Fire, Flood, Pestilence

Dolphins, dolphins everywhere

It goes without saying that for me the highlight of our Akaroa Cruise tour was the many dolphin sightings we had throughout our two hour maritime adventure.

Having failed to see them in Manly when others on the same beach succeeded in doing so, I was extremely pleased to spot so many of them on this wonderful wildlife cruise.

Hector Dolphins are quite small and compact so when I first caught sight of one jumping out of the water, I thought it was a flying fish; I had seen many of those on a trip to West Africa in my youth. 

I then thought it might have been a porpoise but as it approached our boat I could clearly see that it was a pretty grey and white dolphin.

They swim very fast these particular dolphins so photographing them is virtually impossible.

I did wonder how the 'Swimming with Dolphins' tour would work with untrained, wild Hector Dolphins. 

Friends I know who have had that experience, were taken to pools or large sections of enclosed areas of sea water where they were able to swim with trained dolphins who were accustomed to people, these wild Hector dolphins definitely were not.

Had we been in that area longer our daughter and her fiancé would have certainly tried that tour. 

Another tour we would have liked to book with Black Cat was their Whale spotting cruise. 

Our daughter had done that in Australia but you need to do it at a specific time of year to be sure to spot the whales from a safe distance, so we opted for this one instead. 

Whichever one you opt for, we were certainly very happy that we had booked our Akaroa Harbour Nature Cruise, especially as we were afraid that this one would be cancelled too after we heard that our Milford Sound Cruise had been cancelled due to flooding. 

We were very glad that we were able to do it.

It was definitely one of the highlights of our entire trip

Return to Christchurch and drinks at The Last Word

Our afternoon in Akaroa had been amazing.

After our cruise we wanted to visit an Akaroa vineyard which specialised in wines cultivated in the Rhone Valley tradition but we didn't realise when we planned our itinerary that most vineyards close their cellar doors at 5:30 pm or earlier.

Although our cruise was only meant to last two hours, by the time we returned to harbour and disembarked, over three hours had passed since we first set off at just after 2:00 pm so we certainly did not have time to visit the vineyard as well. 

We therefore had a very leisurely drive back to Christchurch where we thoroughly enjoyed stopping at strategic points to admire the scenery which was now particularly beautiful in the early evening light.

We arrived back in Christchurch at around 7:30 pm and drove straight to The Last Word pub in New Regent Street where we enjoyed a pre-dinner drink at our usual table outside and on this occasion also admired the many vintage trams which drove right past us, very close to where we were sitting. 

This appeared to be peak time for the tram tours as they offer a scenic three course dinner trip from 6:30 to 8:30 pm which we had seriously considered booking but we rightly estimated that we would not be back in Christchurch in time for it plus we had so much food at home from our previous dining experience at Barberra, that we decided against it.

It was quite a thrilling experience seeing these trams trundle past us just a few inches from our table.

I really can't imagine that being allowed anywhere in modern Britain where Health and Safety now appears to be the most common expression in the English language. 

On our Vietnam tour on our route home, we were hoping to see the famous street in Hanoi's Old Quarter, where a train trundles through a busy residential and tourist area at high speed with no safety barriers at all.

Sadly our trip to Hanoi would now not be possible.

Following our chat with our insurance provider the previous evening and after checking what was published on the gov.uk website, we cancelled our SE Asia holiday with KL friends.

At this point we were still hoping to fly back on our original flight via KL and Vietnam but we would need to limit our travel to airports only.

When we were sitting in New Regent Street that evening watching the trams roll by so closely, we remembered that although we would be flying back from Hanoi, we would not be visiting it.

We would not see Hanoi's old quarter nor would we see any other quarter of Hanoi, or Ho Chi Minh or anywhere else in Vietnam for that matter.

It was a sad moment and in a strange way it brought back memories of London's East End in the 1960s where a school friend of mine lived in a house very close to where very large container ships sailed past whilst en route to the unloading bays at the docks.

We used to wave to the crew from the end of her street when the big ships went by.

They came so close to where we were standing that we could have easily stepped onto the deck with no effort at all.

We even had 'regulars' we would wave to on certain days of the week who would always wave back and occasionally throw us a few sweets.

Then just before her 13th birthday, the house was sold under a compulsory purchase order and they moved to a completely different area of the UK.

Change is always difficult especially when it means losing a good friend.

