Day 20 - Queenstown to Naseby

Today was a long one. We met our new driver, Happy. We loaded up and headed down the road, but every time we hit cruising speed, the new bus would make a loud beep until the engine was switched off. After the third time (and a call to head office), Happy figured out it must be the back door. He gave it a shove and that fixed it.

We drove past a ski area and stopped an old mining town called Arrowtown. I was quickly bored with the uber-tourist town and walked along the river a bit (pic below).

We got to Oturehua a bit later to find 21 bikes and helmets for us to ride down part of the Otago Rail Trail. ... from there to Lauder. It went through some amazing pastureland, through two tunnels, and over (at least) one bridge. We rode 23km, mostly downhill, in 1hour17minutes.

There's a great cafe at Lauder called the Stationside Cafe where we bought and ate a hot lunch.

Then we drove to Naseby where we checked into the Royal Hotel. Actually, we didn't all fit there, so three of the guys were checked into a cabin at the local campground, and others went to The Old Doctor's Residence.

A few of us explored the town. It is definitely a ghost town, but I found some amazing trees surrounding the local park, including New Zealand's largest Christmas Tree, and huge trees from North America, China, India, Norway, etc.

For dinner, we all gathered at the Royal Hotel where we were served Shepard's Pie, other than the vegetarians (who got fish), and the glutard (who got quiche).

After dinner, a few of us sat down to a movie: I attached Kate's laptop to their big TV in the breakfast room and we watched Mr. Church that I had brought on hard drive.