The Beauty That Is New Zealand...

Il 19-22 dicembre

Queenstown, New Zealand

Il 23 dicembre

Mount Cook Village

A 4:45 am wake-up call and an hour later, after fortifying ourselves with French pastries and coffee, we left for the airport and our flight to New Zealand. This country, one of mystical beauty, is, in actuality, composed of two islands-South Island, our first stop and home to Queenstown, Mount Cook, and Christchurch, and North Island, home to Wellington, the capital city, and Auckland, the “City of Sails”.

Queenstown is located on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, a glistening body of water that welcomed me each morning as I stood on my terrace. The town is small and rises up the hills surrounding the lake and is a favorite vacation site in every season. Queenstown is also the site of the world's first Bungy Jump on the Kawarau Suspension Bridge and we witnessed “first-hand” the “dare-devil courage” or is it “foolhardiness” of several jumpers.

A ride on the Skyline Gondola up Bob's Peak was our first stop the morning after our arrival and the view from above was well-worth my initial trepidation. Wine-tasting followed in the afternoon and many of us went on a steamship cruise on the lake to have dinner at a charming inn...and then an introduction to sheep dogs and a sheep-shearing demonstration. (I will never again take for granted my wool sweaters.)

The next day was a cruise on the Milford Sound where the pristine beauty of the country continued to delight and enchant all of us. The water, the water falls, the rock formations were exquisite and set the stage for the following day's arrival at Mount Cook. First discovered in the 1850's, at 12,349 feet, it is the highest peak in all of Australasia. The pictures tell the story...