New Zealand Diary 13 July 2002
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Haast was created as a workers town for the people creating the Haast Pass. The road was started in 1929, but not finished until 1965 due to all sorts of problems with its construction. The town itself is centred around the hotel (pub) and in fact there seems to be little else there.

New Zealand has an obsession with single-lane bridges. They're everywhere. It seems strange at first to be driving over some of the deep gorges on such a narrow causeway, but I soon got used to it. I think that it was easier because, a) I wasn't driving; and b) being in a large bus meant that everything else was likely to get out of way!

I arrived in Queenstown just in time for the annual winter festival. I'm going to be in town for a few days which will hopefully be enough time to get in a bit of skiing. One thing that I will not be doing is tying a piece of elastic round my ankles and hurling myself from a perfectly good bridge, ledge or any other structure.

The winter festival was started by a cute fireworks display and some bands playing. Some of the guys from the bus then joined in with the rest of the town and continued the celebrations on into the morning...

To tomorrow

Created by Dan Leigh 13/07/02