Queenstown is passing cold in winter, but those freezing nights are compensated for by the exceeding glory of the days in a spell of quiet and calm over mountain and lake. It is worth getting up, even in winter, to see the jagged shadows of the eastern mountains projected in sharp outline on the steeply slanting mountains opposite, and to watch the dark adumbrations on the grey precipices chased lower and lower by the dawn, until the sun leaps flowing over the range top and the silent lake flashes into life.