Queenstown, New Zealand

Since my bus didn't leave Fox Glacier until 10:45 and I woke up early, I decide to take another bike ride, this time to Lake Matheson, only about 4 miles away. When I got to the lake, everything was shrouded in fog, so I did the hike around the lake. By the time I got to the "View of Views", the fog had cleared, leaving me with the most amazing view of the Lake and Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman in the distance:

I got back just in time to return the bike and hop on the bus, being driven by another quirky bus driver (about 10 min in, she stopped the bus so she could take a picture of a horse along side the road...). And the drive was another incredible one, with huge lakes surrounded by mountains for the last half of it. Queenstown is know as the party town of New Zealand and it definitely lives up to its reputation. With ridiculously good 2 for 1 deals on top of the exchange rate, it barely cost anything either. This morning I hiked up to the mountain overlooking Queenstown for a good panorama of the area. Other than nightlife, there isn't a whole lot to do in Queenstown (the population is only 30,000), so I'm just getting ready to start the Milford Track tomorrow. It is a four day hike ending at Milford Sound, which is supposed to be gorgeous.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Details on Queenstown:

Lake Matheson is just outside of the town of Fox Glacier and is found by going down the main road that Ts at the road going through the town. Awhile down that road, there is a sign marking the turnoff. The nakedbus (operated by Tracknet here) cost me $1 because I got the special fare they occasionally offer. They pick up just outside of the Fox Glacier Guiding building. They drop off in the center of Queenstown, an easy walk to anywhere on Camp St. and Shotover St. Just walk up the hill on Camp St. and make a left at Isle St. to Southern Laughter, the hostel at which I stayed ($15 for dorms). It is pretty standard fare for BBH hostels but they do usually have ensuite kitchens and bathrooms for the dorms and lots of jokes painted on the walls. The hike to which I referred goes to the same place that the Gondola does and is quite steep, which took me about an hour going up. You can find it just to the left of the Gondola entrance and ticket office. Reportedly, it is easy to jump on the Gondola for the ride down without paying but I didn't hear this in time to make use of it.