Queenstown

Today was my turn to drive, as I mentioned in the Dunedin entry. Driving on the left isn't so bad - so far the trickiest thing is hitting the wipers instead of the turn signal. There is a huge amount of muscle memory to overcome reaching for the gear shift with your left hand instead of the right hand, and also looking to the left to see the rearview mirror instead of looking to the right. Other than that, all of us have each driven one day and it has been fine.

The New Zealand countryside, on the south island, is very rugged: farms and pastures near the highway, snow capped mountains on the horizon. I've noticed enormous hedges here, which must be grown for a reason, perhaps as a wind barrier. The hedges look like giant shipping containers or railroad cars just sitting in the middle of the landscape - some are 20 feet tall and 50 yards or more longer.

All of us we making animal noises when passing sheep or cows, but after the dozenth sheep farm we got tired of that pretty quick. ;)

Today's drive was another spectacular trip from Dunedin to Queenstown. The road was at times a windy road through the hills, passing through scenic gorges. We stopped at one spot on the way which offered a view of the "Roaring Meg" rapids on the Kawarau river. While there, we saw a group white water sledging, which was one of the activites we came to Queenstown for!

Roaring Meg sign


Roaring Meg rapids