Lorneville to Queentown. Wednesday 23rd February. 187 kms.

Queenstown

As I was preparing breakfast the camp site lady called round and said that she had asked if we could call a number at the British embassy to confirm that we were alive and well and not affected by the Christchurch earthquake. The weather was pretty grey and damp and we finally stopped dithering about whether or not to go to Milford sound. The decision was not to go due mainly to the weather so off we went to Queenstown. We stopped for a short break at Lumsden a small, dreary town with the most amazing painting of a wild west scene on the wall of it's hotel. (see photo above). On towards Queenstown and we stopped for lunch in Kingston. The Kingston Flyer is New Zealand's famous vintage steam train, based in Kingston, Otago (approximately 40 minutes drive south from Queenstown) on the southern shores of Lake Wakatipu. The Kingston Flyer has a history that spans over 120 years. Set in spectacular mountain scenery, the train is a splendid example of New Zealands heavy engineering skills . Unfortunately the train no longer is in service, due to bankruptcy of the owners, and what was once not so long ago a major tourist attraction is no more. The train is still sitting on the tracks and the once busy restaurant and shop area is closed.
We soon arrived in Queenstown and parked up at the Lakeview holiday park which we chose due to its proximity to the town. The site did not have a lot to commend it from our point of view as it was huge and commercial. No friendly Kiwi welcome here plus it was the most expensive site we stayed at. Kitchen facilities were OK but if anyone needed any utensils and/or cooking equipment they had to pay for a key to one of the lockers. A sad reflection perhaps on the clietele here compared to other places we had visited. Anyway, putting all that aside, we strolled down to the town and wandered around the lake before settling down with a beer at one of the many pavement cafes. We spent quite some time people watching before walking back through town and doing some window shopping before going back to the site to prepare supper. We definitely needed warm clothing here, quite chilly due to altitude!