Day 19 - Wednesday 1st October

I'd been feeling unwell for a few days and so I decided not to go on the excursion today. I slept in rather than getting up early. Suzy still went on the Dart River Safari outing. She left at 7:30am and got back to the hotel at 2pm. She said it was a fabulous experience.

I had a late breakfast (8:30am), did a load of washing and caught up on my photos and blog. I went for a walk to explore the lakeside and the streets of Queenstown. The lake backdrop is a beautiful setting. The shops are ideal for tourists. It is no wonder that it is such a popular town.

This afternoon, we planned to go to the Kiwi Birdlife Park to see Kiwis. Yolanda, Peter and Cassie came with us. We met there at 4pm and had a look around the displays of other birds before going to the kiwi cabin for the 4:30pm feeding.

Because kiwis are nocturnal, they keep the kiwis in a dark cabin during the day and then turn night into day. Tourists can see them feed the kiwis at various intervals during the day. The kiwis mate and produce young. They release kiwis into the wild to increase the population.

The Queenstown gondola chairlift is right next to the Kiwi Park. It takes you to the top of the mountain high above the town and the lake. It's a long way up. At the top they have a viewing platform, restaurant, bar and (naturally) a gift shop.

The views up there are amazing. It's a spectacular setting.

As we looked down, we saw the steamer heading off across the lake to the Walter Peak Dinner - the one we went on last night.

When we returned to Queenstown, we looked at several restaurants and eventually decided to have fish and chips on the side of the lake.