Winter 2019 - NZ18 Ride to Queenstown

NZ18   Ride to Queenstown

OK, so we rode to the Fox Glacier, but we never saw it; too much rain and fog. 

Last Night's Heartland Hotel, Glacier Country

We slept overnight at a hotel near Highway 6, and then the next morning we rode off towards Queenstown a 365 km ride

This day of riding to Queensland I remember well, because it rained all day. I was soaked through to the bones. We, Carol and I, wore our waterproof Klim suits but got wet through and through. Why did this happen?  The suit was always a good suit and no, before we went to NZ it did not leak. Was it because we washed the suit before we shipped it to NZ? Does washing ruin a suit? What a bummer, I do not like riding sitting in a puddle of water, feeling the drops run down my body, down into my pants, my boots. It was bad! Other riders in the group had waterproof suits, they did not mind the rain that much but I did not like this day at all.

This is How the Day Started and it Just Got Wetter

 

The actual riding was OK, the road in good shape, the area around is full of large trees and all was very verdant, it’s just that it rained… Yuk.

It rained until just before we arrived in Queenstown. We, Carol and I, had to find the Hotel. We had the address and it was OK to find the entrance to the reception but parking the bikes was a different matter. The parking was behind the Hotel, in a below-ground garage. We received a dongle that would open the garage door, just wave it in front of the gizmo and the door goes up. Ha!  Right!

I would make a good Beta tester… things that are electronic seem to not work for me.

So I parked the bike in front of the closed door and walked back to the Reception to have them check the dongle. OK, they gave me a new dongle and I had to walk back to the bike. Easy, right?  NOT so easy.

The walk to the reception was through a maze of buildings, doors and using different elevators and ramps. 

The reception was not very kind when I asked them for a different dongle; they insisted the old one worked. OK, I invited them to come with me, to show me it worked but of course… THEY were too busy for that.

OK, I got a new dongle, now I have to walk back again to the bike. I felt like a white mouse in a maze. I had to remember the way to get to the bike. The whole operation of parking each bike took about 15 minutes per bike.

Finally, the new dongle worked, but why make it so awkward, how about a button, you push it and the reception can see you are legit via a camera, they open the gate and you ride in. No, it has to be a dongle… these things do not work because they always have to be re-linked to the correct room, what a pain it was to just park the bike. Of course we had 2 bikes to park…Mine and Carol’s. Yes, both original dongles were faulty. Welcome to Queenstown. 30 minutes to park 2 bikes, and I’m still walking around in wet clothes.

The sun shone in Queensland and that was perfect because Carol and I could lay out our wet suits and boots on the terrace in front of our room and let them dry. My boots were swimming pools, filled up by the water that ran down my legs.

Yes, Carol’s suit, like mine, was soaked. 

Klim, you will hear from us!   

But we are now in Queensland… we have the late afternoon off and we just wandered around and go into town. A walk of about 20 minutes each way. It was kind of easy going downhill into town, not so easy walking back up. 

Queenstown is like San Francisco, everything is built on hills.

Dinner was a place with a view over the lake, but we must have picked a slow day, there was not much to see besides some water.

According to the ‘brochure’ we received there are tons of attractions in town, we just have to find them.  Well, maybe tomorrow, we are in Queenstown for 2 nights.