Moving on to Queenstown - sort of

We left Lake Tekapo around 10:15 this morning and arrived at our place around 1:30 pm.  It rained like crazy for the first 1/2 hour-45 minutes or so, but then the skies broke and we enjoyed mostly sun and cloud for the rest of the day.  It was a very nice drive to Queenstown, or rather Arrowtown.

This was on the way here.  The road we were on is to the right.  Parts of this country to the east of the mountains is very dry.  Same story anywhere you have mountains blocking the clouds.

We turned off the highway at Cromwell.  Large fruit orchards and vineyards here.

This is the Kawarau River and Gorge.  Again, beautiful colour - looking downstream, then upstream.

It turns out when our agent was booking our accommodations she couldn't get anything in Queenstown because there's an international marathon going on here this weekend.  So she booked us in to a golf resort villa near Arrowtown.  The place is very nice, as you can imagine, but a little out of town.  Having said that, Queenstown would have been crazy with people.  What's funny though is the marathon starts HERE!  We're going to get up in the morning to see them off...maybe.  There's a 10K, a half-marathon and a full marathon.

The New Zealand Open is held at this golf course, called Millbrook.

We went into Queenstown to pick up a couple of things at a grocery store, and it was crazy and crawling with cars and people.  It's not a very big place, so it was rather clogged.  Perhaps a good idea to be out of town.

We have a small patio out the back of our unit and we see a duck pond with little tiny baby ducks on it, as well as the tee-off for a par 3 hole.

We had the door open, and the ducks were determined they were coming in.  Not.

Strangest place...the toilet is in a little cubby hole by the door, with no sink.  The rest of the bathroom (which is very nice) is in a separate area and has no toilet in it.  Huh?

We haven't really taken the time to have a nice meal out while here in New Zealand, so we did that tonight here at the golf course.  Wonderful dinner - and Gerard had lamb.  He said it was delicious.  I'm not there yet as I'm waiting for lamb chops.  But we got a free drink because our TV wasn't working and they couldn't figure it out.  So while we were at the restaurant, they realized the plug wasn't all the way in.  Well, sucks to be them - free drinks for us!  By the way, Dan/Joanne Clements - the free drinks ended up being glasses of Black Quail pinot noir from this area.  Absolutely delicious.  But you can't buy it.  They're a small winery that only sells to restaurants. :(

More kiwi facts:

- There is no additional tax on the price indicated.  It's included already.  So although prices are higher than in Canada, you have to consider the tax and the lesser value to our dollar.

- Most restaurants do not expect tips.  In fact, we were told not to tip.  You need to go to the main counter to order, both drinks and food, so they don't really wait on you either.  It's kinda weird walking out of a restaurant without tipping.  But tonight we did because we were waited on.