Queenstown Rocks (sung to the tune of "Cleveland Rocks")

This may be the prettiest place I've been; if it isn't, it is certainly in the top few, because Queenstown is stunning.
It reminds me of Patagonia, given the glacier landscaping, but in a good way - Queenstown, too, has this pretty blue hue that often overtakes it, and the lake it is perched on (Lake Wakatipu, one of the top 10 most fun words to say) is both massive, looks more like a fjord than a lake, and is also pretty and blue and opaque.

I don't know what bribe we paid the weather gods, but yesterday when we woke up, ti was cloudy and overcast (unsurprising for fjordland...) so we wandered about town a bit - went to some shops, lost my sunglasses, found my sunglasses, signed up for obligatory tour options, and so forth. By then, the clouds were clearing, so we went up the gondola. It's not as long as the gondola in Christchurch, but it's much steeper and faster, and the views from the top of Bob's Peak are supremely awesome.

And no, I am not calling it Bob's Peak because I don't remember the name, as I am given to do. It is really called that. One more reason to like this place.

When we came back, we had lunch, and by then the clouds were thicker and darker and the lake had gotten choppy and the wind picked up - somehow we managed to go up the gondola in the only 2 hour window of gorgeous weather.

Even though our hotel was a little pricer than we may have liked, it is right on the lake with some incredible views from the roomplus they had laundry, so Susan and I have all clean clothes (it's amazing how travel turns laundry day into Christmas morning - all this clean underwear! It's a fiesta!). We walked across the harbor to the gardens after dinner, to look back at all the lights.

We will only be spending about two days here all told, but for all that it is stunning and lovable, that's enough. The vastly skewed tourist-to-local population here gets a little hard to take before too long. There is such a backpacker population that the shops and restaurants seem to be all operated by visiting Aussies, Americans, Irish, British, and other travelers who decided to stop for a while. I am starting to wonder if anyone here is actually Kiwi. So we are good to go - plus it's raining today.

Now, we head south. If you don't hear from me in a while, send help; today we rent a car, so we may be trapped on the right side of the road somewhere, trying to get left.