awful qantas seating

Qantas seating is atrocious. Designed for midgets. I'm not particularly tall but my knees are jammed into the seat in front of me.

There's a relatively new pre-flight warning: If you drop your mobile electronic device, do not attempt to pick it up, ask an attendant. I can see why. If you bend down, you may need the jaws of life to get up again. It's so cramped that I can't even see my feet.

The there's upright. You know, seat backs upright for takeoff and landing. Upright enough to break my back. Finally, I can recline -- just enough to take the strain off my back, not enough to be comfortable. Air NZ should be embarrassed to put their passengers on a Qantas plane

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From Melbourne to Queenstown is entirely different. It's a real Air NZ plane -- with 30 or 40 cm between my knees and the seat in front. So comfortable! Far more space than even the supposedly spacious non-stop qantas flight from Perth to London.

Fly Air New Zealand! Avoid qantas. Unless you really are a midget masochistic sardine.

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We arrive in Queenstown. A small delay while hertz fetch our car keys. It's a Toyota corolla. Since we're not walking the Routeburn we want easy transport.

No trouble getting to our accommodation. I drive, Deb watches the map, tells me when we are close. We are staying at Garden Court.

It's right on the very busy Frankton Road but we are away from the road. Big glass windows, a balcony, a view over... whatever body of water it is that Queenstown sits on. With a golf course across the water and mountains beyond that.

Beautiful!

At the end of the flight (thinking back) we cross the coast and then the Remarkables mountain range. I think that's the name. They are impressive! We get a great view as we are descending. The afternoon sun provides just the right light. I should have had my camera ready...

Our room is a "suite", big bed, dining table, couple of chairs, kitchenette. Separate bathroom. And the view. Brilliant :-)

It's mid afternoon. We have time to walk to the city centre. Buy a few odds and ends, snacks for the room. Eat dinner in town.

As we are walking... a bus runs into a man. I almost wrote, an old man. Perhaps a bit younger than me. He goes flying.

He's shaken but, as far as we can tell, unbroken. Lots of people help him, including the bus driver, she is almost as shocked as the man. We leave the various people to sort things out.

The man was off the footpath, only just on the edge of the road. I can smell alcohol, possibly from him. The bus was going far too fast. All very bad. It makes me very nervous of the traffic, which otherwise seems quite careful.

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We eat at Speights, "an authentic New Zealand pub". It's relaxed, it's simple, the food is good. I have sausages -- good, solid, inoffensive food after a day of airline and airport food. Deb has chicken and stuff in filo pastry. Delicious but more than she can eat. Partly a large meal, partly that she is feeling a bit queasy.

Back to the hotel for a sound night's sleep.

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Except for Deb, who is sick, several times. Deb... Deb's stomach... does not handle no sleep and irregular meals. She spends most of the day -- it's now Saturday -- lying in bed feeling lousy.

I hate to say it but my Saturday is a holiday of my favourite kind. I sit, I rest, i sleep, I read. I relax.  Aaaahhhh :-) And of course I offer words of comfort.

Sometime after midday I walk to town. This accommodation was chosen for easy access to town, where we would walk to start our track walk... It seems to be a long way from town! But today, I do walk the scenic route, following the water.

I buy a wrap for myself, to eat back home. And crackers and peanut paste, so Deb can nibble on some dry crackers. I walk a shorter way back. Almost two km there, 1.3km back. So, not too far from town.

By mid afternoon Deb is feeling a lot better. We go for a walk, down to the water then in the direction away from town. It's the queenstown track, next town along is Frankton, we don't reach it, it's another 6km away. A pleasant walk, following the water. (Or it may be the Frankton Track...)

There are a couple of "wild" apple trees by the track, thick with apples.

We walk back, almost to town. Through the Queenstown Gardens then back home.

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Home again. We go out for dinner. To the Copthorne, just across the road.

Quite a fancy place. Deb is only ready for salad, I go for steak. Both good. Then we share a cheesecake... Set into a large glass. The base is an Anzac mix, delicious, so solid that we worry that the glass will shatter as we dig it out. (It doesn't.)

The waitress is pleasant, the waiter is fawning. I have the impression that he knows he should be friendly, isn't comfortable, overdoes it.

We go back to our room for coffee, some relaxation, sleep.

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We sleep well, mostly. Even Deb doesn't wake up till 8:30.

