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Howdy all.....I’ll pick where I left of which was leaving Wanaka-ka-ka in Buzz and heading Queenstown, NZ’s adventure capital.
Queenstown sits on the shores of the majestic lightning bolt shaped Lake Wakatipu in Central Otago and is about a 50 minute drive from Wanaka if you take the hilly but direct route through the Cardona Valley like we did.
After parking up at the Creeksyde Top 10 Holiday Park (apparently the world’s first Green Globe environmentally certified holiday park!), we took the gondola up to Bob’s Peak where we enjoyed the classic postcard views over the town, The Remarkables mountain range and across Lake Wakatipu.
The Remarkables featured quite regularly as a backdrop in the Lord of The Rings films and they are one of only two ranges on the planet that run directly north to south - I think the other one is The Rocky’s but I’m not 100% sure.
After a spot of lunch up there, we went to try the Luge track but Jo-Ann was disappointed to find out that pregnant women need not apply so I got to go twice! It was a bit faster than I expected and got better on
the second run when my confidence was a bit higher to go a bit easier on the brakes and go for it round the corners - just like your typical Kiwi driver on the roads except I was sober.
Our first day in QT was also our 3rd wedding anniversary so I booked us a table at The Bunker - let’s face, that was the closest I was ever going to get to a golf course. The meal was fantastic as was the large $20 glass of finest Central Otago Pinot Noir that I nursed for 2 hours!
The main highlight from the next day was a trip TTS Earnslaw - TSS stands for Twin Screw Steamer and the Earnslaw was built in 1912 in Dunedin by John McGregor & Co. Today it carries keen tourists on trips across the Lake to the Walter Peak Country Station, which was a massive sheep station in its heyday. It was a great wee trip and even Jo-Ann enjoyed it although Al Gore might not have been too impressed by the ship’s contribution to ozone layer hole - a touch dirty that smoke.
The following day we took Buzz for
a trip to Glenorchy, which is described on the official website as “a small rustic frontier village in the heart of the Westland World Heritage National Park”. It is known as the Gateway to Paradise and also to the famous Routeburn, Greenstone, Caples, Rees and Dart Valley walking tracks. Again, it was Lord of The Rings-tastic providing the backdrop to Isengard amongst other things.
It was pretty windy up that end of the Lake that day and that certainly took the edge off the temperature when shelter was unavailable. It was a 45 minute drive there along the shores of Lake Wakatipu with some great photo opps that I was only too glad to take advantage of.
We cooked up some more bacon rolls there and then had a wee walk alongside the golf course and worked out how we could get up high enough to get that dream photo of Glenorchy and the surrounding mountains but we decided it was way too much effort. The walk was great and we happened upon some people on a horse trekking tour with Dart Safaris, which Ian Johnston and his wife did on their honeymoon last year. Wee thought about
these kind of excursions but soon worked out that we could buy a decent buggy for the baby with the price and decided to pass!
We left QT the next day and drove to Te Anau for our Milford Sound trip (see next blog) but returned for another night after that. On the second visit, we went to the Kelvin Heights Safari Park, which was brilliant. You get a bucket with some tit-bits in it and basically drive around looking for animals to feed - there were bison, donkeys, deer and some other ones that I don’t recall. Feeding them was wired if a little yucky when they slavered all over your hand and pooed next to you - but with a baby well on the way, we’d better get used to that kind of thing.
As well as the hungry animals, the views were fantastic and it was a Lord of The Rings location treasure trove! The best ones were the rock where Aragorn was ragged over seemingly to his death by those nasty creatures and the lake that the villagers trudged around on their way to Helm’s Deep - both in the Two Towers. There was
also the hill that those nasty creatures that got Aragorn charged over into view and the place where Gimli fell of his horse. Neither quite as easily visualised as the other two but I decided to re-enact the horse falling off scene and Jo-Ann took the photos - too embarrassing for this blog though.
The day we left for the last time, we spent a couple of hours in nearby Arrowtown, a former gold rush town at the confluence of the Arrow River and Bush Creek. We hired a pan and trowel each and panned for gold in the Arrow River which was hard work on the knees and the back and must have been hellish for the gold rushers whose livelihoods depended on striking it lucky. We both found the tiniest of slithers and I kept mine for posterity! Probably lost it already.....
We also found the section of the Arrow River where they filmed the scene where Arwen (Liv Tyler) summonbed up a torrent of water to wash away the approaching Wringraiths in the first film. We’d been there on our honeymoon but couldn’t resist another visit.
As you can see, I went photo crazy
down there and have sneaked in a couple of snaps of the final LoTR scene we found which was along a 20km dirt track to Mount Somers where they built the set for Edoras. It was an amazing sight when we got there but worries over the possible damage being done to Buzz by the dirt track and our lack of fuel meant I got to take 2 photos and we were off! I’d love to go back and have a proper look one day - it was pretty spectacular. This was an hour or so from Geraldine where we stopped on the way back to Christchurch the next day.
Even though we didn't indulge in any of Queenstown's legendary adventure activites like bungy jumping, white water rafting, skydiving, or jet boating (budget and pregnancy being the main reasons!) we still had a blast. We agreed we'd love to come back again but this time in the winter - seeing those mountians caked with snow and reflecting on that Lake would be very special indeed.
OK, that’s it for now but tune in soon for South Island Tour Pt 3 - Te Anau & Milford Sound!
Cheers
all.....hope you’re all well and keeping safe. Stay in touch!
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