Our kayaking trip ended on New Year's Eve (see the next gallery) and on New Year's Day we took a bus from Te Anau to Queenstown. The morning started out cloudy and we figured we were in for another day of rain (sun? what's sun? I feel like a vampire!). But on the scenic bus ride to Queenstown, it started to clear and we ended up having a gorgeous day. We arrived in Queenstown after lunch and decided to hike up Ben Lomond. We weren't sure how long we would have good weather, so we ended up riding the gondola and hiking from there. It didn't take long tramping to get above the bushline and this picture is looking down on Queenstown situated on Lake Wakatipu (the lake that stretches to Glenorchy). Queenstown is a hub of the south island because of its easy access to many national parks, but it is expensive because it is a resort town. There are also a ton of tourists in the city, but we saw very few people on the trail to Ben Lomond.