir shopping if the shops are open. It's enough of a tourist town that they might be and I'm hoping so. Not that I can't buy souvenirs in the other towns, but I have managed to lose my freebie sunglasses and I forgot to bring a hat. I managed to get sunburned yesterday. I'll also certainly be packed before Nancy so after I finish my morning tea I might grab my camera for one last look at the lake. Here on the back side of the fjords the mountains are more rolling and it reminds me a lot of Lake George.

--Later--

We drove across the country yesterday, but only sort of. We went from the west coast to the east through the rolling green hills of the southern part of the South Island. It was pretty, in a much less dramatic way. Every hill was blanketed in sheep. It was a nice drive, good to see it all. We stopped half way in the town of Gore to have some lunch. We ate at the only place that was actually open. Oh yeah, happy new year.

So it was about 4 when we got to Dunedin, but of course it's summer pretty far south so that gave us plenty of time to do something before dark. Because here it is at 9pm and it's not dark yet, not even a little. Anyway, we went for a stroll through the botanic gardens. That was lovely, I never tire of taking photos of flowers and now I had a good reason for bringing that macro lens. Then we had fish and chips at an Irish pub on the Octagon.

I'm ready for an early bed tonight. It's funny because Leah is generally a perfectly amiable traveling companion, but oh my goodness she never gets tired.

Pictures will come later.

--Later--
There's lots of flower pictures, but they can wait for more editing so just a couple for today.

There is a whole street art tour in Dunedin, but this was right outside our hotel window.