January 2nd, 2020 was a free day for us, so we stayed in for the morning. After most of the other guests cleared out of the apartments to sightsee, I was able to connect the netbook to the internet for the first time, and put up the New Year’s Eve post. By late morning, we moved out. Had the $15 lunch special at a place called Brazz. Merrianne got the Buffalo Chicken Wrap, while I got the All Day Breakfast.
No drinking on the streets in Queenstown during the New Year season. Not a bad idea.See that mountain in the background? We wanted to hike to the top of that. There’s a track leading up there that’s a couple km long.Unfortunately, when we got to the trailhead, some locals told us that there was a downed tree on the track, and it was closed. So we had to take the gondola, at $44 each for a round trip. That tree cost us $88. This picture is looking down towards the city from the gondola.And the view from the other angle.From the gondola, we could see the mountain bike trail below.As well as the walking path that was closed.At the top of the gondola, there was a gift shop, restaurant, and another chairlift taking people up to ride the roller luges down. The cars were actually not that fast, and sometimes would stall when the slope wasn’t steep enough.We availed ourselves of the short Skyline Loop Track (=trail) near the top. There was also the Ben Lomond Track, we didn’t have enough time.The trail was well-marked.At the top was a paraglider takeoff and landing zone.
This girl was the third of three people who took off while we were up there.Back down in town, we spent some time hanging out at the lakeshore.Mee Goreng and Hoisin Duck at Madame Woo’s for dinner.Back to Night ‘n Day for the next day’s breakfast. These mueseli bars were big and heavy.
