Hi there
Well, here I was, staying at the Lake Hawea Hotel, with nothing to do. Okay, I appreciate that millions of people consider sitting on a hotel balcony, looking out at the delightful scenery, with a book on your lap (in my case, make that a Kindle audio book), and a drink beside you (Diet Coke), would have the makings for a pleasant holiday. But it just wasn't me. My leg was hurting every time I moved it, and I was so upset that I couldnt go hiking or swimming. On my last day in Hawea, I couldn't stand it any longer, so I went through the pain of getting into my car and driving the fifteen minutes to Lake Wanaka.
It was a beautiful, hot (27c) day, and people were kayaking on the lake. I jealously fumed that I wasnt kayaking on the lake with them. Another item on my 'want' list that I couldn't do.
Still, I had the most delicious lamb shank lunch at the Waterbar restaurant. Thank goodness the restaurant had a ramp for me to use to get up to their front door.
Except for me glancing at the kayakers as I drove into the village, I didn't go over to the lake; it would have been too much of an effort to cross the road. I did sit outside the Visitor Information Office and read the list of tours one could go on. Sigh, every one included me having to step down, or step over something, or climb steps, or hike up a hill, or, well, you get the idea .... grizzle, grizzle, moan, moan, feeling sorry for myself....
The next day I drove the couple of painful hours to Queenstown where I would be staying for a week. I am very lucky that Manchester Unity of which I am a member, has holiday homes around New Zealand because Queenstown is a very-very-very expensive place (especially for kiwis) with accommodation for a single night in a basic-no-view no-frills studio motel room being about $NZ250. My MU holiday home is about $NZ460 a week.
above: view from the balcony of my Queenstown two bedroom unit.
above: Queenstown, evening, from balcony. Lake Whakatipu. Red sky at night ...
I arrived in Queenstown on a Friday. That night I should have been going up the gondola to a buffet dinner at the Skylne Stratosphere restaurant but had cancelled because I didn't think I could get on and off the ever-moving gondola with style, elegance, or footwork. From my unit balcony, I could see the gondolas going up and down the hill to the restaurant, and that annoyed me..
I did manage to drive the half-hour over to Arrowtown and have lunch at the New Orleans pub, a roast lamb lunch that was so divine that I was in dining heaven. I was in the heart of sheep country so naturally there would be lamb on menus. But even though I was in Arrowtown I couldn't walk my favourite loop track so more resentment and frustration coming from me in waves. Neither could I walk the lovely Queenstown-to-Frankton track.
But the most heartbreaking part of my whole trip was not being able to go on the Glenorchy Paradise Ziplines. They are just out of Queenstown and the Neon streaming show "Men in Kilts - New Zealand", showed the two actors from "Outlander" doing the 8 ziplines. Between craggy peaks, over waters, across open land... I so wanted to do those ziplines. It was the main reason I'd booked to holiday in the South Island. I was desperate to do them. It was my reason for living (okay, who is being a bit dramatic, here?)
Apparently, there would be what was described as an easy to moderate 500 metre walk on a bush track to get to the first zipline. I presumed there would be a step or two going up to each stage of the operation? And also a walk down a hill at the finish.
I wouldn't be able to do it.
stock photo. Paradise Ziplines, Glenorchy.
On my very last night in Queenstown, I managed to get into the gondola and made it to the buffet restaurant at the top of the hill, that hill that I had glared at everyday of my holiday because I thought it would be a no-go to get that meal I'd been craving. I also wanted to and oohh and aahh over the spectacular views.
The actual gondolas were new, with a lot of seats (maybe eight ?).
"I don't know if I can get into a gondola," I whispered to the guy standing by to help people like me.
"You can do it," he said. And he gripped the gondola to slow it down on the pulley/rotater/cable thingee that keeps gondolas continually moving in a huge loop from the bottom of the hill to the very top and back again. Wow, I'd met my own personal Hercules. I stumbled into the gondola.
Within a couple of seconds, a father of a family unit of four yelled out to me, "Can we share this gondola with you,". He made to step forward.
"No!" I felt terrible as he backed off in confusion. Goodness, I was so rude...
At the top of the gondola, after one of the workers helped me out of that always-moving cab, I stayed back and waited for the family to get off the next gondola.
"I'm so sorry I barred you," I said. "But. I'm injured-" I waggled my hiking stick as evidence. " With the four of you and with how slow I am, I may not have had time to get out. I might have ended up back at the bottom of the hill."
"That's okay," he said. "We understand."
above: me in a gondola cab. Flying solo. Evening
The buffet meal was lovely. I had four creme brulees, perhaps the main reason I always try to get to this buffet whenever I'm in Queenstown. Unfortunately, there was a lot of construction going on outside so visitors couldnt do the nice hill climb at the top of the gondola. Oh, and here's a side-bar (or a middle-of-a-paragraph-bar), there is road construction everywhere in Queenstown. It's been going on for a couple of years and will go on for a few more years. If I come back to the area again in the near future (I've got to do those ziplines), I think I would stay half-an-hour away at Arrowtown and just go over to Queenstown when I felt like it.
The following day, I got priority boarding on the plane taking me home to Wellington. The Air New Zealand pilot told us that the weather in Wellington was "horrendous". He followed up with, "With any luck, by the time we get there in an hour, it will only be ...awful."
It was a white-knuckle landing...
