Last Day in Queenstown

My cold is still hanging on.  I can breathe but I am very tired.  I got up early, as is my rhythm, but I went back to bed around 8 a.m.  I told Gayle I was okay with spending our day in the hotel room and enjoying our beautiful view of the lake and the Remarkables.  When I awoke from my nap Gayle was getting ready for us to go down to the waterfront and find some breakfast.  I eagerly got ready and we headed out to Vudu, a restaurant which serves breakfast near the lake.  

It was a beautiful day of sunshine, but very cold. When we left the hotel it was 37 F.  Our Uber driver told us it is unseasonably cold this year. Usually the Remarkables are not capped with snow in April.  Vudu was a delicious choice.  We savored our breakfast before braving the cold in search of something to see.  Neither of us brought a heavy coat on this trip.  From our research we assumed that it would be in the fifties in Queenstown, during the day. 

We poked our heads into Patagonia Chocolates, a recommendation from a friend.  The first trip Gayle and I took together as an adults was to New York City in 2010.  We stayed in Chelsea and found this wonderful little Fair Trade chocolatier.  We sat in her shop with our truffle choices lined up on a wooden board and had a tasting.  I wanted to try that again in our hotel room later today.  We each chose three chocolates that we will savor later.

We enjoyed this man and his dog providing music.  The guitar player sang “The Letter” by the Box Tops and his dog howled along to every note.  Gayle threw some coins into his guitar case and he stopped and gave her a photograph of his dog, a keepsake I am sure she will treasure.

Yesterday when I was down in this same area I saw these strange vessels that looked like little sharks.  They went underwater and then they would come to the surface with a big jump.  I wanted her to see what I saw.  We found a kiosk with brochures advertising a ride in the “shark”.  I asked the woman about the “shark” and she said that the “sharks” had been moved to a different location today but would be back tomorrow.  Oh well.  We will be gone tomorrow.  Gayle will just have to take my word for it about how cool they are.

We headed back to our apartment.  We were enjoying the view from our balcony when Gayle spotted a man wind surfing in the lake.  The wind would be great today but it is in the 30s here!

I spent the afternoon doing the things I haven’t being doing regularly, such as charging my electronics and plucking my chin hairs.  We planned our route to Dunedin for tomorrow.  We set up two of our Patagonia chocolates for a tasting. 

Quite a bit of time was spent figuring out how we are going to get to the rugby stadium on Friday in Christchurch without Gayle having to walk a mile. Once I made a reservation for a restaurant close to the Christchurch stadium it was dinnertime.  We decided that it was too cold outside to venture out to find food.  So we ordered Pad Thai (Gayle’s new go-to dish) through Uber Eats.  It was the first tasteless Pad Thai of my life.  Luckily we had ordered spring rolls to go with our meal.    We watched the sunset turn the Remarkables a lovely pink color.

Then we finished packing and called it a day.