It's very easy to criticise other countries when we see things which we might consider cruel or unsafe. 

Hanoi's street train has certainly been in the line of fire re Health and Safety and child protection as I am sure has New Regent Street in Christchurch (especially when you consider that this city is susceptible to sudden earthquakes at any time), but the UK was not always so Health and Safety savvy (for want of another expression); we could have easily fallen into the water all those years ago when playing so close to the water's edge was allowed.

Also you never really know what is around the corner and when disaster is going to befall you.

Those tourists enjoying a day out on Milford Sound a few weeks ago would never have guessed when they left on that fateful morning that they would not be able to return back to their hotels that day as their road would be swept away by floods. 

Nor did the many people in Australia foresee such dreadful loss of property, land and live stock as a result of the worst wildfires on record.

Of course, on that day in Christchurch, we still didn't know the enormity of the changes that were about to descend upon us all, but it was starting and maybe on some level we were beginning to sense it. 

Friday 21 February 2020

Christchurch Botanic Garden 

https://www.ccc.govt.nz/parks-and-gardens/christchurch-botanic-gardens

As a thank you for driving them to and from Akaroa, our daughter and her fiancé bought two very nice bottles of NZ wine to go with our Barberra meal the previous evening.

As we would be flying to Queenstown later that day, the wine had to be consumed prior to departure as we certainly could not fit any more into our checked bags.

Another late morning was clearly on the cards, but on this occasion we were prepared. 

Our daughter left their bag of washing near our front door to which I added the few items we now had, then the next morning we left them asleep and drove to the laundrette.

Sadly there was no service wash option as the laundrette wasn't manned so we put the washing into the machine for a 50 minute wash then walked to a bakery close by where we had coffee and freshly baked croissants.

We then returned to the laundrette, transferred the washing to the drier and put it in for 1.5 hours, during which time we returned home, packed up our things, tidied the accommodation and checked out.

All four of us then returned to the laundrette, collected our washing and set off for our usual car park in Central Christchurch. 

Without thinking we hopped onto a tram and wagged our combined ticket to the driver/conductor and sat down. It was later that morning, once we had left the tram that we realised that those tickets had expired as we had already used them on the 19th.

The conductor had looked at them though and waved us through so maybe they can be used more than once. I certainly wasn't aware of that at the time.

On this occasion we knew exactly where we were going. We unanimously decided that we wanted to see the Botanic Garden.

Te Māra Huaota o Waipapa

"Te Māra Huaota o Waipapa is the Māori name, gifted by Ngāi Tahu, for the Gardens".

"It translates as the Botanical Gardens of Waipapa, Waipapa being the name of the area along the Ōtākaro–Avon River where the Gardens are located".

I had heard that the Rose Garden in the Christchurch Botanic Garden was one of the most beautiful anywhere in the world so I was very keen to see it.

We were not disappointed; it really is absolutely stunning and undoubtedly the best one I had ever seen anywhere.

One of my favourite walks with my mother many years before was through Cannizaro Park in Wimbledon where we would pick the mulberries and admire its spectacular rose garden.

The one in Christchurch was similar but three or four times larger with a vast selection of different blooms.

The Website describes this garden as: "formal in design and ideally situated near the conservatories in a sunny, sheltered site away from large trees".

"This garden contains cultivars and hybrids of modern garden roses including bush, climbing, standard and miniature roses".

"The original Rose Garden was established in 1909 and at that time was considered the largest and finest in Australasia".

"Rectangular in shape, the design was based on the rose garden owned by the Duchess of Sutherland in Herefordshire, England".

This really is the prettiest English Rose Garden I have ever seen; I expect the milder climate would have helped with that but the credit must go to this wonderful botanic garden for designing it so perfectly.

The next garden we visited was The New Zealand Garden.

"The New Zealand Garden was established at its present location between 1910 and 1927 by Botanic Gardens Curator James Young.

"Over several decades these gardens evolved into a fine collection of New Zealand species, interwoven and overlaid with new extensions".

"The gardens provide a wonderful opportunity for getting lost under a canopy of mature trees such as kahikatea and beech".

A section of that garden is called the New Zealand Iconic Garden.

"A short looped trail featuring some of New Zealand's most iconic and loved native plants".

"The small grove allows you to catch a glimpse of wild New Zealand and see mature trees and plants including the legendary silver fern".

