4 am I jumped out of bed. I’d had enough sleep. I booted up my work laptop and shot off a couple of work emails giving my two bobs worth about a particular issue happening. Estimates time in Parliament dominates work life.

Our great neighbour Brian rocked up bright and early. A Kiwi to boot. He kindly took us to the airport at a silly hour, whilst Maggie was hopefully still sound asleep.

At the airport, our plane awaits. It stays overnight in Devonport and the skies are looking nice and clear.

We have an 84 kg limit internationally with Qantas, 71 kg checked in with the two bikes.

The system said we were over weight. I had my usual spiel ready and yes, it was agreed I was right and the computer wrong. Override!

It always pays to understand what your limits are.

We had enough time in Melbourne after going through border control and security to pop into the Qantas lounge and grab some breakfast and chill.

Our flight to Auckland left and arrived on time. We had to collect the bikes and bag, walk around to the domestic terminal some 15 minutes away, do a bag drop and chill again. It was a warm 22 degrees Celsius.

The view on the flight from Auckland was clouds, until the last 20 minutes. What a spectacular area to fly over. The final descent into Queenstown is following a valley with mountains either side.

Mountains in the distance still had plenty of snow.

I think this is one of the most stunning descents ever.

By 8 pm we arrived, but not without some drama. We reached our accomodation and realised we had left a bag at the taxi rank! The driver we had told us he’d put the gear in…we failed to double check!

It had an Apple air tag inside it, and we could see it was still there.

The bag had all our clothing, panniers. After the sickening realisation, we got an uber back to the airport. There it was still sitting at the taxi rank where we’d left it. A third taxi got us back.

We are staying 2.7 km from the airport. We spent around $90 all up 🤪 on taxis doing three 2.7 km trips 🤣😼

After an ok night sleep, Tony assembled the bikes, whilst I walked to the supermarket to buy some breakfast items.

We then headed off to hop on the water taxi. It was a pretty walk alongside the Shotover River.

The ferry stops at The Hilton, so with time to spare we grabbed a coffee. We watched the jet boats roaring past, heading up Shotover River.

The ferry costs $14 each for a 20 minute ride, $10 if you have a bee card. It is a scenic trip, stopping twice before Queenstown.

A variety of passengers boarded.

The first British arrived in the Queenstown region in the mid 1850’s, although there was evidence of a former Maori settlement. Being New Zealand, sheep farmers were the first settlers – but then the sheep farmers discovered gold on the banks of the Shotover River – so the prospectors arrived.

At the height of the gold boom, there were four paddle steamers and over 30 other craft on Lake Wakatipu.

Then the gold mining ceased and the town population dropped down to under 200. The town battled until the 1950’s when it became a holiday destination.

Today Queenstown is regarded by many as the adventure capital of the world. The birthplace of bungy jumping (that is a firm no from me!) with other activities including alpine heliskiing, ziplining.

Queenstown is on the shore of Lake Wakatipu. The lake will be a significant feature this trip – it is New Zealand’s third largest lake, with a depth of 372m. The water is super clean and super cold. Even in mid summer, the water temperature remains around 11.5 C.

Skyline gondola ascends through a pine forest rising to 400 metres above Queenstown. There you can partake in bike riding, or a luge, or bungy jumping, a swing, G Force Paragliding and eco tours.

Bikes are transported up both inside the gondola cabin and two attach to the outside with a rack.

We settled for some sushi from the cafe, very reasonably priced at $17 for 12 pieces. Lunch in the restaurant was $125 ish….presume that included the gondola fare of $ 66 return per adult.

The viewing platform provides great views. Shotover river is to the left. Our accomodation is close to the river, in Frankton.

We walked as high up as we could, following the very popular luge route.

Looking across the lake, at the far right, is where we transfer later in the trip to ride through that group of mountains.

We descended back to Queenstown, noting an irresistible offer for ‘ old farts’, better than bingo!

We sat around the harbour waiting for the ferry, enjoying the sun. It was warmer than the top of the luge!

You can rent these coffin like, one person boats. Not for me.

Tomorrow our cycling adventure starts. The bikes are ready, not fully packed as we are unsure what to wear! Choices!

The forecast is shite. 29 mm rain, maximum 11 degrees Celsius at Glenorchy, our overnight destination.

We think we will head off early, as the rain is currently forecast heavier towards later morning. If it does bucket down, the day will be cut by around 30 km too as there is a section we can leave.

What will be, will be.

Fortunately the forecast for many days thereafter are favourable. If we do not get lots of nice photos tomorrow, likely we will the following day as we retrace our steps.

A nice story to finish with. Izzy the cat! She is a local icon, a rescue cat adopted by the local supermarket around 2016. She’s about 15 years old.

She has her setup at the front door of the supermarket, and is even noted on local maps.

When we left the shop she’d disappeared. Looking around she was slowly strolling across the carpark.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned!

😊❣️