I have a restless night. Our plan is to drive to Wanaka. I imagine the difficulty of manoeuvring the car out of the awkward parking space. I wonder how I will break into the traffic on the busy road. I worry, it keeps me awake for an hour or so.

Sunday. It's all very easy.

We skip breakfast in favour of brunch at our first stop. The parking space is larger than I remember. The traffic is very light.

Our first stop is Arrowtown. Deb's aunt left a lot of money to their museum. We saw the commemorative plaque, many years ago. The walls are freshly painted, the plaque is nowhere to be seen. We are told that "David" will know if it is still around... We don't worry, we carry on.

Breakfast in what I think is called the Arrowtown Bakery. A hearty serve of fairly average bacon, eggs, etc.

We shelter from the rain in a woolen goods shop -- very nice stuff, very expensive -- then drive on. The town is very much set up for tourists.

We drove up to Coronet Peak. It's familiar, we drove up there with the kids, 30 or so years ago. The kids played in the snow. We drove down with the car heater on full, trying to dry out and warm up.

Today there is no snow. No traffic either, which is a relief. Deb admires the mountain views, I watch the road. At the top everything is closed (though one chairlift is working). I check the view, we drive down again. Some cyclists are pedaling up, it looks like hard work.

Next stop, Wanaka. We walk away from the tourist-trap centre to have coffee and carrot cake at the Urban Grind. Nothing "authentic nz" here, it seems to be an American franchise. Very nice though.

We go for a walk along the lake edge. Following a footpath for a couple of km. To Bremner Park on Kelty Point (or some such names). It's a pleasant, relaxing walk. Then back again.

Oh, and I've started taking pictures of toilets again... :-) It's the new camera, it seems to take good photos, I need to test it out.

We drive back via Cromwell, where we stop at the bakery for afternoon tea. And pick up some meat pies for dinner.

Deb asks if there is a fruit shop. Turns out there are fruit stands at orchards on every main road out of town. All we want... we find at a supermarket in Cromwell.

The drive home suits me: through the valley rather than mountains. Driving is relaxing, I can admire the view. I also prefer rolling countryside to mountains, it seems to be more accessible to me.

Back home... and we are glad to not go out for dinner. Pie and sauce in our room with chocolate for dessert.

A sound and restful night's sleep...

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Deb sleeps in again! Perhaps she is still sleeping to perth time :-)

Today -- monday -- we explore queenstown. Explore a very small part of it, anyway.

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Hmmm. Somewhere, Deb and I walk home through queenstown Gardens. It must have been Saturday afternoon. Nice gardens. The main features -- at this time of year -- are trees. Including quite a few sequoias: huge and impressive.

Today, monday: We follow the water's edge to town. Amongst the rocks and trees is a "Frisbee golf" course. Throw a Frisbee from a tee along (for example) a par 3 70m course, to land in a metal chain goal. One leg has a tree marked "M", you need to curve around it. It looks like a lot of fun, and difficult.

In town, there's a water's edge row of shops, cafes, boat hire. And a busker with a dog. The busker plays guitar, badly. The dog occasionally howls a different tune.

We have brunch in a cafe where we have a view across the busker and the harbour. It's all very pleasant. The cafe specialises in chocolate and icecream. Strangely, we eat muesli and fruit. And croissants.

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We walk round for a while, then make our way to the gondola. And up we go...

We buy tickets for the gondola plus three luge rides each. Luckily, Deb does not really enjoy her first luge ride -- so I have five rides... It is terrific! A low slung hill trolley with brakes. Just enough adrenaline -- and control -- for me to enjoy. And I do enjoy it :-)

I thoroughly enjoy my five rides, Deb settles for an icecream. We relax a bit in the cafe at the top then take the gondola down again.

Deb thinks that tomorrow we could visit the glowworm caves but they are a couple of hours drive away. Too far. We will settle for a bit of driving and a bit of walking.

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We buy beef rolls and yoghurt for dinner, to eat in our room. Not very good beef rolls but filling.

After a bit more relaxing I finally get to writing this journal. Deb says to ask her if I can't remember any details. Then she falls fast asleep.

So, finally, I've caught up... almost. Just need to go back and add an incident from a few days back... Done.

Time to sleep.

Nick Lethbridge  /  consulting dexitroboper
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"The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you." … B.B. King
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