A fiery end

View from Queenstown Hill.

We went up Queenstown Hill by cable car or gondola.  It is the touristy thing to do here.  The view was nice.  The food up here was surprisingly cheap.  I guess you've paid heftily for the ride up ... but that normally doesn't deter businesses which have a captive market to gouge gouge gouge!

To make full use of the car, we also drove around some of the suburbs on the opposite side of the lake.  The skies turned grey ... not in a way that signalled impending rain ... and a weird yellowy orangey tinge filled the sky.  As I found out at the airport, it was the forest fires in Melbourne that had caused this.  Ash at high altitiude ... nice that it hasn't come down so it didn't physically feel polluted.