This was my first sighting of the New Zealand silver fern.

We also saw large fern trees rather than just fern bushes as we get in the UK.

The interesting thing about this garden, which had a forest and woodland feel to it, is that it appeared to attract so many beautiful New Zealand birds. 

We saw our first Tui bird in that garden and it was stunning.

These birds are particularly lovely in flight.

We saw them flying constantly from one tree to another and it was totally mesmerising.

Other gardens we enjoyed seeing were the: Fragrant Garden, the Herb Garden, the Temperate Asian Border and the Water Garden. 

Sadly we didn't have time to see everything as we were on a tight schedule that day but I enjoyed seeing their Michaelmas Daisy borders and the museum section in the visitors centre.

When I first walked in an American couple persuaded me to try and ride a Penny Farthing bike as ridden in Christchurch in the 1890s.

That was a hilarious few minutes as I managed to get on the thing but I had absolutely no idea how to stop it and get off.

There are no brakes on those bikes and the seat is so SO far away from the ground; interestingly, I hadn't thought about either of those things when I first accepted the challenge.

I had actually only walked into the visitors centre to find a toilet; how I managed to end up on a Penny Farthing still baffles me today.

The group of cruise tourists having a talk on early Christchurch vehicles, appeared to have thoroughly enjoyed it.

I don't think I have ever seen anyone laugh as much as those tourists when I tried to dismount in a most ungainly manner.

I am sure some of them thought I was a clown or part of the entertainment at least.

They weren't laughing much when I hurtled into them a few minutes later, but fortunately we all survived the experience virtually unscathed.

Not an experience I will forget in a hurry....and nor I expect will they 🤣

Kathleen Scott

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Scott

We spent far longer in the Botanic garden than originally intended. It was a beautiful sunny day so we couldn't think of anywhere else we would rather be but it did mean that when we did eventually leave there was very little time to do anything else.

We were walking back towards the centre of town when we stumbled on a monument which we thought we would explore further.

It was the statue of Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

I was particularly captivated by this sculpture as it had been sculpted by his wife Kathleen Scott, later Baroness Kennet.

Kathleen Young, Baroness Kennet, FRBS (27 March 1878 – 25 July 1947) was a British sculptor at a time when female artists were few and far between.

She was the wife of Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott and the mother of Sir Peter Scott, the painter and ornithologist.

By her second marriage, to Edward Hilton Young, she became Baroness Kennet, and mother to the writer and politician Wayland Hilton Young.

Born Edith Agnes Kathleen Bruce at Carlton in Lindrick, Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire, she was the youngest of eleven children of Canon Lloyd Stuart Bruce (1829–1886) and Jane Skene (d. 1880).

She attended St George's School, Edinburgh then the Slade School of Fine Art, London from 1900 to 1902.

She then enrolled at the Académie Colarossi in Paris from 1902 to 1906 and was befriended by Auguste Rodin who introduced her to Isadora Duncan.

On her return to London, she became acquainted with George Bernard Shaw, Max Beerbohm and J.M. Barrie, whose former home she later bought.

She sculpted a statue of her first husband, of which there are two versions: a bronze statue erected in Waterloo Place, London, in 1915 and a replica in white marble located in Christchurch, put up in 1917.

A plaque to Scott is on the exterior of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge with a statue of "Youth" (1920), for which the model was A. W. Lawrence, younger brother of T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia").

Scott also sculpted a statue of Edward Smith, captain of the Titanic, after his death.

This is situated in Beacon Park, Lichfield, England.

Scott's statue at Oundle School entitled "Here Am I, Send Me" is erroneously believed to be modelled on Peter Scott.

Scott also produced a small bronze of the Indian actor Sabu which is now missing, after a theft.

A memorial statue of Charles Rolls by Scott stands on the promenade in Dover.

Scott also made a life-size statue of Thomas Cholmondeley, 4th Baron Delamere. It was initially situated in Nairobi, Kenya, but can now be found in the Soysambu Conservancy, near Nakuru, Kenya.

Kathleen Scott was of very few women members of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers at that time.

A remarkable woman and an exceptional sculptur. I was happy indeed to stumble upon one of her masterpieces in Christchurch that afternoon in February 2020. 

