Journeys.... Let's explore the world by foot and take the highest road that has the most potholes...

First, we enjoyed a leisurely day of driving from the Mount Cook area to Queenstown.  We had coffee a couple of times on the way, bought a possum and sheep wool hat, and some fresh salmon at a farm.  The scenery just got prettier and prettier as we approached New Zealand's "adventure capital", Queenstown on the shores of Lake Wakatipu.  It was founded and rapidly developed during a brief gold rush in 1862.  The gold played out in just a couple of years, but Queenstown hung on as a watersport and skiing center, still very popular with tourists and Kiwis (natives of New Zealand) alike.  We settled into the small apartment that was to be home for three days, cooked the salmon, and ate it with takeout rice and vegetable curry from a local Thai restaurant.  The next morning, we took a van along the shore for about 40 minutes (the lake is 80+ kilometers long), to the small town of Glenorchy, at the mouth of the Dart River.  From there, we got onto a jet boat and headed up river for about an hour at a *high* rate of speed.  Then we got into inflatable canoes called Funyaks, and glided back down the river for a couple of hours, ate a nice picnic lunch, finished the river ride, and took the van back to Queenstown for the night. Unfortunately, the day on the river was pretty misty and overcast, with ocasional drizles, so it wasn't the best for seeing some of the best that Middle Earth has to offer.  Dinner was a pretty good pizza in Queenstown.