New Zealand 2017 - Day 18: Saint Peter's Anglican Church, Diamond Creek Walk

Sunday, March 5 - St. Peter's Anglican Church, Diamond Creek Track:



Easy day today - getting up whenever, checkout at 10:


(like when we had our house on North Water Street in Edgartown, each day down here just makes me want to take some more pictures!)

Down into town for 10:30 Service at Saint Peter's Anglican Church:


After the Service, across the street to pick up a couple of sandwiches, then headed west out of town. I want to go up to the area of Paradise, which was one of the Lord of the Rings locations:

and it looks like the Diamond Creek Walk get you near there.

The drive up Lake Wakatipu is AWESOME!!

(this is where we had our sandwiches).




Quickly through the town of Glenorchy at the top of Lake Wakatipu, then in the Diamond Creek area:



Ready to hike on a windy, sunny day:

It was REALLY PRETTY hiking up next to Diamond Creek, both looking upstream:

and looking back downstream:

There is a mountain on the west side of the Creek, but some beautiful fields to the east:



Back to Paradise Road to get a little farther north into the Valley. Most New Zealand road signs make more sense than these:


We made it as far as the top of Diamond Lake, looking south:


Back down on Paradise Road, looking north:

and looking south:


South of Glenorchy we saw a pair of KITE SURFERS!!


We don't actually Kite Surf, but we sure know people who do (Hi Platt and Nancy!)

We stopped for coffee/tea at Little Paradise Lodge & Dream Garden:



Back to Queenstown:



We went out to dinner at a lovely place (The Grille by Eichardt's), but the wine list seemed, well, a little pretentious:

I'm not sure I want to drink something that has "Impeccable complexity & length."

But the meal and restaurant was Great, and the view was AWESOME:



WHAT AN ADVENTURE DAY, and THANK YOU GOD for these wonderful adventures in these Beautiful Places!!

Music today - music from my big iPod:

various artists - Music From The O.C.: Mix 1, 2004


The Band - The Band, 1969

In December 1969 (this album had just been released in September), I took the train in from Darien, and saw the 8 PM show - I just don't remember if it was Friday the 26th or Saturday the 27th:


Jimmy Buffett - Beach House on the Moon, 1999