17/08/25 Straight to Arrowtown

Dinner last night involved doing some driving into Point Arthur along pitch black streets with only the feeble headlights of the Corolla to help. Needless to say we missed the place we were aiming for and ended up having dinner at the place we parked at, The General Kitchen and Bar. They do love their pizza around here, everyone sells some version with the genuine gourmet wood fired pizza oven©. And as usual, it was fine. Definitely needed a lot more seasoning and livelier cheese. As is customary in NZ we had to eat with our hands like beasts.

Afterwards we saw some pretty impressive skies, which I haven't seen for years. Definitely appreciated the lack of streetlights for this. 

We decided the luge will wait until Tuesday for a bunch of reasons so we were headed for Arrowtown instead. Stopped off at Gantley's Tavern for breakfast, and was directed to the far end of the place away from the noisy throng watching some sort of sports on TV. Maybe rugby, given the sounds on whistles and shouting. I really couldn't care less, but it did mean we got to meet Tui.

Breakfast was standard, pretty great hollandaise and the usual greenery that was flicked off. 

Some sports watchers brought dogs along, and Tui here decided we seemed to be easy marks for treats. Well, I was but Louie wouldn't let me.

I know her name was Tui because her owners kept on calling her. She doesn't know that's her name because she took zero notice of them. Good girl.

The site of my shame. I got a parking ticket here, not because I didn't pay. It's because in my pre-breakfast brain autopilot mode I entered my car's licence plate, not the rental car. Bugger. Anyway, this is Arthur's Point where we are staying.

A short 15 minute drive away is Arrowtown, mostly a street of shops that cater to the tourists who come for the shops. Gold, greenstone and tat for the most part. And Remuera tractors that have a chance of actually being used as a 4WD. Or at least getting slightly muddy. 

The two main historical parts of Arrowtown includes an old Chinese "township" that had about 20 buildings. All are long gone but they have built replicas. For a place that could have been quite rubbish, they did a good job of presenting the history and the people.

Weirdly, the entire reason they were here - the gold panning seems to have been forgotten. There wasn't anywhere along the stream that talked about what or where they did it. Bits of rusty ancient gear were half buried but not even a sign.

There was one X marks the spot where some Māori chap found the first nugget, but even that is a bit sketchy since the local tribes knew about the gold for centuries but had no use for it.

After a fair stack of walking it was time for some sitting. We tried a couple of places & ended up at Provisions of Arrowtown. Bloody Rip-off would be a more accurate name. Nice view of Coronet Peak though. The black bits on the left hand side of the snow is the top of the ski lifts.

18 bastard dollars for this (plus one more that I ate before I remembered to take a pic). Not shown is the pie Louie had that had been reheated to a dark char. One to avoid. 

Last stop was the museum and art gallery. They had the design, painting and photography portfolios of the local High School on display which was really cool, and you got to vote for your favourites. The woman behind the main desk couldn't tell us what happened to the winners, and didn't seem to understand there was voting.

Confusing art displays and an ice tunnel entrance for no adequately explained reason aside, the museum was pretty damn good. It mostly focussed on the settlers, gold and the removal of frost bitten fingers. Spread over two levels, they had a bunch of activity for kids, loads of diaramas and mock ups of scenes. And at least three pianos with their lids open and "do not play" signs on. Which is three signs too many. 

The Bank stables. Nope, no idea why the bank had stables. Fairly impressive setup though. 

This bloke got around a bit. From giving everyone a surprise when the poked their head into the bar, to the printing press, bakery, blacksmiths and stables he was a busy chap. Or maybe they got a bulk discount on the same mannequin.

I know I'm no longer a spring chicken but it's a bit on the nose to include a type of phone I used to own in a vintage printing press mock-up.

Top marks for the comedy genius, and yes it was a mine of information. Looking at the poster I have no idea why there was a diving suit on display. 

We got some hefty priced fudge at the Arrowtown candy store, this is the Jelly Tip version. Kind of tasted like the real thing too. At $9 for a 80g square, you'd hope so!

After getting home and putting our feet up (hitting double at least half the steps and calories burned each day so far) we headed into Queenstown for dinner.

Here is the kitchen for the place we didn't have dinner at, Flame. Loads of ribs and steaks being cooked, but sadly it was all booked out and we had to wait 90 minutes for a table.

Instead we wandered and ended up at a Latin American place, and they had proper Gurana as well!

Various meaty pastry things. 

After our Brazilian snacks we headed over to tick Ferg Burgers off our to-do list. It was a 20 minute wait until we ended up eating so it wasn't that bad. 

The burger was okay. For a flame griloed burger with pickles and mayo, a Burger King Whopper is better. Quite dry and low quality beef, plenty of fatty / gristly bits but nothing as bad as what I spotted while we were eating. 

For a place that is so busy and popular, you'd think they would be a lot more onto it with their hygiene and quality. All these dusty areas were over the food preparation areas. That's going to be fun putting into a Google Review!

One final stop before heading back, we stopped into the Captains Bar for some very un-blokey drinks. After two meals and heavy drinks it was an uncomfortable drive home.

Tomorrow it's supposed to snow so it's up to the ski fields for some ill-advised shenanigans!

16/08/25 Heading away

The first trip of our two "overseas" weeks (next is Melbourne in December) started very early today with lots of old men noises and grumbling. I don't like 4:30am starts. 

