Queenstown: Wandering Around
If you read my post on yesterday’s activities, which I published today New Zealand time because of the long day I had yesterday, but which, from the perspective of the people back home on the other side of the international date line, I posted tomorrow about my activities of today, you know I traveled on a bus from Dunedin to Queenstown today.
(Or is that yesterday? Tomorrow? Or a week from Tuesday? I’m so confused. If I’m living in a alternate space-time line I hope it’s one where Donald Trump isn’t President of the United States. But that’s something completely different.)
If you read that post, you’ll also know that because of a flat tire on the bus, I arrived in Queenstown later than expected. I got to my hotel a little after 2:30 in the afternoon. I then walked around a bit before coming back to my hotel to see if my brother had arrived yet. He had. We met for some wine and some cheese.
The three or four people who, probably out of nothing more than a misplaced sense of loyalty to me, regularly read this blog know my brother and knew I was meeting him. For the benefit of anyone else who, astronomically unlikely though it might be, found this blog through the magic of the internet, my brother finished a New Zealand South Island cycling tour in Queenstown. We’ll be travelling together in New Zealand for a couple of weeks.
My brother had a farewell dinner with his cycling group this evening. That left me some time on my own to type up this post before and during dinner.
However, from now until my brother leaves (I stay in Auckland for a couple of days after he leaves), I probably won’t write any more posts from this trip, apart from possibly the final couple of days. I may post some pictures, but I likely won’t have time to include any words.
Queenstown: Resort town
Oh, yeah. You probably expect a few words here about my brief walk around Queenstown. And if you’re not expecting that, what the heck are you doing here? Really. There’s a great, big, worldwide web thingy out there. Go explore it. Maybe you’ll find something that meets your expectations. You never know. It could happen.
Queenstown is a resort town. At least that’s my impression of it. I didn’t do any research on the above mentioned great wide internet thingy to verify that.
The downtown area is beside a lake nestled in mountains. Downtown streets are lined with shops and restaurants of various classes. Some of them are kitschy, and at least one of them is Louis Vuitton, with several occupying a socioeconomic class between those.
In town, near the lake, there’s a statue of William Gilbert Rees, the founder of Queenstown, and his sheep. (In this case, as you see from the picture, I’m using “sheep” as a singular word.)
I don’t think his sheep played a pivotal role in founding the town, but maybe so. Or maybe it’s a metaphor for the other original townsfolk following William like sheep. I don’t know.
The sheep immortalized in the statue has curled horns. Does that make it a unique sheep species? Or maybe a ram rather than an ewe? I’m not an animal expert. Give me credit for knowing it’s not a dog, cat, or fish. Or an elephant. I know it’s not an elephant. But that’s irrelevant.
But I digress.
On the other side of the lake from downtown sits a very pleasant, long park. It has one section with some flower beds and other sections with lots of trees. There are also good walking paths and terrific views of the mountains and the town.
Your photos of Queenstown’s parks and views from them bring to mind a wonderful park in my hometown. As I grew up, the family’s traditional weekend walk often took us along paths strewn with pine needles and in the dappled shade of the then-lush tree canopy (hard hit by a hurricane in 2003). We would skips stones at the park’s harbor-side edge or , walking further, eye sails flapping on little boats that dotted a narrow arm of water.
If your hometown walk was even just half as gorgeous as here it was truly gorgeous, indeed.