A Paradox. Two very different days and experiences. Part 1

It is actually Saturday night and I have been thinking about this post a lot and wondering what to say. I had two very different days on Thursday and Friday with some similarities, and some huge differences.

I took Thursday as a “tourist day” and did the things that lots of people do when they are in Queenstown. The first was a ride on a steam powered ship up the lake (that I flew over the day before) to Walter Peak High Country Station.

It is about a 45-minute ride on the boat and the engine room and most all of the other parts of the ship are available to view. That was quite interesting, particularly watching the maneuvering and communication between the bridge and the engine room. 

The managers house. The property is now accessible by the lake, about 10km, or by gravel road about 150km

The road was built in the last 20 years. Not all properties have roads even now.

Frankly the “Farm visit” was a huge disappointment to me as it was way too basic and superficial. Having said that there were clearly people on the tour who had little knowledge of what happens on a working farm. (As in where do steaks come from if you have to kill that precious looking animal). The farm location and history were interesting, but the whole thing could have been much better.

They raise a lot of deer commercially. This fellow was quite shy but would have been in some people's sights!

I will say that it was very well organized and integrated.

After we returned to Queenstown I decided to take a jet boat ride, as this is one of the “extreme ”experiences”. The boat travels at speeds up to 80 kph (50mph) up some quite shallow rivers and is very maneuverable. 

Close to the wall at about 45mph!! Water is less than a foot deep.

Overall at the end of the day I was under whelmed and maybe this was because they were carefully crafted experiences and my preference is for more real life events. I equate the experience with my experiences on a Caribbean cruise where it was well organized, but on a tight schedule and designed to get as many through the “experience” as possible in the shortest time.

I will be the first to say that this was one of the very few days that I have not enjoyed on the whole trip.

I was going to do this as one post but have decided to split it so the information and photos of Doubtful Sound are easy to find.