What a luxury this morning: extra sleep. Bags out at 8:00, wheels rolling at 9:00.
It was really frosty and foggy this morning when we left Queenstown. Peter described it as hawe frost. The views from the coach were really occluded also by the window steaming. We did get a final glance at the Shotover Jet Boat launch.
Our first stop was back to the village of Arrowtown. We had an hour there to explore the village and its shops. Peter had explained that in gold rush times the Chinese were among the first to catch the fever. However, they encountered so much prejudice that no one would buy the gold from them. Part of the law at the time was that if you died in the gold panning/mining areas, the government would ship the body home. So the Chinese began hiding the gold underneath the bodies in the caskets. There is still an area of Arrowtown that has part of a Chinese settlement. We did not get to see it because we opted for shopping. What a cute town. I spent most of the time in the wool shop. Oh, how I wish Amy would have been with us. The merino wool selection was amazing and reasonably priced. I did succumb to the cross stitch need, tho.
However, just around 11 the temperature warmed, the fog lifted, and the countryside vistas became spectacular. I haver never seen flat topped mountains.
We entered the land of high station fine sheep farming. Many of the stations have upwards of 300,000 sheep. To explain how wool is graded was compared to human hair, which is 26 microns. Coarse merino is 22 microns and fine merino is 12 microns.
Lunch was in Omarama, some soup for me and a stuffed sausage for Earle. Sharon had an egg and cheese pie, Lois and Gerald and Barbara fish and chips.
During the afternoon drive Peter talked about the ACC in New Zealand: the Accident Compensation Corporation. Everyone in New Zealand is covered if they are involved in any kind of accident, whether it is a car accident or a slip and fall. It is funded by the PAYE system, which is Pay As You Earn with premiums depending on the type of job you have. If you need to miss work, you receive 80% of your pay for as long as it takes to get back to work. It will also pay for rehabilitation or finding you a new job. The only litigation that can be initiated is by law enforcement agencies so there are no attorneys chasing down ambulances. Sounds like a great system.
After lunch we stopped for a photo op with Mt. Cook coming into view with Lake Pukaki.
The day has turned sunny and warmer. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Mt. Cook is the highest peak in New Zealand. It, in fact, was used by Sir Edmund Hillary as the practice peak for his climb of Mt. Everest.
We checked into The Hermitage Hotel in the Mt. Cook National Park. The room was exceptionally nice with so many outlets and a view that just can’t be equaled.
After sorting out beds and bath positioning we headed over to the DOC Information Center. The center had informative photographs and commentary on the history of the exploration of Mt. Cook, the climbing of the mountain, and a memorial room where there were biographies of those who had died while climbing the mountain. The latest entry in the register was 2015 so it is not clear whether that was because no one had died in the last 4 years or it hadn’t been updated.
Came back to the room for about a half hour and wrote and then met everyone in the Snowline Lounge for pre-dinner cocktails. Watching the sunset was spectacular.
Dinner was a buffet in the Alpine Restaurant at the hotel. They had some tasty dishes like vegetable korma and some lamb chops with make your own sundaes for dessert.
Bed was about 9:30 since another early morning awaits us.