Farewell beautiful Christchurch 

We decided to spend our final two hours in Christchurch at the Kaiser Brew Garden in Oxford Terrace and then back at The Last Word in New Regent Street.

The Kaiser Brew Garden is a micro brewery in Christchurch's Oxford Terrace.

It claims to have been inspired by the Bavarian 'bier garter' tradition so we unanimously agreed that it would be the perfect venue for our our final Christchurch repast.

We enjoyed an excellent sharing board for lunch which included fried cauliflower, haloumi bites, pork belly, prawn cakes, kumara fries and an antipasto platter, accompanied with a few paddles of their beer tasting options and some white wine from a local vineyard.

It was all excellent as was our charming table in the roof-top beer garden.

Our waiter in full Bavarian lederhosen was charming and his apparel definitely made us feel as if we were in Bavaria during the October bier fest, even though his name was Wayne and he came from Wolverhampton.

It was the perfect place for our final meal in Christchurch.

But, of course, we could not leave before one last drink at The Last Word in New Regent Street.

We had become very attached to that pub in the few days we were day.

It was a fantastic atmosphere and we loved sitting outside where we could watch the world go by (in huge trams rolling so close to our table that we could easily touch them).

Our usual server greeted us enthusiastically and seemed genuinely disappointed that we would be leaving Christchurch that day.

Even though they do not start serving the hot toddies until evening, on that day they prepared me a lovely hot buttered rum in a huge ceramic mug which they did not charge me for.

We did also order wine and two beer paddles but my favourite was without doubt that complimentary hot rum toddy;

I didn't realise then how much I would miss these drinks during the rest of our time in New Zealand, and truth be told I could certainly do with one now in January 2021 in the UK's latest lockdown with snow and ice all around us.

Christchurch had been the perfect start to our wonderful New Zealand holiday.

We had felt totally at home there: we loved the people we met, the beautiful scenery all around and the manageable size of this charming antipodean city.

If we ever manage to return to New Zealand, we will definitely include Christchurch in our tourist itinerary with The Last Word Pub being the first place on our schedule

The Remarkable 'Remarkables'

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Remarkables

After our drinks in New Regent Street, we returned to our car and set off for the airport. 

We were due to fly to Queenstown in the Otago region of South Island.

This flight had been booked several months previously when we also booked our accommodation in Te Anau and our cruise on the Milford Sound. 

Although our trip to Te Anau and our Milford Sound cruise had to be cancelled due to flooding, we decided to fly to Queenstown as originally planned and start our South Island road trip from there.

The flight was short: just 1 hour 10 minutes I think.

It was still light when we set off but when we landed it was after dusk but still not completely dark so we could see enough of the scenery out of the plane window to notice that we were surrounded by what looked like jagged, rocky mountains .

Our plane appeared to be descending into a narrow alpine valley with these massive, imposing mountains closing in on us on all sides.

I don't think I have ever experienced a landing like it. 

It was the most dramatic landing I had ever lived through.

Truly 'remarkable'.

It was only after we had landed that I discovered that Queenstown's airport was indeed situated in a valley and the mountains we appeared to fly into were the Remarkables.

I read on Wikipedia that the Remarkables are "located on the southeastern shore of Lake Wakatipu, the range lives up to its name by rising sharply to create a remarkable backdrop for the lake's waters".

"The highest point in the range is Single Cone at 2319 metres".

"The adjacent Hector Mountains southeast of the Remarkables culminate in Mount Tūwhakarōria at 2307 m".

"The mountains were named The Remarkables by Alexander Garvie in 1857-58, allegedly because they are one of only two mountain ranges in the world which run directly north to south".

"An alternate explanation for the name given by locals is that early Queenstown settlers, upon seeing the mountain range during sunset one evening, named them the Remarkables to describe the extraordinary sight before them".

Having seen them myself both from above in the fading light and during the day from Queenstown, I would certainly concur that they are very aptly named.

By the time we collected our luggage and picked up our hire car, it was completely dark outside. 

Fortunately the drive from the airport to Queenstown was a short one as we had been 'upgraded' to a Mitsubishi Outlander which was massive and quite difficult to drive. 

We headed straight for the hostel where we had booked two double rooms.

Finding a space for our supersize upgraded Outlander was not at all easy.

Our original accommodation booking was in Te Anau where we were due to stay for 2 nights but once that had to be cancelled all we could find available in Queenstown were those two hostel rooms. 

