Queenstown – at last!

So after a couple hundred miles on a bicycle, driving 340 miles on the North Island, taking a three hour ferry ride and driving 860 miles on the South Island I arrived in Queenstown today, three weeks and a day after arriving in Auckland.  This is my final destination in New Zealand but I will be here for the next 4 days just relaxing and playing ( starting with a jet boat ride in a couple of days)!

My car is completely unloaded, including my bike box, and the car is safely parked in the garage where it will likely stay until I make the 4 mile drive to the airport on Saturday.  I won’t have a rental car for the few days I will be in Sydney so I am hanging up my “driving on the left side” license for the time being.  It’s been fun.  It’s been an adventure and I’ve actually enjoyed driving here – most of the time!

The drive from Franz Josef Glacier to Queenstown was probably one of the most scenic highways I have ever driven.  There were times when the road was both windy and steep with occasional places with a posted speed limit of 15 kpm ( 10 miles per hour)!  And there were many one lane bridges which are so common here.  That said, the scenery was amazing for essentially the entire 250 mile trip.

At times you were driving through lush forests along the coast.  And then there were stretches where you’d be looking at soaring snow capped mountains or driving past huge, beautiful lakes.  At times the road reminded me of the Hana Highway on Maui.  Other times it reminded me of the Pacific Coast Highway in Northern California.  Throw in a little bit of the Beartooth Highway in Montana and you’ve got a really nice drive! They don’t call it “The Great Coastal Road” for no reason.

And the descent into Queenstown is definitely not for the faint of heart!  There were so many tight switchbacks that I felt like I was on a scaled up version of Lombard Street in San Francisco!

But I’m here and it’s now time to relax.  My apartment is a 5 minute walk to the main part of town where I have already found the Starbucks and several interesting looking restaurants.   Happy to be in Queenstown.  More in a couple of days.