Queesntown - Quaint No More

Monday, 14 December (Heather Morley's birthday!)

View from room of snow capped mountains and Lake Wakatipu

Ned visited Queenstown in February 1982 with Jim Mathey and Andy Homan. Being young (40) and single, the three had whiplash from oggling all the attractive NZ women. They dashed back to their hotel to shower up and return to the bar scene only to find out that the quaint little Kiwi town rolled up the sidewalks at 7:30PM. They were fortunate to even find anyplace still serving food. How things have changed!

Change #1
Queenstown is now a busy resort destination - both summer and winter (ski racks in our parking lot). It reminds us of Black Comb where we were this summer in Vancouver.

Change #2
We have met very few Kiwis here and have heard very few Kiwi accents. Young people who flock here to work represent a United Nations from all over the world. Our servers last night confirmed our suspicions, one being from Melbourne and the other from Paris. Every shop and tourist information centre has bilingual employees, English being the typical second language, with the exception of Kathryn from Scotland. Chinese is #1 language; Japanese #2 and Korean #3.

Change #3
Photos below were taken at 10:30PM. The sun had only set an hour earlier, and the town was still jumping - especially for a Sunday night.

Queenstown - 10:30PM

The steamship night cruise

Steamer Wharf Restaurants

Today we are scheduled to take a 90-minute cruise across Lake Wakatipu on a vintage steamship the TSS Earnslaw. The TSS Earnslaw was launched in 1912, and is reputedly the oldest working coal-fired steamship in the southern hemisphere. Apparently, it is a good way to view Queenstown's spectacular alpine vistas - even if the sun is not shining on the lake.
Note: I purchased a snuggly warm additional jacket yesterday!