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Queenstown
After a lazy late rise (for once!) we set off on what turned out to be a wild goose chase looking for a waterfall which might have been nearby. Giving it up as a bad job we went to visit the Kiwi sanctuary and bird park; we had just enough time to catch the kiwi feeding[*] before having to go into town to see if C's rafting trip had enough participants to go ahead - it hadn't - so we got a more leisurely lunch and returned to the bird park to do the rest of it properly, which included more keas and many other beautiful birds. The rest of the afternoon was filled up with some epic, if extremely silly, mini-golf. We both putted dreadfully, but it was a good laugh.
[*] Kiwis are nocturnal creatures. In the kiwi houses they have birds rescued from the wild as chicks or eggs, with bright day-equivalent lights during the night, and nothing but a couple of red bulbs by day. Visitors are treated to seeing the birds move around and forage, after their eyes have adjusted. When they're old enough to survive in the wild, the birds' body clocks are fixed and then they are released.
It has been raining here for most of the afternoon. This is novel, but refreshing. Queenstown is a very touristy town - it's an all-year-round destination with ski fields and a whole host of adventure activities vying for business. Even many of the shops are open late: there's a touristy sweet shop open until 11pm. But turn around and you're reminded why the town is here - it's still mountain country, along with forest, Lake Wakatipu and more beautiful (some white-water!) rivers. The mountain above our room has been cloud-shrouded all day; that across the river has lifted a little. It's not hard to see the attraction.
After a lazy late rise (for once!) we set off on what turned out to be a wild goose chase looking for a waterfall which might have been nearby. Giving it up as a bad job we went to visit the Kiwi sanctuary and bird park; we had just enough time to catch the kiwi feeding[*] before having to go into town to see if C's rafting trip had enough participants to go ahead - it hadn't - so we got a more leisurely lunch and returned to the bird park to do the rest of it properly, which included more keas and many other beautiful birds. The rest of the afternoon was filled up with some epic, if extremely silly, mini-golf. We both putted dreadfully, but it was a good laugh.
[*] Kiwis are nocturnal creatures. In the kiwi houses they have birds rescued from the wild as chicks or eggs, with bright day-equivalent lights during the night, and nothing but a couple of red bulbs by day. Visitors are treated to seeing the birds move around and forage, after their eyes have adjusted. When they're old enough to survive in the wild, the birds' body clocks are fixed and then they are released.
It has been raining here for most of the afternoon. This is novel, but refreshing. Queenstown is a very touristy town - it's an all-year-round destination with ski fields and a whole host of adventure activities vying for business. Even many of the shops are open late: there's a touristy sweet shop open until 11pm. But turn around and you're reminded why the town is here - it's still mountain country, along with forest, Lake Wakatipu and more beautiful (some white-water!) rivers. The mountain above our room has been cloud-shrouded all day; that across the river has lifted a little. It's not hard to see the attraction.