The whole point of Queenstown is to engage in bungee jumping and related activities, so again, if you're not really an adventure sportsperson, you may not get the allure of Queenstown. We did watch a couple of bungee jumps, but that was the extent of our participation. The big thing to do here though is buy a combination ticket, where you bungee jump and parasail and white water raft and a couple other things one after another.

It rained most of Tuesday, which may account for the fact that we were pretty unimpressed with Queenstown. It's a nice enough place I guess, but not very pretty and really just full of hotels and fast food restaurants. We did a bit of shopping, took a very boring gondola ride up (and quickly down) a nearby mountain, and played half a mini-golf game before we were rained out. We had lunch at a decent Thai restaurant, then called it a day and went back to the hotel.

I woke up early Sunday and went for a run, then negated the effort by eating an enormous breakfast. (I've noticed that pretty much every day's journal entry begins with my eating an enormous breakfast, usually overusing those exact words. I'm going to skip that news from now on). We then set off for a trip highlight, a private helicopter tour of the mountains and Milford Sound. The tour was much better than the glacier tour because it was just us and we could go wherever we wanted for the day.

Our suite continued the country western theme, complete with a huge stone fireplace and an enormous patio overlooking the lake. The exterior of the lodge was all stone and distressed wood, with huge windows everywhere to share the unparalleled views.

We stayed here for four nights, and quickly learned the routine. For dinner, guests gathered in the bar around 6.30 pm for drinks and to place dinner orders. There were usually a dozen or so guests plus the owners, a good size group conducive to a festive atmosphere. There was a foursome from Toronto that were there as long as we were, and were very nice. Others came and went and my journal goes into great detail about the pros and cons of each group, but we can skip that. After dinner the first night, we went back to our room and lit a fire, but unfortunately the fireplace had a problem, and the room filled with smoke and we set off the fire alarm. Not a good way to endear ourselves to the staff. They supposedly fixed the fireplace the next day, but we were too afraid of a repeat disaster that we never used it for the rest of the trip. Blanket Bay Lodge (8)-Room-9, Facilities-7, Service-7, Wow-5 (that view)

The hotel was opened by a wealthy American couple (same as Paratiho and a surprisingly large number of upscale lodges in New Zealand. Stolidog was just talking about moving to New Zealand someday, so maybe this will give him some idea of what to do when he gets there.) The American influence is much stronger here, with a very Brokeback look to the place. Actually the furnishing is similar to the style I had for a few years in my SoHo loft, which I adopted with great gusto, then moved and gave all this meticulously collected Americana to my sister Pomme, who proceeded to store it in a warehouse.

53. Queenstown/Lake Wakatipu

We continued driving through Queenstown, then kept driving along the shores of Lake Wakatipu down a 40 km dead end road to our hotel, Blanket Bay Lodge. We thought this 40 km trip would be a real pain every time we wanted to get to Queenstown, but it turned out we didn't really want to leave the hotel much, so it was no problem. The Lodge was outstanding, in an amazing, albeit remote, location. These photos are the view from our room at the Lodge. I have lots of hotel pics so I have to string the commentary out a bit...

52. Wanaka

At the southern tip of Lake Wanaka lies the town of Wanaka, a popular resting spot en route to the tourist honeypot of Queenstown. Like most major towns in the South Island, Wanaka appears to have no other function other than to cater to tourists exploring the surrounding scenic beauty. It's all restaurants, B&B and watersports rental shops, in fact an almost exact replica of Queenstown in miniature. In fact I was just reading that Wanaka is the new Queenstown, which is easy to see. Queenstown was in danger of being strangled in a tangle of bungee jumping cords even while we were there, and Wanaka has as nice a natural setting with much less tourist tat. Of course, now that all that sort of thing has apparently moved to Wanaka, Queenstown is set to be the new Wanaka in a few years' time.