This morning I woke up to a light rain, and decided I hit the road straight away back to Queenstown. The drive was surprisingly fast and smooth, funny how a road always seems shorter when you travel it the second time.

I was in Queenstown around 1pm, checked in, and would have had enough time to see a bit more… However, I’m kind of done with the lakes and the mountains and the cruises, it’s been great, it can’t get better.

So I just got onto the gondola and got lifted up the mountain, with a stunning view over Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu.

It is a perfect autumn day, sunshine, warm.. everyone is relaxed and enjoying those last days.

The rest of the day I’ll just spend wrapping up: catching up on my emails and messages, checking in for the flight, doing some much needed research on Japan, maybe even find a place to stay in Tel Aviv. My list is long.

It was a great tour. It was ok to drive, not too much day by day, but in total, it was a lot. I guess I drove around 2500 kilometers in the past 10 days. I am tired, by accumulation.

If I do it again, and I probably will with my sisters, then I would spend much more time in each location. It’s too much to drive on and on and on…

So I can’t really say I am relaxed and ready for the big city again. I feel like I need a holiday, as weird as that may sound. I’m looking forward to Tokyo, but also to staying put for a while. I have two weeks, I actually rather would like to make them three…

I’m not so keen on traveling like mad again by train after that. I still have to plan it, but I guess I will only do a few hubs after Tokyo: Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima…