Immediately upon docking in Aukland, we hopped onto the airport bus to catch our plane to Queenstown. It was a short, two-hour flight, with crystal clear skies and views of the snow-peaked mountains of New Zealand’s Southern Alps as we neared the airport. Mount Cook is in the Southern Alps. We’ll be visiting it near the end of our trip.

As I mentioned, we visited New Zealand’s North Island in 2003 as a family. We were there in July, their winter. This time, we’re spending our time on the South Island in October, their spring.

You can see the entire county below on the left. I put stars on Tauranga and Auckland, our cruise ship stops. On the right is a map of the South Island. We’re spending our first week in and around Queenstown, also starred:

We rented a car for our time in NZ. The drive from the airport to our lodgings in Queenstown – The Rees Hotel – was just a few miles, but the road was under construction and the traffic was terrible.

They love traffic circles in NZ, reserving traffic lights for pedestrian crosswalks. Unfortunately, drivers don’t seem to be very good at negotiating traffic circles here. The road congestion is so bad, and the parking so limited, the hotel offers a shuttle into the town center.

The architecture here is quite delightful. There are no tall buildings and every residence is unique. Lots of building on slopes, given that the whole area is mountains and lakes.

Here’s the view from the bar at our hotel: Lake Wakatipu. We had the same view from our room.

The next morning, we drove into town for breakfast at Fergbaker, a coffee shop and bakery. It seemed like everyone in town had the same idea. Popular place. It’s easy to find, on the corner, right next to Fergburger, Ferg’s Bar, and Mrs. Ferg Gelateria. Old Ferg has the market cornered.

Our first destination for day was the village of Glenorchy at the north end of Lake Wakatipu. From Ferg’s, we drove north along the eastern shore of the lake.

They drive on the left in NZ and helpfully paint directional arrows on the road for tourists. I’ve never had much difficulty driving on the left, having done so in the Bahamas, Australia, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, England, Ireland, Saint Lucia, Scotland, South Africa and Wales. Nor has it been hard to get the feel for sitting in the right hand seat while driving. But I will never get used to the turn signal being on the right. I can’t tell you how many times I turned on the windshield wipers by mistake, trying to signal a turn.

About halfway to Glenorchy, we stopped at Bennetts Bluff and walked up to the viewpoint. Here’s a view looking southwest. Dale says this is a filming location for one of the Lord of the Rings movies.

The trail up to the viewpoint was lined with these weird bus shelter-like structures. I have no idea what they’re for. Any guesses?

This is the view looking north toward Glenorchy:

We didn’t spend much time in Glenorchy, stopping only for coffee and a snack. There’s really not much there. It’s just the terminus of the scenic drive from Queenstown. The fellow running the general store told me it gets bitter cold here in the winter, but not much snow. This time of year – spring – the climate is very similar to Washington state in springtime.

In the afternoon, we drove to an historic gold-mining settlement called Arrowtown, wandered around, had a late lunch, then headed back to Queenstown before sunset.

It took a little while to get used to being on land again. Funny, we didn’t realize we had acquired “sea legs” during the cruise.