After the hard day, a slow start. Since Queenstown is such a busy popular place we decided to play safe and book somewhere to stay, settling for a double room in a backpacker unit. These units are houses providing budget accommodation for independant travellers – you get a room (shared if you’re on your own) and use of bathroom and kitchen.
We hadn’t cycled far before we reached Cromwell Goldfields – we skipped the tour and opted for coffee and cake. We really should have got going earlier as the headwind was strengthening and, still tired from yesterday, we found it hard. The road ran parallel to the Kawarau River – wonderful scenery again but the road was much busier than yesterday.
A bridge over the Kawarau, built in 1880 and made redundant in 1965, hosted the world’s first bungy jump. As such it’s a big tourist attraction – shaven-headed football-shirted men in their twenties queued up to pay lots of cash to impress their mates and girlfriends while we enjoyed the free entertainment.
We pressed on towards Queenstown. By now the road was very busy and the wind strong so we were glad to arrive, at around 18:00. We ate at the Vudu Café, treating ourselves while we had the opportunity. Queenstown is a lively place, a centre for white-water rafting, jetboating and bungy jumping, and a magnet for the backpacker tours – it took a while to get to sleep and we were glad to be spending only one night here.