Queenstown
On the drive back, it started to snow these crazy golf-ball sized clumps of snow that came down so fast and hard that when I pulled over, almost 2 inches accumulated in not more than 15 minutes! But I managed to crawl slowly out of the mountains and down to lower elevation where the snow was not falling so fast. By the time I finally neared Queenstown that afternoon, the city was bathed in glorious sunshine and the mountains all around looked as though a fresh layer of snow had just fallen. It was such an amazingly beautiful town, like an European Alpine ski town. I also drove up to the small town of Arrowtown and finally back to my hotel for night, a quirky Germanic influenced lodge built and decorated by a Swiss expat and his Asian wife.
Most people come to Queenstown for the activities: jetboating, paragliding, bungy jumping, etc. If I had planned on coming during the summer months I might have been tempted, but not with snow on the ground, thank you very much. My blood has gotten a bit thin since living in Thailand. Instead, I planned to see the town and use it as a transit point to the Alps and glaciers up north. But I would like to to come back some day.
