we’ve left the chinese familiy and their chickens and hopped aboard of Flight JQ293 to Queenstown. As it was standby-ticket again we didn’t prebook hotel and car in advance, we did this just at the airport waiting for our flight. The girls at the check-in at Jetstar were superfriendly, and said “don’t worry about the overweight” – everything easy-going and laidback in here.
Unfortunately i did not get confirmation from billiger-mietwagen.de for the prebooked car one hour before takeoff, so i had to chat with the local rental company here in New Zealand about the status of my booking. As it was live-chat they wanted to get rid of me soon, but i was sticky enough to make them check in their reservation system.
“Computer says “No”” was the answer by them. They declined my reservation, did not have enough cars or somewhat.
Ok, then PLAN B – rent a car via Jucy directly. The booking was approved in about 20 minutes and they sent me a voucher for it. They rock!
I chose the “El Cheapo” car -class (granddaddies of hired cares with high mileage) with “Risktaker option” (basically no insurance) – you know, we’re going budget.
This is what i got:
a “pearl white” Nissan Tiida with fake rootwood and interior from the early 90ties, 280000 kilometers and 3 cupholders. A classic car for the elderly folks – i guess i buy myself a hat tomorrow to get an even more “authentic” feeling.
we’ve arrived at about 4pm at our hotel, so there was time to get around. We went to a little village called Arrowtown, had some nice steaks and beer there and did some walking. Arrowtown had its height at the time of Goldrush at the end of 19th century. There was a big chinese community there which tried to find gold in the nearby creeks. There is still an old “Chinatown” there where the settlers lived.
Oh yeah, i forgot our Hotel – its called “Swiss-Belresort Coronet Peak” – it’s a mashup of a 80’s swiss chalet and the hotel from the movie “Shining”. And it has a Bowling hall and Sauna/Spa.
