The last leg of our flight Blenheim-Wellington-Queenstown took us over some beautiful vistas culminating in Queenstown situated on Lake Wakaipu and nestled between two ranges of the southern alps. In the afternoon we took a gondola ride followed by a walking tour of the town.

Monday, we headed about an hour north into the Central Otaga Valley where first rate wines, particularly pinot noirs, are produced. The valley is best described as an alpine desert. In the rain shadow of the surrounding mountains, the valley only gets about 300-350 mm of rain a year requiring wineries to irrigate. The route through the pass to get there took us by some magnificently rugged terrain. To top it off, the cloud structure today was amazing. We saw a number of “fire cloud “ formations which I was unable to capture with my iPhone. You’ll just have to Google that. We started at Felton Road winery and then onto Mt Difficulty for a tasting and lunch. I don’t post many food pictures, but today’s lunch aka feast was exceptional. All matched with estate wines.

Tuesday we again headed north into the Central Otaga region. This time to Rippon Winery, possibly the most photographed winery in the world. And with good reason. Wines were good, but not the best we have had. One novelty there was we got to taste onsteiner wine, a white wine made from a cross between riesling and sylavaner. It is produced only at Rippon and possibly one other winery in the world. Quite interesting.

Following lunch in Arrowtown, once a mining town now a tourist magnet, we sailed Lake Wakatipu on the TSS (twin screw steamship ) Earnslaw. Built in 1912, the same year as the Titanic, she almost hit the scrap yard in the 60s before a last minute reprieve by a company that saw great tourism value in her. She was refurbished, and now is a great example of ship travel on the lake 100 years ago. She burns a ton of coal an hour at a cruising speed of 11 knots. Her 7 ton coal bunkers have to be replenished twice a day. Passengers can view the engine up close and see the coal stokers do their job. The engine room was quite warm and smelled of hot lubricating oil.

We took a slow day Wednesday. Late start. Took the water taxi into town, which was pretty neat. Much cheaper than a regular taxi if you’re staying at the Hilton, the water taxi makes a circuit every hour on the lake making four stops to pickup or drop off. Had lunch. Bought a few gifts before returning late afternoon.

This end of the South Island has seen four economic eras over the years. Early on, it focused on greenstone, a type of nephrite jade, that the Maori mined and used for tools, jewelry and trading. In the late 1800s, gold was discovered in the ubiquitous alluvial deposits, which brought in numerous miners and businesses. In the latter part of the 20th century, tourism began to flourish. Today wine production is a major industry.

Well Queenstown has exceeded my expectations. A very nice resort destination of about 20,000 residents which swells with incoming visitors. Ski season is about four months long. Located on Lake Wakatipu, the third largest lake in NZ, the lake is 46.7 miles long with an average depth of 750 ft. Max depth is 1280 ft which is below sea level. We rode the gondola up to the crest of a nearby mountain. Magnificent view.

The group had our farewell dinner in a private room at the hotel overlooking the lake. An excellent ending.