Road Trip Part 3 - Lake Tekapo to Queenstown

I actually wanted to keep you updated during my trip with Lars. Since we were constantly on the go and didn't always have Wi-Fi, that didn't really work out. Lars has been back in Scotland since January 11th and I'm currently working in Queenstown. Yes, you read that right, after about 6 months I finally have a proper job again. In the mornings, I work as a housekeeper for accommodation in a hostel and in the evenings, I work at an Indian restaurant. I'll probably stay here until March or so to earn some money for further travels.

That's the update for now. I actually want to tell you more about my trip with Lars. The last update was, I believe, that we were in Golden Bay. After that, we went towards Greymouth, which is on the West Coast. Originally, we planned to drive all the way down to Wanaka. Unfortunately, the weather on the West Coast was so bad at the beginning of December that the only highway there got washed away. So, we took the detour via Arthur's Pass towards Lake Tekapo. We had heard from locals that Franz Josef Glacier - one of the attractions along Highway 6 towards Wanaka - wasn't worth visiting anymore as most of the glaciers had already melted. Well, Lake Tekapo really impressed us. It was super touristy, but we stayed at a really nice hostel with a direct view of the lake. However, there isn't much to do in the town other than hiking and enjoying the view. One day, we hiked up Mount John, which offers a 360-degree view of the mountains. There's an observatory on the mountain since Lake Tekapo is known for its stargazing opportunities. You're even supposed to be able to see the Milky Way. Unfortunately, it was cloudy on the two nights we were there, so we probably didn't see as much as usual, but still a hundred times more than in Germany. From Lake Tekapo, we drove towards Mount Cook (the highest mountain in New Zealand) and walked the Hooker Valley Track, like the seemingly thousands of other people, which offers a great view of the mountain if you don't get blown away by the wind. The track was highly recommended because it ends at a lake not far from the mountain. So, I thought it would be a really beautiful blue glacial lake or something, but no, the lake was just a weird brown soup, no idea why everyone was taking hundreds of photos of it. The track was quite anticlimactic. The middle part of the track actually had a better view, but well, it's all about the experience. We only made a short stop there on our way to Cromwell/Wanaka, where we spent almost a week over Christmas and didn't do much except eating, like pretty much everyone during this time of year. Just before New Year's Eve, we were in Queenstown and the surrounding area. Queenstown is purely a tourist town, and while the landscape is beautiful, it's crowded and expensive. Originally, I didn't want to come back here because I didn't like it at all the first time. Unfortunately, my car needed repairs, so I had to come back here towards the end of our trip, and that's when I realized that the job market here is really good right now. So, I decided to stay and slowly I'm starting to like it here.