I suppose everyone with accommodation reservations in Te Anau or Milford needed to cancel and re-book in Queenstown which I expect is why the town was totally full.

The rooms were basic but comfortable and the shared bathroom was clean and spacious.

It was certainly better than that dreadful Apollo Bay hotel on our Great Ocean Road trip in Australia.

After settling in and unpacking what we needed for our one night stay, we decided to have an evening walk and see if we could get a drink or a cup of tea.

We appeared to have arrived too late for the pub and the local restaurants but a takeaway pizzeria allowed us to sit on the tables outside and order pizza, wine and a pint of Speights pale ale for my husband.

The pizza was just what we needed and we thoroughly enjoyed our Otago Valley Chardonnay in the crisp alpine air.

We couldn't see very much of the town at all at that late hour, but we already knew that we were going to love Queenstown 

Saturday 22 February 2020

Spectacular Queenstown 

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/

When we woke up the following morning and looked out of our window, we were greeted with the most beautiful lake and mountain view. 

We would be leaving this town later that day so we decided to get up early and go and explore.

We also planned on picking up some fresh fruit, coffee and croissants for everyone for brunch although the hostel provided pretty decent coffee and quite a vast selection of breakfast products free of charge for all its guests.

I think it worked like the hotel kitchen in Halls Gap where you helped yourself to whatever was in the fridge or cupboards but then if you did a food shop you would leave what you didn't require in the kitchen for others to use.

But, coffee tea, bread, cereal and a variety of juices and milks were provided by the management on a daily basis. 

We found a steaming pot of coffee freshly made when we went into the kitchen that morning and the kind admin person who had made it, urged us warmly to help ourselves.

It was ok that hostel.

I would love to say it was cheap but sadly nowhere is cheap in Queenstown.

We paid about £90 a night for each double room but at least it was welcoming and clean.

It cost almost that much for that disgusting Apollo Bay accommodation and they were far from welcoming there.

We had forgotten that our daughter and her partner would be up early themselves for their Saturday morning park run. 

Wherever they are anywhere in the world our daughter and her fiancé never miss a Saturday park run. 

They did them in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Broome, Bali and now here in Queenstown.

The website describes them as:

"free, weekly, community events all around the world".

"Saturday morning events are 5k and take place in parks and open spaces".

"On Sunday mornings, there are 2k junior parkruns for children aged four to 14."

"Park run is a positive, welcoming and inclusive experience where there is no time limit and no one finishes last".

"Everyone is welcome to come along, whether you walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate".

We bumped into them as they were just setting off so we went along as spectators.

The Queenstown park run lakeside  location was stunning.

Our daughter declared that they had never run in a more picturesque location anywhere else on their extensive travels. 

The temptation to stop running and admire the scenery was constant.

We saw many 'runners' standing on the shore taking selfies of themselves 'running' with the lake and the mountains in the background.

Of course we all did that too.

You couldn't help yourself.

The dazzling scenery was spell binding and you wanted to capture as much of that moment as you could so you would have it forever.

After the run we went into town for breakfast.

We ended up at The Bakery in Shotover Street where we had the best coffee we tasted in all our time in New Zealand and excellent freshly baked almond croissants.

Their homemade cakes looked wonderful - like works of art, but we resisted the temptation to try them.

After breakfast we went for a longer walk on the other side of the lake from where the park run had been and were tempted by a two hour paddle steamer trip on Lake Wakatipu.

It was a gloriously sunny morning and as our Milford Sound trip had been cancelled, we all agreed that we should book it.

We walked to the ticket kiosk nearby and joined a queue for tickets.

Whilst in the queue, we started chatting to a family group in front of us who we assumed would be buying tickets for our same paddle steamer, but they told us that it had just been announced on local radio that from the following morning, trips to both Milford and Doubtful Sounds would be operating again so they and everyone else in those queues were hoping to secure tickets before they sold out.

However, due to the serious damage to the roads by flood debris, self drive would not be possible for Health and Safety purposes so visitors would need to book the entire package by coach which from Queenstown which included several stops at picturesque sites en route and a buffet lunch on the ferry.

The cost was very slightly more than our original self drive one which would have been for the cruise only with tea and coffee provided (we thought it would be similar to our Banks Peninsula experience).

