‘Wow’. It’s the word I reckon I’ve used one hundred times today.

‘How beautiful is this place?’ I have said at least a dozen times.

When I first spotted the ‘Remarkables’ – a mountain range near to Queenstown, it was instantly obvious why they were called that. Remarkable is the perfect word to describe the scenery.

We left Invercargill at about 930am, taking around 2 hours to wind up the narrow single lane highway to Queenstown. Apart from the odd slow camper van, the trip was quiet easy and the scenery kept us mesmerized the whole trip. The closer to Queenstown we got the more majestic the views became and especially so once we reached Kingston which is at the southern end of Lake Wakatipu.

The lake is around 75km long and 5km wide. It is an amazing blue color, clear, deep and VERY cold!

After managing among the thousands of tourists to find a car park, we wandered along the foreshore back to the shopping area. Apparently New Years Day is Queenstown’s busiest of the year! We had a quick Malaysian lunch (Curry lamb for me, Roti donut with ice-cream for Dave ?) then boarded the TSS Earnslaw, a 106-year-old steamer, for a 90 minute lake cruise.

It was a warm (25c) and sunny day and we were definitely pleased to be up on the deck rather than down shoveling coal like a couple of people had to! The cool wind stopped us from realizing the sun was quite warm and so we are both a little pink tonight, nothing serious!

We are staying at an AirBnB 40 mins south of Queenstown. A very simple place, but a lovely view of the mountains and as I write this now the sheep are baa’ing and the cows are moo’ing. Just lovely, I’m sure I’ll sleep well.We had dinner tonight in Kingston. Unfortunately my low expectations were met. Very ordinary mussels cooked in cream and white wine (and nothing else? Surely some garlic may have assisted!) Dave ate a pretty ordinary Hamburger made from a pre-made patty. Oh well, it was close by and we know not to go back there! Tomorrow we will head back into Queenstown for a Gondola (Cable car) ride, to try the accompanying luge and maybe a jet boat up the Shotover river. It will be our day of adrenaline!

Ps – I ran into a friend from Wagga today, while walking through Queenstown. It’s normally Dave who meets someone when we are away… Have you ever randomly met someone you know from home while holidaying overseas?