april 26 - day 5 - queenstown
the next morning i discovered some white stuffs on the grass outside.
it was frost! !!! last night was freezing cold! slept wonderfully though. hehe. my mattress was close to the heater.
some dude were scraping off frost from the window of his car. we decided to let the sun do the work while having breakfast.
before driving up to mt. cook we made a daytime stop at at lake tekapo and the church of good shepheard. sight - still stunning.
on the way to mt. cook we found a river with water so stunningly turquoise with the mountains and skies reflected upon it. followed the road next to it and came upon a salmon farm - mcm ternak ikan keli je ghopenyer. nothing impressive. but the water was, and the lake behind it - lake pukaki.
needless to say the view of mt cook and its brothers on the road towards them was simply... indescribable.
mt cook can be climbed but it is quite dangerous to do so (then again what mountain isn't?) we spent some time in the mt cook information center where there were journals to commemorate those who have died on mt cook.
the view of snow/glacier capped mt cook along with its brothers up close? unbelievable. we also spent time sipping hot chocolate at the sir edmund hilary alpine center - dia ni hensem jugak time mudo-mudo.
then went back down headed to twizel where we planned to search for a salmon lunch. in twizel there has been a major filming location for LOTR - but to see it you need to go on a 3 hrs tour. passed. no restaurant serving salmon but we stopped by an apparently popular salmon farm to get our smoked salmon and fresh salmon fillet. you can feed the salmon for free too. not the one destined for your own particular dinner though.
we decided against going through wanaka because it was farther than queenstown at that time and it was already coming to evening. at first we thought about having late lunch at lake dunstan after cromwell, and then to pray in the car on our way to queenstown. when we alighted we were hit by the wind so hard and so cold we couldn't stand it, so lunch was whatever we managed to eat in the car.
it was after that stop that masyoo suddenly announced that we could commence freaking out together, our fuel was at it's last takuk and it has started blinking. and queenstown was in estimation, 2 hrs away.
dalam cuak-cuak tu sempat jugak nak stop by this gorgeous, gorgeous river the color of blue-green like the wakefield twins' eyes i think, which reminded us of the river in narnia. its name was roaring meg.
after passing by the original bungee jumping location (kawarau bridge gorge) we came upon arrowtown... which promised that a fuel station was in close proximity. like fools we took the right turn. only to discover from a pakcik IN arrowtown that the closest fuel pump would be in frankton JUST BEFORE queenstown.
nice.
we drove in terror. if we were stranded help wouldn't be able to come for a longg time. and it has grown dark.
finally we passed by the frankton town limit and lo... 3 petrol stations facing each other!
arrowtown your petrol station be cursed!!
finally rolled into queenstown and then be greeted by more bad news: the backpacker that i had booked a whole room of 6 beds have given one bed in that room to a dude.
by pure luck cheyah and masyoo went into a motel nearby with a vacancy sign and secured a unit - with kitchen and bathroom attached. it turned out to be the best place we have ever stayed on the whole trip. purely rezeki.
queenstown was absolutely beautiful, a town surrounding the huge lake wakatipu. we roamed the cbd for dinner and spotted many stores i would love to go in - nasib dah tutup. there was a starbucks too and the price was only 3dollars per cup - cheap! dinner was halal turkish kebabs with abang garang manning the place. he should be thankful to us though - after we went in business was suddenly brisk. we must be attractive eaters mueheh.
queenstown was to have us for two nights.