After a solid night’s sleep in Auckland, we had a two hour flight to Queenstown today. I selected a window seat, because I was hoping to see New Zealand’s lush green landscape. Instead, for the first hour I saw featureless cloud cover. And when the cloud cover finally dissipated, I saw…

It was beautiful in its own way, but not what I was expecting. Fortunately, after a breathtaking approach to Queenstown airport (with mountains towering over us, just outside the plane window) we checked into our hotel with this view.

At home today, school buses were cancelled because of a snowstorm. Here, we changed into shorts and a t-shirt and walked along the lake to head into town. The path took us through a small park.

Queenstown seems to be a small town, but it’s definitely a pretty town with restaurants, shops, and … fabulous weather.

Jan has been looking for a hat to wear in the sun for a while now, but she is having trouble finding something she likes. Finally, she found one today. Good timing too, since there is a lot of sunshine here. Then we picked up groceries for a light dinner and breakfast in our room and headed back to the hotel, with Jan wearing her new hat. You can see the mountains in the background … but you see that everywhere here.

If you follow this blog, you know that I love taking pictures of flowers and tropical plants, especially when we’re missing a snowstorm at home. Today is no exception.

And then, it was time for a malt beverage on balcony outside our room. Jan had rose, of course.

When we were in Lisbon last fall we met a couple who said they loved visiting Queenstown, and told us there was one thing that we absolutely had to try when we were there.

You’ll need to come back tomorrow to see what the mystery activity is, and if I was brave enough to try it.