Queenstowm

18th
Queenstown leaves me cold. Don't get me wrong. It is stunningly beautiful. But it seems to be a lot about money. The houses, the clothes,  the prices, and just the sheer speed of the place.I didnot feel safe riding around.  The 1way street system takes a bit of getting used to.

In our little corner of campingground was a little micro cosm of the world There was Steve sleeping out of the back of a car.A cyclist from a small town, looking for a part-time job to help him through his self improvement course. Will it help him get a career? Hope so

There was Linda - a librarian from Melbourne cruising around in hired station wagon.She knows how to party hard. She has a number of tats-I only saw 1 but I'll take her word for the rest.

Then there was Brigit and Marta. Both from Frankfurt. Both just finished high school and touring first NZ and then Thailand before starting university. One wants to be a lawyer and the other wants to  do media arts.  They flew to New Zealand and bought a car to travel around in sleep in.They had a book of 50 must do things in NZ and planned their tour around that. It was fun sharing impressions of NZ Australia and Europe with these young people.

The next day I left early hoping to find the odd garage sale.  That part of the didn't seem to do garage sales for some reason.Good thing because I can't carry anything anyway. A few steep climbs out of the city and then it was downhill pretty much all the way to Cromwell.  I had not been aware how much climbing I had done from Bluff to Kingston until did the descent to Cromwell and then Clyde. I could (and probably should) have stayed in Cromwell but I wanted a 'blob' day before Tom arrived to do the Rail Trail.  The run down to Clyde should have been a doddle but a head wind had sprung up and though it wasn't strong I was already tired.  Rain was threatening putting added pressure.