Day 5: to Queenstown

Today we left Te Anau, and our hotel, which was previously a convent, and headed to Queenstown. kater in the ride we came to Lake Wakatipu. This is New Zealand's third largest lake and the longest lake at 50 miles long. Thd lake is at an elevation of about 1,000 feet, but at its deepest is about 1,430 deep, so is below sea level at the deepest point. On average it is about 700 feet deep so is a fairly deep lake. Here is a map of this amazing lake, showing it surrounded by tall mountains. Queenstown is roughly in the center where the blue dot is, and where we will be spending two nights.

Here is a picture of the lake near Kingstown at the bottom of the lake. We drove along the right shore of the lake to Queenstown.

After passing through Queenstown we continued beside the lake up to Glenorchy at the top of the lake. We stopped in Glenorchy for coffee and scones.

After our coffee stop we road back down beside the lake, about 40km back to Queenstown and checked into our hotel. Queenstown was originally founded when gold was discovered and was a gold rush town. Today it is a Mecca for year round outdoor activities including skiing in the winter.

Here are a few pictures near the waterfront. The town has a walkable downtown shopping district with lots of restaurants and outdoor oriented stores.

There is an old steamship, the TSS Earnslaw, that has been operating on the lake since 1912. It is the only coal fired steam ship operating in the southern hemisphere. Here is a picture of it just after heading out from the dock.

After dinner we went to this outdoor bar across the street from the restaurant for drinks and to listen to this one man band, just him and an acoustic guitar. He closed his show with a very good rendition of a Bruce Springsteen song, which was neat. I talked to him briefly. He was from Ireland, came to New Zealand to visit. The third time he came he stayed. He fell in love with the country.