Goodbye Backroads....

Monday, March 6.
 We meet some of the others and our team leaders for an early7 am morning, easy stroll through the nearby Botanical garden for farewells. Dirk and Brandon, the leaders have been really great and we will miss them. We've had some nice, personal times with them, quite often riding in the front - they have been calling us their co-pilots, and I feel like we are leaving family members! Dirk tells me we're are his favourite Canadians and I go, yeah right, like there was so much competition! He laughs, trying to come up with something else, but  it doesn't work!

daybreak Queenstown

Janet and I have a nice, leisurely breakfast at the hotel and go back up to pack up, leave our bags with the concierge for later and go out for a last wander around Queenstown. We have a taxi booked to take us to Arrowtown for noon.

sign in Botanical Gardens!

Kiwi culture: 'sweet as' means, yes, I agree with everything/I confirm that what you are proposing is good by me - tee shirts with this on are everywhere - never actually heard a kiwi say it, but again, in the service industry, we seem to be running across more transplantees than native kiwis! Last night in the hotel, a porter near the elevator said 'bonjour madame' to me (it is Sofitel and they do the French thing) so I broke out my high school French and said ' bonsoir, je suis Canadienne. Comment allez vous?' And he got all flustered and blurted out, 'uh, I'm from Argentina,' and beat a hasty retreat!
Arrive at Rose Cottage, via taxi, about a 15 minute ride at $80 NZ. We have the entire cottage to ourselves, full kitchen, dining room/living room, 1 bathroom, 3 bedrooms in a lovely setting with outside deck. An older place, but well equipped, quiet and very pleasant. ($220 per night) kind of in the middle of nowhere, residential, large lot/semi-rural area. I can tell we are not getting delivery pizza for supper tonight!
We walk into town, about a kilometre and find a quaint, old fashioned village setting, with several shops selling authentic New Zealand goods, mainly merino knitwear, about $350 NZ for a nice, plain cardigan of merino wool/possum. There is a brand 'icebreaker merino' - supposed to 'keep you warm in the cold and cool in the heat; breathes to prevent overheating; non-itching and naturally door resistant; machine washable and dries fast. It is quite valuable! The team leaders on the trip have been touting it as the be-all in sportswear, especially as an under-layer. Janet finds a short-sleeved Tshirt in teal, her colour, for $90 and I spring $35 for a pair of anatomical-fit running socks! (There is a left

and a right!)I did check with the clerk that I could wear them even if I wasn't running and she very seriously assured me that she thought that would be fine. She was from Germany. I have paid almost $20 in the past for the Darn Tough socks out of Vermont and really do love them, so these better be good! I plan to wear them for the rest of the trip without washing to test them out! ;-)

About 5:30 pm we have dinner at 'Slow Cuts'. It's nice enough to sit outside and enjoy the still-beautiful day! I have the 1/4 chicken combo ($12 - what a deal! There was a choice of 2 salads and I asked for both and didn't feel bad eating it all!)
Back home, a bit of laundry - we have one of those electric towel-warming bars that we have come to think of as laundry-drying racks, a bit or reading and early to bed! I have my own room tonight!
Fitbit,12.5 km; MA,13 km