Queenstown: Take 3

After working all morning I hitched a lift with a physiotherapist into Alexandra where I met up with my Aunty Bronwen and Uncle Colin! After a bit of catching up we set off for Queenstown stopping at Clyde and Cromwell briefly along the way (on a wine/food hunt).

After the most comfortable sleep I've had in quite some time at Glenys and John's place we went into town, set me up an appointment at the Kiwi Bank and went for a nice stroll in the park etc.After a spot of lunch we drove up to the ski fields of The Remarkables (currently snow free obviously) and climbed to the face of the mountain looking out over Queenstown. Utterly magnificant. One of those jaw dropping sights you really never forget!

Amisfield Vineyard

My Aunt and Uncle are very keen on their wines so I've had a bit of an education in different varieties and flavours. Experienced my first official wine tasting at the Amisfield Vineyard, very nice and you feel ever so posh. They even have special 'spitting dishes' if you intend to do the tasting properly. I however had no intention of wasting good alcohol. After buying the evening's supply of wine we came back to Glenys's and I had a wonderful evening tipped off with talking to my dad on his birthday! Lovely. My well organised present that was stashed at home before I even left will be opened any time nowww....

Natural Tunnel

The following day I sert up my bank account with Kiwi Bank before heading down the road towards Glenorchy and went for a hike near Lake Dispute. Beautiful scenery and an incredible walk that we thoroughly enjoyed. Bron and Col headed off to Wanaka at about 4pm after giving me some Kendal Mint Cake and Haribo from home (oh how I have missed these beautiful things!) Given that it was St Patrick's Day I wasn't going to sit indoors all evening so I walked into Queenstown to see what was going down. On the waterfront, (a beautiful sight at the best of times) there was a busker with a Piano on wheels, yes an acoustic piano. I couldn't believe my eyes, and then a friend from Roxburgh called Ayuko happened to be passing and before I knew it she had dragged me over and I was playing Hallelujah and How to Save a Life watching the sun sink behind the mountains across the lake. Beautiful. A juggler and a magician followed as the next buskers after which I hit the clubs. Alone... =(

Piano Busker (Photo taken on phone)

St Patrick's day in Queenstown is fantastic, the Irish crawl out of all the nooks and crannys and EVERYBODY is dressed up as leprechauns and covered in face paints etc. All great fun, I made friends here and there, (at one point ending up in a large group dancing topless on a bar, nice) but I didn't really have the courage to socialise as aggressively as would have been needed to find people to hang around with till the early hours. We'll work on that courage. Man up Andrew, geeze.