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The view from our apartment/hotel is so pretty especially at night! Dotty took a picture from our balcony.

As we had washed most of our clothes upon arriving at the apartment/hotel, Dotty, Jim, and I headed out to find some fun! Gammy decided a day of rest was in order. Of course it took us till about 11:00 to get organized. We walked down the block, around the block, up the block, and made it to the Gondola of all things. It was still cloudy and threatening rain… we just hoped it held off. We really needed a walk about after being in the car, but then again, after the walk about on Franz Josef, maybe not. 🤣

We paid for our tickets and hopped in line for the ride up. Our gondola mate was a worker at the site, apparently slumming it, because he didn’t skip the line. He told us about a little walkabout up the mountain. Just a little 30 minute hike… UP the mountain… like straight up the mountain. No it leveled off, shortly and the view coming down was pretty worth it. They had trail markers for the paraglide activity. We did not follow that trail. Coming off the trail, we were able to watch some of the people who chose to do luge (more like a turtle scooter) going down the mountain.

We rode the gondola back down the mountain and headed towards the wharf. Jim wanted to see the TSS Earnslaw, a working steamship. At this point, it is just a tourist attraction, but it used to haul sheep, cows, etc over the lake. We found out the Earnslaw was out on a “run” but would return around 2:30. We decided to wait it out down on the wharf, however we had worked up a horrible thirst. One of the girls working for the TSS Earnslaw mentioned Atlas. Why not?

The Earnslaw did make it back to the wharf and Jim went out to take pictures. Dotty had decided to go off on a jaunt. She found a gift store and bought me a jade bracelet. The jade here is found only on the West Coast. I told you that right? And that you shouldn’t buy it for yourself? Thank you Dotty!

We all met back at the apartment. Speaking of the apartment, I don’t think I shared pictures of the apartment.

We ate leftovers for dinner, just trying to get rid of all our food as we couldn’t take it with us on the boat. We played some Rummikub and headed to bed. We needed to be downstairs to await the taxi to take us to meet the bus that would take us to Manapouri for our trip on Doubtful Sound!

#HowFortunateWeAre #MakeOurOwnSunshine #AdventureOfALifetime