Queenstown leisure

Thursday, April 11, 2019  Queenstown

A highlight of the day was our optional nature walk along a part of Lake Wakatipu, the lake Queenstown is on. The Lakeshore, Forest, and Bird Watching Tour was the first half day, followed by our free time strolling through the town. This area is truly a sportsman's paradise, known for its commerce-oriented tourism, especially hiking adventures and ski tourism.

Our guide picked six of us up from the hotel, and we drove along the north side of Lake Wakatipu up to car park. From there, we hiked through this dense forest to Bob's Bay, which is where we were in the top photo. Along the way, the guide pointed out stoat traps, fantail birds, and tui birds.

Our guide pointed out this colorful mushroom.

More of Bob's Bay, looking across the lake.

This old limestone kiln produced the mortar for the many brick buildings in the town.

In the right background is the little beach where we were in the top photo. We're standing on a tiny pier, and we startled a few rats into the water, who swam to shore.

A rat! I did my best to get a photo of one of the swimming rats. Do you see it? Right in the middle.

Pretty scenery across the bay.

There I am, in a photo stolen from Keith. I may be wrong, but the guide may be telling us about the Not Beechtree.

Looking back eastward towards Queenstown.

 We hiked up up up for some nice views. You can see Steve and Diana, and Keith and Noreen.

Pretty.

Horoeka (or lancewood) leaves, from a tree that has evolved to defend itself against being eaten by the now-extinct moa. Our guide explained this fascinating info (as did Greg the day before when we saw this tree at the Caymus Falls): Scientists speculate that as a tiny seedling, the horoeka grows small brown leaves that help the infant tree blend in with leaf litter on the forest floor.  So, a prowling moa might pass by and spare the plant.

As it grows, horoeka's leaves change, becoming long and spiky, with barbs along the edges, as seen above. Scientists believe that bright spots near the barbs are probably meant to get moas' attention and make them think twice about trying to swallow such a prickly meal. Finally, when they reach adulthood, the haroeka's leaves change once again, becoming rounder and losing their spikes.

Why?  Perhaps because the tree is now tall enough to hoist its leaves out of the reach of hungry moas.
What helped prove this theory is that they compared the leaves of this species with a species of horoeka that is genetically most similar to it, but does not live on the main islands of New Zealand. Rather, it is found ONLY on the Chatham Islands which are 800 miles to the east of New Zealand. The leaves from the Chatham Islands species show little to no difference in juvenile plants vs adult plants. Never having experienced the natural selection due to the presence of moas, the Chatham island species never “evolved” the character to produce the different juvenile leaves.

 After the nature walk, we wandered around the downtown. In 2012, Queenstown boasted 220 adventure tourism activities, including skiing and snowboarding, jet boating, whitewater rafting, bungy jumping, mountain biking, skateboarding, tramping, paragliding, sky diving, and fly fishing. 

 We had heard that Rick, Beth, and Cheryl had found a great Mexican restaurant here, so we found one too. It turned out it wasn't the same one, but we liked ours. In this photo, we're looking out the window to the shopping street below.

It was named Sombreros, of course! We were the only ones in there, until we were about finished. 

Look at that large wooden table, carved from a single log. 

 Eichardt's Private Hotel. European explorer William Gilbert Rees was one of the first non-Māori to settle the area. He established a high country farm in this very location in 1860, but the discovery of gold in the Arrow River in 1862 encouraged Rees to convert his wool shed into a hotel named the Queen's Arms, now the Eichardt's.

Speaking of William Rees, there's a statue of him down by the Main Town Pier.

We walked out onto the pier, and there's the Eichardt's Hotel and a nice little beach. A short distance away was the wharf for the TSS Earnslaw, a 1912 Edwardian vintage twin screw steamer plying the waters of the lake for tourists. It is one of the oldest tourist attractions in Central Otago, and the only remaining commercial passenger-carrying coal-fired steamship in the southern hemisphere. (TSS - "turbine steam ship")

Greg told us about Fergburger, and how it has become a wild and crazy fad for Queenstown. He said the line goes on forever, but that it was THEE thing to do and would be worth the wait. Here it is, but we passed on by. 

I'm not recalling what we did the remainder of the day, nor for dinner. Without photos or notes, I can't remember stuff seven months later!