| New Zealand February 2002 |
| Queenstown and Fiordland |
| The view from the hill above town. We walked up instead of taking the gondola ride. |
| This is me on the "luge" track. These things haul downhill. We saw several people around town who had wrecked hard. It takes out elbows and knees. No ambulance chasers here! |
| This is Luckie, originally from Papua, New Guinea. His owner ran the hotel where we stayed.. |
| This is the Kinloch lodge. We stayed here before we started the Routeburn Track. The place is newly remodeled and is beautiful inside, with all mission-style furniture and a warm fire. It was actually about 55 degrees F during the day, a bit cool. |
| Queenstown is about 30 miles south on the lake. You get here by boat and pull up to this dock. A nasty storm blew in after I took this picture. The clouds are the front. It actually snowed in Queenstown this night. |
| Us at the beginning of the track. All new gear and clean clothes. |
| You can't believe the color of the water in the stream. A brilliant blue. |
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| On our way back through Queenstown we couldn't find a room for the night, so we camped out - without a tent. Just sat down on the grass and had dinner (vodka or beer and tuna - yummy!), then rolled out our sleeping bags. Of course, it started to rain about midnight! We spent some time in the camp kitchen and sleeping in a neighbor's car. Doesn't this look like fun! |