Queenstown gondola

I'm in Queenstown now. It's not quite how I imagined - no-one told me I'd be wandering up and down hills in late-20s temperatures - but still very pretty. By the time we arrived and got settled, it was almost too hot and too late to do much, so I wandered up to the Queenstown gondola. It's quite costly (like everything else in Queenstown), and I was told that I could just walk up to the summit to enjoy the view ... but come on, one look up that hill and I wondered how anyone thought I'd make it up there without a stretcher!

So, I took the plunge went on the gondola. I'm really glad I did. It's an amazing structure and a really smooth ride, even with a bit of a breeze. The summit is a fully-blown tourist trap, with lots of enticing ways to extract your dosh, but I guess it's got to be done. The view of Queenstown from the top is quite spectacular, and today the water was a picture-perfect clear blue. I didn't go on the luge and am mildly kicking myself about that now, but I was happy to just enjoy the view and soak up some rays on such a beautiful day. It turned out to be one of those days - when I finally descended the hill, I ended up wandering down to the waterfront and doing the same thing on a park bench. Bliss!