In and Around Queenstown

As they say about some other places, if you don't like the weather in New Zealand, just wait a minute. These two photos were taken from our hotel just a few hours apart.

We had free time today until dinner, and most of us used the time to pursue various activities: horseback riding, trekking in 4-wheel-drive vehicles, taking a 100-year-old steam boat across the lake, even paragliding.  And shopping, of course.

A group went riding some distance from Queenstown, through an area that served as backdrop for some of the most dramatic action in the Lord of the Rings movie series.

Ken Keating photo

Ken Keating photo

Ken Keating photo

Jack Allen photo

One member of the group went paragliding, towed over the lake by a boat.

Bob Kalez photo

Bob Kalez photo

Bob Kalez photo

Several people, at various times, rode the TSS Earnslaw across Lake Wakatipu.  TSS means "twin screw steamer", a steam-powered boat with two propellers.  The craft was launched in 1912, and it is now "the only remaining commercial passenger-carrying coal-fired steamship in the southern hemisphere" according to Wikipedia.

It was interesting to watch it in operation, as the steam propulsion mechanism is open to view by the passengers, including the stoking of the boiler with shovels of coal.  One cabin in particular, the Saloon, still looks very Edwardian.

The Earnslaw returning from a run across the lake, seen from our hotel:

Scenes on board the vessel:

At the other side of the lake are a farm (first and second photos) and a restaurant (third photo).  Some chose to eat at the restaurant, taking the next sailing back to Queenstown.  Farm tours are offered, but we had already had farm tours.

Queenstown, as seen from the approaching Earnslaw.  Our hotel is the large white building near the shore in the first photo.

In the evening, we gathered for dinner high atop Queenstown, having taken a very steep gondola ride to get there.  Views of the area from that height were very impressive.

The final event of the day was a question-and-answer session hosted by Jack about the All Classical radio station and online streaming service.  Jack explained that Public Radio, of which All Classical is a part, does not mean just NPR.  The great majority of All Classical's funding comes via donations from listeners, with some support from local businesses and a small grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  The station is beginning to get donations from listeners outside the US whose only connection to the station is listening online -- they aren't transplanted Portlanders listening to radio from "back home".

Christa "translated" occasionally, as Jack's voice was almost gone from laryngitis.

Tomorrow we leave Queenstown for Dunedin, on the southeast coast of the South Island.  Our bus will take us part way, and we'll ride on a narrow-gauge railway for the last part of the journey.