now to Fjordland!

We left Christchurch in the rain, and arrived in Queenstown in bright sunshine.
We did not stop in Christchurch at all, because it has not yet recovered from the devastating earthquake that hit it 18 months ago, and the downtown area is still closed. 
Apparently, we brought the sunshine with us, and it could not be nicer or prettier in  Queenstown.
Weather- which is always important on vacation - is really critical here, because it is all about the outdoors.  Tomorrow, we are going to Milford sound, and that means taking a helicopter ride - both Joe's and my first! and they only go in good weather.  So  far, it looks like it's a go - i'm very excited!

Just up from our hotel - which sits about a 2 minutes walk up from the center of town (here is the view from the window), there is a big animal park with a kiwi habitat - We still have not seen any kiwis, and we just can't leave NZ without that!  so we'll go tomorrow after our Milford trip -

Right next to it is the gondola that takes you to the top of Queenstown, and from which they take people paragliding (look closely at the picture- the dots in the sky are people paragliding)- I think I have to do that!!!!!  (but I may just chicken out once I look at it up close....).






We took a quick walk through town - it's very

 reminiscent of other alpine resorts we've seen - Joe says it looks like Vail, but it also reminds me of Evian.  It has a beautiful lake, with nice restaurants around it, and, just like in the Alps, it gets quite cold the moment the sun hides behind the mountains.

We had a quick dinner overlooking the lake, and now are back in the hotel, warming up by a cozy fire.  I included this picture of the chowder we had - first because like to take pictures of food, but also to show the striking "green lipped mussels" of NZ.





More about Queenstown tomorrow.