Again, a leisurely lie in - I'm almost getting into holiday mode here - as I only had a couple of hours drive to Queenstown. Had consulted my guidebook the night before and decided to stop off in Arrowtown on the way to Queenstown.

Arrowtown is this cute little tourist trap village, that has a wonderfully preserved main street from when it was a gold mining town. It sits on the Arrow River, which is, I believe, the second richest gold bearing river in the world. During the gold rush, something like NZ$50mn dollars of gold was mined. In fact, you can still hire out equipment and go and pan for gold in the river. I didn't, I'm not that lucky! Still, I took a couple of hours to wander up & down the main street and grab a coffee and a bite for lunch, which was really nice. Also took some photos of the awesome autumn foliage here, on the hills at the back of the town - again I'm sure my little camera won't do it justice, but it was just spectacular!

Drove over to Queenstown, which is just a short distance from Arrowtown and checked into my hotel, which was in one of the suburbs of Queenstown, which initially I was a little disappointed at, but having explored a bit in the afternoon, actually I'm quite grateful.

For those of you who don't know - and why not? - Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand, and quite probably the world, so it means it's full of thrill seeking, adrenaline junkies and lots and lots of young (and not so young) backpackers, and they get quite rowdy at night. Queenstown is the closest I think I've seen in the South Island to a holiday resort town - there are lots of bars and restaurants and a very obvious main drag, so I'm quite pleased then, that I'm a little removed from the noise.

The other downside for me of Queenstown is that if you're not an adrenaline junky, and I'm not particularly, then actually, this isn't really the place for you. I went up the cable car, as recommended by my guidebook, and while the views are spectacular, once you are up there, there isn't an awful lot to do, unless you want to hurtle back down the mountainside on a mountain bike (and believe me there were plenty of people doing that!). There was paragliding which I didn't really consider, not because I wouldn't do it, but it wasn't great weather. I thought seriously about doing the ziplining, as I've always wanted to try that, but that was wince makingly expensive! So after a bit I went back down to book something for the next day, which proved slightly more difficult than expected.

April 25th here is ANZAC day, which I'd kind of realised was some kind of important day, but I didn't realise that it was a public holiday and a very important one at that, so pretty much, everything shuts on ANZAC day. Luckily, I found a LOTR tour which was willing to run, which was great. (I can hear eyes rolling all over the place and people muttering "Another one?") Okay, yes, it was another LOTR tour, but actually you get to see some of the great scenery in NZ, especially around wherever you are and it's usually entertaining and you get looked after and fed and watered.

Was just going to eat at the hotel, but the menu was pretty poor and the place was deserted, so headed back into town for some cheap food (having just spent quite a bit on my tour) and then sat on my balcony to watch the sun set on The Remarkables (a mountain range here) with a cup of tea.