The title implies that I didn't enjoy this incredibly long Trip, but, in all seriousness, I did.
I was hesitant about committing to the 9 hour ride from Christchurch to Queenstown but in retrospect am very glad that we did. The first few hours saw us driving with rocky snow capped peaks just off to the distance to the right, as we crossed many little streams with crystal clear, or slightly aqua coloured water weaving it's way through stony grey creek beds. Most of these streams had loads of colourful lupin flowers growing by them, I couldn't get a photo of this though because we only ever saw it from the bus. This pic is actually of the sea of lupins at Lake Tekapo:
They come in heaps of different colours and appear over much of the South Island.
Anyway, what really amazed me about the scenery from the bus was the incredible juxtaposition, especially between Geraldine and Queenstown. If I had any artistic talent I would move here. From the same window we could see:
this photo from Alpine Pacific Tourism (I couldn't get a good enough image from the bus)
if anyone knows what the (blurry) circle of boxes to the right of this photo is, PLEASE tell me!
Extreme Picnics on blogspot also has a fantastic photo at this link.
Once we got close to Queenstown we were a little worried to see the lanscape looking like this:
but there was just something eerily magnificent about seeing these immense mountain ranges (The Remarkables) shrouded in cloud. It's as though this is how they are meant to be seen, so when it started raining right before we disembarked the bus we didn't even mind.
