Brass Monkey Weather
Well the mercury has taken a significant dive since we’ve arrived in Queenstown, plunging to depths most of us have never experienced. When getting dressed this morning, we advised the kids to really rug up but Toby insisted he’d be “fine!” in a flimsy short-sleeved t-shirt and a jacket. He refused to bring gloves, beanie or scarf and when he reluctantly complied when sent back inside for his woollen jumper, arrived back at the car with just another lightweight jacket. Oh well, what can you do? He can’t say we didn’t warn him!
After breakfast in the hotel, we popped into town to hire our ski equipment for tomorrow, topped up our internet and had a quick look around. Barely anywhere in New Zealand has free internet and even at McDonald’s, you have to buy something before you can have a password and get a download limit for one device only, for a limited time. It’s been a challenge! Ross bought a “dongle” (affectionately known as the “dingle-dangle” or “dingo”) before we came away, to act as a hotspot, which has been great, the only problem being that when it runs out of juice, you need the Internet to reboot it.
We had decided to take a scenic meandering drive to the town of Glenorchy this morning. Sam and Ross had talked it up saying it was possibly the most breathtakingly scenic drive they’d ever been on – the destination nowhere near as exciting as the trip there. The road follows the contours of the lake and offers magnificent views of The Remarkables…usually. As we all gazed out to where The Remarkables should have been, our eyes where met with a blank canvas above the lake. Thick snow clouds had descended and had shrouded the entire mountain range in a blanket of white, rendering them almost invisible and unfortunately concealing them from our view. There were pretty little walks leading to lookouts all along the roadside and we decided to stop at one point and have a walk around, hoping the cloud might lift for some good photo opportunities.
The name of the spot we stopped at was Bob’s Cove, which took us through a little rainforest down to the lakeshore. It was very wet underfoot but so green and lush, the canopy overhead teeming with bird life. When we emerged through the foliage and onto the beach it started to snow! Little soft flakes were dusting us with powder.It was beautiful! We took some photos and then made an executive decision to turn around and come back another day when visibility was a bit better.
Ross suggested we visit Arrowtown instead. This was a gorgeous little historic town with cute little shops, cafes and cobblestones. It reminded me a bit of the Blue Mountains. We ate lunch at the New Orleans Pub, which offered 4 completely different menus to choose from, including an Asian menu, traditional pub fare and sandwiches and salads. Talk about variety! It was so cosy sitting inside around the open fireplace while the snow continued to fall outside. On a different note, I’ve been both amused and confused by signs found in all the public toilets here that implore you to please flush your used toilet paper down the toilet rather than putting it in the BIN! Oh derr.
After a good look around beautiful Arrowtown we drove back into town and ventured up the steep gondola to the very top of Queenstown. From here the views of the lake and The Remarkables were incredible – remarkable even! By now it was snowing heavily, though the fog had lifted. We had booked ourselves in for some luge rides but the track was pretty icy and wet, not to mention steep! The first zoom around the circuit was really fun but bitterly cold! We al felt like our hands were going to snap off! Other (smarter) punters on the track had donned their ski suits for the ride. Why hadn’t we thought of that? It was right about now that Tobes was regretting his decision to leave that snuggly woollen jumper behind. Oh what he would’ve done to trade that summery little tee for a jumper right now! He said “My extremities are seriously about to drop off. Seriously! I’m serious!” Knowing how serious he was (it was SERIOUSLY cold!) and though wanting to, failing to restrain myself from saying “I told you so!” we made an emergency stop at the gift shop to buy him some socks and gloves. Molly and Maisy also needed some warmth reinforcement in the shoe department, buying some toasty woolly socks and Ross got himself some gloves to try to restore feeling back in his fingers.
Feeling somewhat thawed, we were ready to tackle the other two circuits on the luge track, fish-tailing and skidding in the slippery snow; Maisy and I keeping a speed akin to Driving Miss Daisy while Ross, Sam, Molly and Toby flung themselves around the track like Formula One drivers, getting air and racing to the finish. I have become a person I never thought I would on this trip. Born out of necessity I have become a wear-my-ugg-boots-in-public kind of girl. It must be noted though that while my feet did remain toasty, ugg boots are not very suited to snowy slopes and I was slipping and sliding all over the shop!
The wintery scene up the mountain made us all feel like we were in Santa’s Cave at David Jones, in a winter wonderland fabricated to make us feel like we were somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere in the middle of summer. The tree boughs laden with snow, the icicles dripping from the roof, the snow clumped along the railings… With the exception of Sam who has experienced living in the snow in the USA, we are so used to seeing fake snow that this somehow didn’t seem real. It was magical.
The lookout from the top of the gondola is just amazing. Queenstown is so rich in natural beauty and an incredible part of God’s beautiful creation. We got some more happy snaps and then had a warm night in with some takeaway in front of the heater.
