As it turned out, the townhouse I had rented for two nights just outside Queenstown had another lovely lakeside view to admire, and the townhouse itself exceeded my wildest expectations. To get to it we had to make a very sharp turn off a fast-moving highway onto a private drive that descended precipitously, but once we were safely parked in the garage - a feat that required advanced puzzle-solving and maneuvering - it was divine.
Queenstown is renowned for its wide range of extreme outdoor activities. There were advertisements for jet boating, sky diving, heli-skiing, off-roading, zip-lining, rafting, and many, many more adrenalin-inducing activities. It is, after all, the place where commercial bungy jumping was born. We planned to mostly relax in our condo and enjoy the ambience.
It was becoming hard to relax, however, as countries around the world locked down and airlines cancelled flights. During our brief stay in Queenstown, the New Zealand government began urging all New Zealand citizens and residents to return home as soon as possible and closed the border to everyone else. Hawaiian Airlines had announced that they would discontinue flights to New Zealand within the week, but Air New Zealand promised they would continue international flights through the end of March. We were planning to fly home on March 24. Only one flight was scheduled to fly directly to Oahu after that.
Queenstown seemed a bit subdued - like a summer resort that was closing down for the winter. It would, in fact, soon be winter in the southern hemisphere, but since Queenstown is a popular destination for skiers, something was definitely off. When I wandered through stores, the employees were speculating about how much longer they would be able to stay open. European tourists huddled in groups looking confused and concerned.
We wandered through a large park called Queenstown Gardens and tried to enjoy all the beauty around us.
One of the features of the park is a rose garden, and beside it are several large boulders which serve as a sort of memorial area for Queenstown natives who have died.
These two boulders were placed in memory of Bruce Grant, an olympic skier and mountain climber who died while descending after successfully reaching the top of K2 in Pakistan and Andy Harris who was one of the guides who died in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.
Just past the rose garden, the path descends to the lakeside. It was quite windy and there was a definite hint of autumn in the air or, as the Kiwis would say, "It was quite fresh".
There were a lot of seemingly impossible steep roads in Queenstown. We stopped at the top of one on the way back to the townhouse to admire the view.
Our plan had been to travel up the West Coast of the island to Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, but there is a highway that goes from Queenstown directly to Christchurch. Should we just give up on seeing the glaciers, drive directly to Christchurch, and try to change our tickets to an earlier flight home?
As the sun set over the lake, we contemplated our options, sipped our beer and wine, and deferred our decision until the next day.
