Farewell
Today we bid a “until next time” to Rotorua, we shall return.
On our last (consecutive) day in the town, the weather was very nice with the skies parting to provide a sunny send off. A contrast to the previous four days, the sky was blue and the temperature perfect. We awoke at 7am and as we had mostly packed everything the night before had little else to do. We prepared the boys, had a makeshift breakfast and then drove the car to the airport.
Rotorua bids us farewell with beautiful weather
We were about half an hour early than strictly necessary, however the airport had a children’s play area which kept both boys entertained while we waited. I had an average flat white whilst monitoring the play area. We had to move some of our checked luggage around, but got it all sorted.
Damian at the wheel / Jake was excited to see the plane
Our plane south was a lot smaller than the Airbus A320 we’d had from Sydney to Rotorua, but it flew well. We did not realise that it was going via Christchurch, as the ticketing did not indicate a stop over. This added at least half an hour to the travel time, and although we departed around 9:15am we did not land in Christchurch until about an hour and a half later.
Approximate route taken today (1/2) / Our first glimpse of the south island
On the landing at Christchurch, I had the novel idea of using my iPhone camera set to “Pano” mode, and just let the plane “move” the lens. Here is the result:
Panorama of our descent into Christchurch
We used the stop over in Christchurch airport to do some nappy changes and then waited until the plane re-boarded.
Landing in Queenstown
Approximate route flown today (2/2)
The boys did remarkably well on both flights, however Damian was getting very tired and hadn’t had any sleep since being woken at 7am. Jake and Damian handled the take offs and landings like professionals, with no screaming, crying or any of that kind of carrying on. Brave boys!
Looking out the window
As we descended into Queenstown, the plane flew parallel to the sides of some seriously tall mountains. It was a halting sight looking out the window to see the mountainside passing relatively close by. The weather, unfortunately did not appear to be on our side here either, as there was a low cloud cover (the mountain tops were hidden) and it was raining on and off.
Although the ambient temperature was supposed to be 14 degrees, with the drizzle and blustering wind it felt much colder.
View from Queenstown Airport
We found the car hire place after we’d located our luggage, and waited while we completed paperwork and inspected the car. It wasn’t a flash car, but it looks sturdy enough for our purposes for the time we’re on the south island. Our next obvious destination was the Novotel, which is located right in the heart of Queenstown, on the corner of Earl street and Marine parade.
Our journey inbound from the airport
The journey was uneventful, and we were able to check in without any hassles. The room we have at the Novotel isn’t too bad, although we are all in the one room together (the only time this will happen in NZ this year). The view from the room is over Church street, which takes in most of “downtown” Queenstown, the mountain featuring the gondola (called Ben Lomond?) and most of the waterfront.
The view from our balcony
We’ve had a really big day (as I write this and bearing in mind we’re all sharing one room, it’s almost 11pm), so I won’t be able to fit everything in to one article.
Check back tomorrow to see what happened next in Queenstown in Part 2!