I had the best night sleep I have had in a very long time in the Lake Tekapo cottage that I stayed in. It was very clean and well worth the money. I am the type of person that travels with alcohol wipes to wipe down things like door handles and remotes. I think me doing that here may have been redundant as it was so clean.

I set off for my drive to Queenstown

I took the turn off to Twizel, they promote themselves as the “town of trees” it was a very sleepy town. I nearly nodded off half way through buying a sausage roll. Instead I wrote a postcard to mum and posted it.

I drove past a couple of “home of Icebreaker” sheep farms. I wanted to stick my head out the window and thank the sheep for producing smell resistant wool ;). On the outskirts of Omarama there all these rock mounds and pretty flowers I should have pulled over and taken a photo but I was afraid of getting stuck behind the elderly man driving at 30 klm below the speed limit again. Speaking of speed limits there are signs along the major roads giving driving advice , like slow down or showing the turn coming up. Having not driven in NZ before I am not sure if they are driver specific ( as there are signs telling you the speed you are driving) or if everyone gets told to slow down. I approached every sign with the anticipation of it saying ” your driving is sweet as” but it never happened.

I stopped off at the Roaring Meg lookout, it was beautiful.

At this point, I was going to turn back and drive to the Mt Difficulty cellar door but I just wanted to continue doing something that was going well. I did take the turn off to go to Arrowtown though, as people I like have raved about it. I went to Saffron restaurant for lunch. I was the only person in there which seemed odd , as it gets rave reviews. My crisoy pork and chargrilled squid salad was delicious,

The lunch was just what I wanted/needed not too big but light and filling. I had a glass of Mt Difficulty sav blanc and had another regretful moment for not going there (the cellar door).

A wise man had told me to be careful on the roads in New Zealand as there were a lot of police cars on the road. I didn’t realise that he meant there were a LOT of police cars on the road. I reckon every tenth car was a police car. I did pass a customs car, it couldn’t have been off to deal with my luggage though as the only declared contents of my luggage are a 100 ml bottle of olive oil and a 100 ml bottle of balsamic vinegar. It also appears that my luggage still hasn’t crossed the ditch.

I got to Queenstown and checked in at my accomm , I had read a tripadvisor review where someone complained about the doona being put between two sheets and thought that must have been a one off but no. The doona is between two sheets . Hopefully that is less icky than I imagine it. The vista is awesome though and the staff have been lovely. I have a laptop charger from the lost and thank you box. Sadly all the phone chargers are from the last millenium so I should have taken up the offer of a free one from the owner of the last nights stay.

The drive to Queenstown was , thankfully , uneventful it was very scenic and very windy ( both pronunciations). The Yaris is pretty sh!t ( said with a NZ accent) at going up hills. I was very glad I had not opted to go up Mt Cook as I would still be chugging on up it hours later. 😉 .

I walked into town to shop but by the time I got there I was too hot to make any good decisions. Tomorrow, I have booked in for a flight to Milford Sound but by all reports the weather will not see that happening. So if I still don’t have my luggage I am going shopping and sending QBE the receipts.

My clothes are washed and I am ready to start tomorrow as a new day. Choice bro! 😉