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Published: March 27th 2011
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I heard rain pattering on the campervan last night. That’s the first time I have heard the rain since we have been in the camper
We oversleep as the alarm is only set for weekdays. It is still raining quite heavily in the morning. We have a quick breakfast and set off, it is misty and we cannot see the mountaintops. It is good that we got in the helicopter flight across the glaciers yesterday, as it would be impossible today.
Possums –Throughout the drive in New Zealand you can’t help but notice the amount of apparently dead Possums at the side of the road. You would think that with this fatality rate they would be an endangered species, but apparently not (there are still around 70 million of them!!). I can only think that the phrase; “playing possum” comes into play and they are only pretending to be dead, in which case the flat ones are really convincing!!
We head south getting the occasional glimpse of the Tasman Sea as we near the coast. As we approach Haast the weather begins to improve and the mist lifts. We go through the Haast Pass and the mountains are visible,
but still have some cloud hanging around. As we get nearer to Lake Wanaka the mountains have less vegetation and are rockier with crags, and are very much like the Cairngorms back in Scotland. The views of Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea are breathtaking. The real difference in the comparison with Scotland is the colour of the lakes. Here they are a greenie blue, whereas in Scotland with the peat and possibly pollution? They tend to be dark brown.
Lake Hawea was my favourite as we turned a corner; there it was with the mountains in the background and the blue lake.
We then went through the Kawarau Gorge, which was quite impressive. As we get to within 50-60 km of Queenstown we come upon row and rows of vines and the associated vineyards. I am surprised to see these as I would have though that the climate would not be conducive to growing grapes this far south – but apparently not.
Flies – I thought that we had left all the insect pests behind us, what with the mosquitoes in Singapore and the inquisitive flies of Ayres Rock. But no, yesterday sitting outside in Franz Josef I
had got bitten by flies. Today I stopped to take a photograph, and as I was lining up the shot I felt bites on my legs and looked down to see my legs covered in flies. By the end of the day both Di and me are covered in itchy bites – the perpetrator is the vicious Sand Fly!!.
We eventually arrive at the campsite in Queenstown having travelled about 350 km in about 7 hours. We checked into the campsite for 2 nights, although it will probably be 3. Tomorrow will be a day of rest, and if the weather is good on Monday we will take a full day excursion to Millford Sound which will be a full 12 hour day of coach ride and boat ride. I had heard that Queenstown was possibly the Adrenaline Capitol of the world with people bungee jumping off anything of an appreciable height. No sooner had we parked up, that there were two Para gliders floating down over the campsite!
The campsite is a bit crowded and there is not an awful lot of room between vans, but it is really handy for the town centre, which is just
5 mins away.
We have a walk into town. Queenstown is really lively with lots of bars and restaurants, and young buskers. We stopped for a drink at a pub, before going for dinner at a restaurant called Tatlers – the meal was excellent. We had a nightcap at a pub on the way home.
Early night it’s been a long day – day of rest tomorrow, and I have been promised a lie-in!!
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