by pennifold 27 Jun 2021

Hi Cuties, well, what an adventure we've been on. You won't believe it - we are stuck here in Queenstown!

I'm not sure if many of you know but there has been a Covid outbreak in Sydney and our premier has shut down the Australian/New Zealand travel bubble!!! So that means no air travel between the two countries.

We supposedly had a flight out of Queenstown this afternoon at 3.30, but when we go to the airport at 1.00 there was absolute chaos! No one there could help us, so we decided to come back into Queenstown and stay at another hotel. We were really peeved as we had received no email to let us know that the flight had been cancelled. Of course we then had to cancel our hire car that we had booked to go get Mum and her dog Miss Lily at my sister's holiday home in Holbrook via Goulburn where tonight we were going to stay at a motel. So we had to cancel that too!
My poor sister Jewls - her partner Charles is in the Tumby Bay hospital in respite whilst Jewls is looking after Mum. Apparently he has had some kidney troubles and will have to stay another week. She was originally going to be getting him this coming Saturday. So she is going to bring Mum and Miss Lily back up to her home in Newcastle, either later this week or early next week.

Another hiccup is that we were all going to go out for dinner on Thursday night as it's Dana's 40th birthday. All restaurants, eating houses, etc. are closed. No more than 5 people in your home and Sydney is in complete lockdown till the 9th July - and it's school holidays in New South Wales!!!! There are a lot of unhappy people but we have to be diligent and if the virus is not stopped more deaths will occur.

So, we are happy in our new motel and will do more sightseeing for the next 3 days. It's a bit longer than we anticipated and of course more money, but you gotta learn to go with the flow! Love Chris

P.S. I said the the bus driver as we were leaving the airport to come back into town, I reckon it's a ploy to keep us all here to spend more money to keep the New Zealand economy going!! He he he!

1. Gorgeous Sequoia tree in city
2. View from the Gondola going up side of mountain
3. Trev and I at the top of the viewing deck
4. Raining outside our apartment at Pounamu
5. Trev and I at local pub (it was raining all day)
6. St. Moritz hotel on top of a hill near the city
7. I call it Bald mountain, as there is nothing on top but cloud.
8. Today there was snow on top of Bald Mountain!!

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Comments (12)

by arisann 17 Jul 2021

Just looking amazing photos of amazing time you have had. thanks for sharing! Beautiful!!

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by jrob Moderator 02 Jul 2021

I've been following your adventures and prayed for your safe return home, however, how horrible can it be to be delayed whilst on vacation? Just kidding, I know you need to be getting home to get your mum and take back over for Jewels. Traveling safety and not too many side adventures. :)