We tried out the new Didi app, kind of like Uber but with less features, same driver but about $20 cheaper. That got a smile out of me, Louie - not so much, he was still half asleep on the way to the airport.

We were appalled to see there were other people on the security line ahead of us. A couple of weekends ago we flew on a Saturday but about 10am and there was nobody. Definitely a tip to remember.

We mostly got a view of the ocean on the way down, with the odd sniff of some mountains just before landing. Despite prior warning of an exciting landing experience it was pretty damn ordinary, other than the mountain peaks well above us.

As we walked past the rental car booths Louie asked if the place we booked with was there, but no. I told him that we were going to be picked up and taken to our car. He seemed quite impressed by this but I had to break it to him that ours was the type who come and pick you up in a van and take you to the yard at the extreme rear of the airport for the 10 year old shitter Toyota.

Actually the staff were awesome and we got a 7 year old Toyota Corolla that is gutless but in pretty good nick. Week car rental for $200? Yes please.

Found the house we are staying in and saw what we could see. Coronet Peak from the back deck as it turns out. 

The bathroom gives the best view I've ever had from the throne (get it, Queenstown. Throne). Oh well, definitely a poo with a view.

We drove into town, finally found a carpark... Wilson's dammit. That was a painful bill at the end of the day. The waterfront area is a great walk, so many food stalls and restaurants different from the NZ standards. It was an  absolutely roasting day, until I realised the gas heater next to us was on full blast. A quick adjust and that was sorted.

Awesome place for people watching as well as scenery looking. 

The Chorizo Hash wasn't very hashy, but bloody nice. The prices are okay as well. I guess coming from Auckland we are used to $30 lunch mains so it wasn't as bad as we were expecting. Even the coffee was $5 which is kind of cheaper from memory. 

We did a stack of walking in the afternoon, along the waterfront and around the shops. The Earnslaw is out of service for a month or two so we bought some tickets for a all you can eat BBQ something. Not sure what he said after that, I just started throwing my money at him. Something on a boat I guess. Will find out on Tuesday night. 

This dirty mass of people were crowded around Ferg Burgers for probably average burgers. Louie is determined to try them, I couldn't care less. We did go next door into Fergs gelato shop spin off and had some pretty great gelats.

White chocolate raspberry and Black Doris plum - possibly the best white chocolate I've ever had. The plum one was so good as well. Definitely better than Movenpick, and cheaper. Queenstown is doing well!

After this we carried on walking and ended up in the Queenstown gardens. I thought it was odd that they sold frisbees in the tourist shops but here we found out why - they have a frisbee golf course all through the gardens. Absolutely random choice but there were a bunch of people going for it. A bit adventurous for the bystanders as well with the errant disks sailing past along with pine cones falling off the trees.

Weirdly there are two memorials in the gardens for kind of bad reasons. The first one just seems to be complaining about hard work. Miserable English immigrants, always complaining.

The second was celebrating a group's "achievement" in 1912 of going to the South Pole. And dying.

This bit was quite cold and windy. Not completely unpleasant but Louie's Brazilian blood wasn't too fond of it. Nice graphics though, so realistic. 

Afternoon defrost coffee in a round window place (I can't remember the name). Notable for their carrot cake that for some unknown reason had a bunch of muesli sprinkled on top. Weirdos.

Bit of shopping, Queenstown supermarkets are all around the airport, miles from the actual town. The New World has a resident cat which is pretty novel. Not sure what the Woolworths has but I'm pretty sure Pak n Save has a possum.

The Remarkables, which are pretty damn remarkable. Just this massive wall of rock right there. The photo doesn't do justice, it really is quite something.

Got back to the house, revived the fire with the help of a blow torch (really, so effective) and found the shower has far more nozzles than the world-wide average. And a mirror. Bit odd all round.

We are off to try a nearby pizza place, although it might be slightly, literally freezing outside so I expect it will be an early night.

Tomorrow the plan is starting off with Gondalas and luge so if there is no post tomorrow, I'll probably be in hospital or a permanent resident half way down a mountain.

12/06/25 Here again

After almost three years, a fair few changes in my life and a brief period with another platform on the trip to Brazil I think I'll move back here again. I did see that I started a couple of posts a while ago but never got then finished. 

Speaking of being back, I'm back at the back end of the Auckland Domestic terminal for what seems like a weekly day work trip down South. It's not very scenic at this hour (almost 6am) this time of year, and the productive coughs of those around me just complete the package. Some bloke is definitely getting stuck in to producing a particular challenging nugget.

I've managed to get my airport security routine down to a fine art, just need to get myself some less than ankle high safety boots and I'll be sorted.

I have made it here with all keys, watche, devices, bag and wallet (just) still with me. As an added bonus I've finished my coffee without spreading it all over the floor. Bonus points.

Just thinking of the airports I've been in over the past five years (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Nelson, Gisborne, Dunedin, Sydney, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York (JFK), Rio de Janeiro & João Pessoa), Auckland Domestic is by far the most unkempt, run down and soulless. Nothing on the plain walls other than dents and marks, dirty & impotent air con.

Just so crap. Where are the colourful walls that Wellington and Christchurch have. Even Nelson and Gisborne are miles better.

As always, the flight crew for Jetstar and fantastic. Hands down the most consistently personable and friendly out of any I've experienced. And their pre-flight palarva is mercifully brief and to the point. As I shall be.