The day began in Queenstown as any other day with a sunrise:
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| The sun peeks over the peaks of the Remarkables. |
We left the royal town early and made a stop in a "Daisytown" dating back to the goldrush in the 1860s.
The main street of Arrowtown still has a definite Wild West flavour to it.
Apart from a goldrush museum the town also sported an exotic amenity that is becoming exceedingly rare: A public telephone booth, complete with a functional and un-vandalized landline phone.
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| Two of the very early inhabitants of Arrowtown ready for an outing. |
Farther along in the region we passed these tiny, tiny huts that 150 years ago were the homes for Chinese fortune-seekers partaking in the goldrush. The Chinese came by the thousands but were treated as scum and allowed to dig for gold only in places already worked through and abandoned by others. The huts are the original dwellings for the "Chinamen".
We made a comfort and refreshment stop at Mrs. Jones' Fruit Stall outside Cromwell.
A mouthwatering and almost overwhelming diversity of products from Jones' own orchards.
When it was about time for a lunch we had reached Makarora ...
... where the Country Café had good homemade provisions as well as stuffed specimens of NZ wildlife.
After Makarora we entered a new region of New Zealand: Te Tai Poutini (also known as the West Coast). This is the wet coast of the South Island. Here the mountain sides are completely covered in temperate rainforest, – and for a good reason – 'cause this part of the coast receives 5000-8000 mm rain every year.
The last excitement of today's coach ride was a jet boat cruise on the Haast River.
We spent an hour on the turquoise river along the very lush and intensively green rainforest.
A very beautiful tour all the way out to the Tasman Sea – and in gorgeous weather.
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We are presently accommodated in the village of Fox Glacier c. 20 km to the west of Mount Cook in the Southern Alps.