We didn't have long to think about this before it was our turn to go to the desk and buy tickets; we hadn't even discussed it but when I was asked how they could help me, I immediately asked whether they had any Milford Sound tickets left for the next morning.

It appeared there were only two left but then someone at the next desk announced that a family group hadn't returned to pay for their tickets so now there were 6 available.

Without thinking I booked and paid for 4. 

I expected mixed reactions from the others when I explained what I had done but my decision couldn't  have have been more positively affirmed. 

Our daughter and her partner were cheering and and exclaiming  loudly 'we get to stay in Queenstown' and my husband was beaming from ear to ear.

Of course, it would cost us.

But if anything was worth dipping into our emergency funds for, this was it. 

We would need to cancel our Airbnb near Cromwell en route to Dunedin for that evening and try and change our Dunedin stay for the following evening to the 24th.

We also had to find accommodation in Queenstown for two more nights which would not be easy.

I cancelled our accommodation in Cromwell for that evening online but as it was a last minute cancellation we lost our full payment of £45 for that. 

Fortunately it was a pretty low cost Airbnb option so we couldn't complain too much.

The Dunedin Airbnb date change worked in our favour as rather than change it all online we called our landlady to explain our predicament to see if she could accommodate us on the 24th instead of the 23rd.

As they had no other bookings for the 24th she transferred our booking at no extra cost to us at all for which we were extremely grateful.

I wouldn't usually recommend calling the landlady directly when you're changing a booking as you have no documentation to prove that you made that change; it is always better to go through the Airbnb site if you can; but the reason it worked for us on that occasion is that we had nothing to lose.

As this was a last minute change, strictly speaking we had lost that money anyway so anything we managed to salvage was a bonus.

It was good for the landlords as well as they benefited from a 5 star review from us for their kindness and 5 star reviews are gold dust for Airbnb hosts so in situations such as these it is a good idea to contact them.

We did also check Booking.com for hotel availability on the 24th just in case anything went wrong on the day and as there was plenty, we thought we could risk it.

Finding accommodation for two extra nights in Queenstown was going to be far more challenging as we discovered when we started looking. 

The hostel rooms we stayed in the previous night were already booked so we had to vacate those as originally planned by 12:00 noon at the latest.

Airbnb was also fully booked in Queenstown as we know it would be so we had to start looking in areas outside the city, but avoiding the Te Anau areas where the main highway was closed.

We were due to drop off the Outlander hire car at 2:00 pm and pick up our road trip hire car which we would then have until leaving New Zealand from Auckland on 10 March, so our daughter said they would find accommodation for us all whilst we were gone.

So we returned to our hostel, packed our rooms, loaded the car with our luggage and set off to the airport to switch cars.

Dropping off the car was pretty straightforward: we just parked it in one of the Avis spaces at the airport and returned the keys to the desk.

We then had to wait for a hospitality bus to pick us and all our luggage up from the airport arrivals area and take us to the Omega Hire Car office which was about a 10 minute drive away.

We ended up waiting about half an hour for that mini bus which irritated us a little as they claimed it would be 5 minutes when we called but then when we saw where the Omega hire car office was located we were happy again.

It was located in that beautiful valley on the edge of the flight path into Queenstown.

Watching planes fly into that glorious but very narrow valley and land on that seemingly tiny runway  was totalling hypnotic.

It took about 40 minutes to sort out all the documentation for our new hire car which wasn't surprising as we would have it for over two weeks.

We had opted for a Toyota Camry as we would need to share the driving on this road trip and we were both comfortable driving a saloon.

We had been assured that there would be no unsealed roads to deal with in New Zealand so a four wheel drive utility vehicle would not be required.

We got back to Queenstown by 3:30 and met our daughter outside the hostel as agreed. 

They then got into the car and directed us to our new accommodation.

We were completely astounded when we arrived.

They had booked us all into the 4 star Millennium Hotel in Frankton Road which is a hillside location, commanding spectacular views of the valley below. 

We could not believe it but they said that it was a thank you from them for all the driving we would be doing in New Zealand and for the re-booking of the Milford Sound tour the following day.

It was not at all what we were expecting and we were concerned about the expense (which in the height of summer would have been in the region of £200 a night per room, but they were insistent so we accepted gracefully. 

We would enjoy an amazing two nights in our luxury four star hotel and we were all set to have the best ever afternoon and evening in magical Queenstown.