Day four Gondola and Glenorchy

A gloriously sunny day in Queenstown, sunglasses, hats and sunblock all necessary. Queenstown makes the most of the location. In summer a gondola (steepest in the southern hemisphere) takes you up to where you can take a 'luge' a plastic sled like bucket, a mountain bike ride or simply walk down. We walk around the viewing platform at the top. In winter it's a ski slope. Each gondola holds three, usually teenagers, with mountain bikes and thrill seeking intentions. The price per day for any number of trips was relatively modest. One trip to the top for us however was $100. Still it was worth it. We had coffee and walked around. Not too many people and the view both from the top and from the gondola was spectacular. You get a sense of the size of the lake which was not possible from the bottom.

Glenorchy, is where much of the movie Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit were filmed. Not surprising that Peter Jackson picked this area the landscape is spectacular particularly as it was overcast. The mountains looked quite dark and imposing. Glenorchy is tiny with just a general store and cafes. A journey rather than the destination. Birds were a feature. An Oyster Catcher (yellow beak) was funny taking exception to seagulls chasing as many away as it could by charging towards them, seagulls would scatter and then it would move on to the next group.Read more