Tuesday, November 13

At the start of the morning’s walk

After breakfast, we resumed our walking along Lake Wanaka. The weather was gorgeous, just to my taste, with lovely deep blue skies hung, adorned, festooned with wonderful cloud formations.

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Just to give an idea of the day we walked in, along the shores of Lake Wanaka, I’ve chosen eight representative snapshots, to the left.

Lake Wanaka empties into the Clutha River, and we walked quite a way along this. The river has a voluminous flow, and some very rapid spots, as you can see in the picture to the right (big image, small). Nicky had arranged for her business partner Brenda to move the bus, so we picked that up and drove to a winery in the Otago district, where we had lunch and then did a tour. The lunch was very interesting, with such unusual items as pickled whole walnuts, evidently pickled in a very immature state, since it seemed to me that we were eating meat, shell, and husk in one.

The winery tour was less interesting to me. I think if you’ve been on one such tour, subsequent ones hold relatively little novelty.

Then there was the rest of the ride into Queenstown, where Country Walkers had booked us into the Sofitel, a most elegant lodging. Even more inexcusable excess than the hotel we had in Madrid. With the highest-tech bathroom you’ve ever seen: floor warmers, Jacuzzi, lights on the outside of the tub at floor level, and more. And much more on top of that. The picture on the right does not begin to indicate the opulence of the place.

Then we went out for our final dinner together, at a high-class restaurant called the Boardwalk. For the most part, I was disappointed in my meal, but the setting, the surroundings, and the company were so pleasant that I would not have thought of complaining. The oysters on the half-shell looked tired and dry; the scallops in pasta were interesting in that they were of a nice—not too big—size, and many of them had roe attached, but they were cooked a bit more than I would have liked, and were in a light and extremely salty sauce; but the strawberries and cream that Mark and I had for dessert were very good. The wine was fine, too. I go on at such great, and critical, length because this place compared most unfavorably with the restaurant we ate at the next night, but I describe that in next day’s page.

I think it was one of the waiters who took the picture below for us, at the beginning of our meal. We had a fine and festive time.

After dinner, Mark and I walked back to Madame Sophie’s House and turned in, in eager anticipation of the special excursion that Nicky offered us for the next day.

Left to right: Jonathan, Tom, Jim, Mark, Nicky, Pat