Day 80 Christchurch to Queenstown

Today we all hopped onto the van and headed off toward Queenstown. As it turned out that was an all day trip with a number of stops along the way. The major activity today was becoming familiar with the countryside and enjoying the scenery. Queenstown is south and west of Christchurch. The trip took us through pasture land which was defined by hedges that are neatly manicured into a rectangular shape with flat tops. Remembering that the entire nation only has 4 million people the country has 40 million sheep. The number of sheep is down drastically from its peak. Sheep farms or stations as they are called, are being converted into dairy farms. We were told that a dairy farmer with 300 cows can net as much as $400,000 NZ per year. They export much of the milk products to Asian countries.
We stopped at a couple of lakes and Mt John which has an observatory where they have extremely clear skies. We ate on the terrace overlooking one of the lakes.
The van we have is very nice and it was a comfortable drive even with all six of us and the driver.
We arrived in Queenstown late in the day and had dinner in a restaurant near the lake it is on. More on Queenstown tomorrow.

Stephan (Guest Blogger!) - I'm so proud to be making a guest appearance on the blog! New Zealand is amazing. We are having a great time as a family... taking in the majestic scenery, eating in style, and laughing a lot. The land here feels so pure and untouched. One of our most surprising revelations was that since it's discovery, New Zealand has had no animals that are a threat to humans- no bears, no wild cats, no wolves, no snakes, no scorpions. Deer, rabbits, opossums, and stoats have all been introduced by man in the last couple hundred years, but still, this is the ultimate country for camping (can you imagine, clear pollution-free skies, camping under the stars where there's no fear of being approached in the night by something that could hurt, scare, or eat you- which means there's a chance we could get Mom to camp here someday if we play our cards right). At the moment we are all kicking back in Mom & Dad's room watching rugby & playing cards after the long and rich day on the road!