Queenstown

Continued my travel south to Queenstown. Its the action & adrenalin capital of NZ if not the world. Here bungee jumping have been invented. You could do everyday a new crazy thing and your money would run out very very fast...

On the way I passed a very beautifull river, where you could do some jetboating, rafting, goldwashing etc....



I spent the night at a quiet campground directly at the lake. I could see the sunset ligthening the opposite mountains. The little white thing at the lake is a steamboat.



Which can be seen here more detailed:




And here in action.



I walked up to the end of a gondola, where I did the cheapest ride here, a 8 dollar short ride with a soapbox. From above you have a nice view over the city.



The nickname of the people here is "kiwis", not like the fruit but like the bird. A kiwi is a bigger bird, which lives on the ground. Here is a very large one.



And if you have done too many things and gotten hot, then you have the chance to cool down in an ice-bar with a chilling minus 5 degree temperature.

NZ: Lake Tekapo

Then I flew back to Christchurch. I spent the first day there doing some basic shopping then went to a campingground. I couldnt sleep at the airplane and was quite exhausted, but was still surprised to sleep until 13.30h the next day. On the next day I drove to Lake Tekapo. This place is famous for the clear sky, the whole Milky Way was visible with lots of stars. There is nearly no light pollution here, thats the reason why they built a big observatory here. I joined a astronomic tour and was able to see the Saturn with its ring through a telescope. The red Mars was even visible without a telescope. And something usefull, I learned to navigate to the South with the help of the Southern Cross.

On the next day I did an scenic flight which was really good. The weather condition was nearly perfect, very good sight and nearly no wind. The glaciers have been impressive, the cracks in the ice are a result of the pressure of the new snow on top of the old one.


And here you can see how a glacier is transformed into a lake. In the upper part are some ice blocks which are melting. The color of the lake is very green, a result of the glacier water.



The area is very dry, the rainfall on this side of the mountains is half a meter / year, on the west coast behind the mountains its 5m/year. Thats the reason why everything is looking very brown here.

I was lucky to sit next to the pilot. He explained me the instruments he was using. Probably I will start to learn this too, was quite fascinating:




After the flight I did a little walk up to the Observatory.



This is the view from the observatory down to the lake Tekapo.


And a view to the other side, which is a very dry plain area: