Bonjour!

This morning we woke to this view…a ring of cloud around the mountain tops…beautiful. Dad is the early bird in our family and he saw some hot air balloons into the bargain…awesome!

  

I don’t think I mentioned that dad found some streaky bacon 
at the supermarket yesterday…so this morning 
the boys had bacon and eggs for breakfast!

Our destination today was Arrowtown. Nestled at the foot of rugged hills 21 k’s from Queenstown, Arrowtown is a picturesque and well preserved gold-mining town. The main street, partly lined with deciduous trees, has many old colonial shops and buildings at one end and at the other, tiny miners’ stone cottages dating back to the 1860’s & 70’s.

We wandered up and down the main street…
making purchases along the way.

Lunch was Al Fresco at ‘Bonjour’ a French Restaurant serving authentic, delicious French cuisine in a casual bistro setting. We all had crepes…Andrew and I sampled buckwheat savoury crepes while mum and dad sampled the daily special peach and walnut variety served with lashings of cream!

On our way back to Queenstown we stopped at Hayes Lake 

where the mirror image reflections were beautiful.

This afternoon mum and dad had a rest while Andrew & I ventured back into central Queenstown to explore some more…it’s backpacker heaven…the water is crystal clear, pristine and very inviting…it’s 23°C and there were lots of people bathing and sunbaking on the shores of the lake.

This 101 year old vintage steamship takes passengers

 on cruises around Lake Wakatipu.

We’ll leave you with the view from our apartment at Happy Hour this evening…the view is ever changing and punctuated by jets taking off from and landing at Queenstown airport…it is amazing to watch them. There are numerous light planes and helicopters too…it’s captivating viewing.