I got up briefly at 7.30 to say goodbye to the Strays heading off to Christchurch. After hugs and waving I decided the sensible course of action was to head back to bed for a few hours. At the eminently more civilised hour of half 10 I got up, had a shower and packed a day pack. After refuelling at the bakery with yet another pie I headed to the information centre, picked up a map and headed off to climb Queenstown’s other hill, opposite the gondola. I set a brisk pace and was soon at the entrance to the walk itself, estimated at around 2 hours I was headed to the summit which boasted of panoramic views of Queenstown and it’s surrounds. The first section was tough going as the hill was pretty steep but all in all it was a lovely walk through the forest with birds echoing in the trees. I reached a main feature of the walk, the ‘dream basket’, after half an hour. It was designed by an artist for people to lie in with a wonderful view down the valley and let themselves slip away into a dream world. Alas, I found the metal actually quite uncomfortable and after a couple of snaps decided to plough on to the top. Another quarter of an hour and I was there. The view was indeed magnificent and I drank in the scenery around, as well as a fair bit of water! I’d brought my laptop up to try and catch up on a bit more of my blog but to be honest the wind was pretty cold and my hands went numb after only a few minutes. Instead I tramped around the summit area and explored a few different tracks. After a brief rest it was time to head back down and I took a last look across the lake and set off. The way back down was considerably easier and I was back in the town around half an hour later.

I picked up a couple of things for dinner and decided to head back to the hostel. As I dropped my things off in the room Chonneke was resplendent in a bikini and I decided the best course of action was to follow her to the hostel’s free hot tub. I spent a brilliantly relaxed hour in there and was entirely pruned up before finally lifting out my reluctant body and going to prepare dinner. I ate dinner and watched the end of ‘Black Hawk Down’ which was on in the lounge. After that a Slovenian couple invited Chonneke, a Welsh girl called Elle and I to a word card game which was a cross between Scrabble and Rummy. Sadly, despite being the only person in the group who could boast English as their first language, I was once again defeated. We finished the night off watching ‘About a Boy’ and headed for our respective beds.