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.

Up to this point we had been traveling not college student cheap, but frugally. We had a few nice meals, but mostly ate at modest restaurants, or just picnic style. (Leah is a fantastically adventurous eater for a 4 year old. She tried stuff I never would have.) And our lodging was clean and decent, but not fancy. Then we got to the house which was gorgeous, and had an amazing view, and a hot tub, and on the night of the wedding had caterers in preparing us the most amazing meal.

Lake Wakatipu is kind of S shaped and the local legend says it was a sleeping ... giant? demon? demi-god? I'm forgetting the details. And he was vanquished and sank into the ground and became the lake, which is on average 1000 meters deep and quite cold. Queenstown is kind of on the outside bend of the knees. So when you looked straight off the balcony of the house you were looking south along what would be the lower legs. Then to the left is a collection of mountains called the Remarkables. You are about to think I haven't narrowed it down at all, but trust me, I took hundreds of pictures standing on that balcony.

These were taken over several days, but I present them to you in the order of morning through afternoon into evening and night.

Looking to the left from here are the Remarkables. In the first picture notice the peninsula in the mid-ground. I hiked out there on Sunday so below are pictures from there.

Southern Cross over the Remarkables.

If you are having trouble seeing the Southern Cross in the first night shot I have highlighted it for you here.

Two more random Queenstown pictures for you. If you noticed on the wedding day pictures that it was raining, the upside of that was rainbows. And we didn't go to the airport to get picked up by the helicopter. We drove to the base of Coronet Peak and then flew north-ish through the valleys to a peak overlooking Wanaka.

Coronet Peak is the tall spot under that one cloud.

Rainbow over Queenstown.

On Saturday after the wedding we reformed our groups a little. Nancy and Leah went off with L and B and I went off with Christa and Jason. We drove up to Glenorchy, which is at the northwestern tip of Lake Wakatipu. When we drove up to Milford Sound there was one strip of mountains between us and Glenorchy, but no road that goes. So I've seen those mountains now from both sides. If you want to get from one to the other you have to walk the Routeburn Track, which would take several days and seems more difficult than the Kepler Track. With C&J we did the Glenorchy Walkway which was flat and easy. Even Christa declared it easy, but then she'd been doing some moderately serious hiking to glaciers and waterfalls and stuff in the earlier parts of her trip. Leading her to make the observation "New Zealand is outdoorsy."

Half way to Glenorchy is a good pullover spot. That's the road at the right edge.

Note the black swan.

And then on Sunday everyone dispersed. Christa and Jason were the first ones up and out because they had a long drive to Christchurch. They were flying home Monday, same as me, but we never met up along the way. L&B left next because they were driving down to Invercargill to get a flight out to Stewart Island for their honeymoon within the honeymoon. And Nancy and Leah were flying out of Queenstown in the afternoon to go to Auckland for a few days on the North Island. We did a little walk around Bob's Cove and then I dropped them off at the airport. That felt a bit strange because it felt a little like maybe I live here and have just said goodbye to my friends who were visiting. But it was still hours and hours before sunset so I went over to Jardine Park and did the Lakeside Trail. The sign said it was 6.1km, but actually I walked about 3 miles, hadn't gotten to anything other than a sign for another trail, and turned around and walked back. It was again a mostly flat, easy walk.

I told myself I'd walk till I got to the end or it started raining. Neither thing happened.

Do you see the little circle of cut down trees on the one peak? That is the top of the skyline gondola overlooking Queenstown.

I ended the day at the Reavers Backpackers Lodge. I had a private room and bathroom, but many of the rooms I could see in had bunk beds. So I went from luxury to slumming it. It had a good view of the Remarkables though. They also will do you bookings for all the adventure things one does in Queenstown. I went hiking instead.

Even the cheap rooms have good views.

But nothing else is cheap.