This was my first full day here in this beautiful town. My intention coming here, as well as to appreciate so much beauty, and the general ambiance of peace, was to find some clarity by meditating daily. This has not come to pass, but then I suppose that just being here, and in some way by being taken over by nature, which it is impossible to avoid in Queenstown, and the surrounds, is a meditation in itself.
Today I took the bus to Arrowtown, where I had visited 30years ago, and it seemed different to how I remembered it, and probably was, though of course the main buildings would be the same.
The museum with the history/artefacts are very interesting, with rooms as they would have been, transporting one back. Lunch was taken in a French restaurant which added to the pleasure of the day, to be able to hear the French language.
The more one is here, the more the mode de vie seems to resonate with me, being so sensitive to beauty as one is, and a gentle beauty that one finds around Queenstown. Even such things as the lack of poisonous creatures, for example snakes and spiders make it such a different energy to Australia.
One of course cannot but contrast the hell that the poor people are going through in NSW, particularly in the Blue Mountains, where so much property has been lost, and the relative fraicheur here where the temperature was only about 16 today and now about 9 with heavy rain this afternoon, and the other side of the Tasman with its completely different weather and it seems still a few more days before a cooler regime is in place around Sydney.
But returning to the South Island of New Zealand. After Arrowtown to return to the centre of Queenstown and take the gondola up to Skyline for the extraordinary view.
Spent a couple of hours up there absorbing the view and writing. Then a leisurely walk back to the apartment.
When one is enjoying a holiday it is unfortunate how quickly the time goes, whereas the drudgery of work is interminable.
Voyages de Guillaume 