We started our second day in Queenstown with an off road safari tour that included several sites where scenes from the Lord of the Rings were filmed. Never having seen the Lord of the Rings movies, Marsha and I really didn't know what they were talking about, but it was fun anyway. They had photos from the movie that they showed us at each film location. We also had morning tea while we panned for gold in a mountain stream.
After the safari tour, we walked around the mall and downtown. We stopped in at Pog Mahone's Irish pub for a brew. It was relaxing to sit outside and watch the activity in the harbour and beach areas.
After hanging around town for a while, we walked back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. Our transportation to dinner was the TSS (Twin Screw Steamer) Earnslaw. Launched in the same year as the Titanic, the TSS Earnslaw's maiden voyage was on 18 October 1912. It's still about 95% original with its twin coal-fired triple-expansion, jet-condensing, vertically inclined engines. I went down into the engine room and saw the poor guy shoveling coal into the furnace. I didn't stay very long. It was hot down there!
The Earnslaw worked with her sister ships, the paddle steamers Antrim and Mountaineer and the screw steamer Ben Lomond, transporting sheep, cattle and passengers to the surrounding high country stations. In 1968, she was very nearly scrapped but was fortunately rescued. She was leased by Fiordland Travel (now Real Journeys) in 1969, and later purchased by the same company in 1982. She was taken out of service for a huge makeover in 1984. Her 12 meter high funnel was painted bright red, with the hull a snow white, and her kauri timber decks glassed in.
It took us about thirty minutes to cross the lake and dock at the Walter Peak High Country Farm where we had a gourmet BBQ dinner. The farm is an actual working sheep farm, but the dinner was held in a restaurant, the likes of which I have never seen on a farm!
The dinner was great! Afterward, we walked around the farm and got a little presentation on sheep sheering. The cruise back to Queenstown was very relaxing.
