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Published: April 26th 2011
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After such a disappointing day driving along Milford sound we headed off towards Queenstown with a little more hope. As we got closer to Queenstown we were driving around the edge of the lake which was just fantastic scenery which changed with every turn in the road. Unfortunately, yet again, the photos don’t do it justice!! Mind you I don’t think that any of the photos of the scenery will do it justice as its just so vast that our little camera can’t capture it all!!
We arrived in Queenstown and it was quite a shock from the little towns we’ve recently encountered! We sat by Lake Wakatipu, which is the lake at the edge of Queenstown, for a little while and then wandered around town. Its definitely a party town with loads of bars and activity shops for all the adrenalin stuff going on around the place including jet boating, bungee jumping and sky diving. It feels a bit like a university town- its just missing the Uni!! We then walked around the gardens next to the lake. This seemed a world away from the hustle of the town, with peaceful walks next to the lakes edge and through
light forests. Eventually we had to go back to the van as we only had limited parking. It was going to be expensive to stay at one of the local places so we headed to one of the DOC sites that was close by so we picked up some supplies and headed around the edge of the lake to the camp site. Again it was off down a gravel track for about 11 km but we are getting quite used to driving on narrow dirt roads!! Occasionally we ask ourselves whether driving down these roads will be worth the effort as its really slow going and takes ages to reach where we are going but this was totally worth it!! We were looking for Moke Lake and had been travelling for around half hour and there was still no sign of a lake or a river in fact, we were driving at the base of a steep valley but thought we’d keep on going tll we found it!! Then we came across a small lake and were getting a little disappointed until we saw the name of the Lake!! So we carried on past this lake and soon came around
the corner to Moke Lake, which was just amazing!! It was totally serene and isolated from the outside world. It was quite late when we arrived but we sat on the banks of the lake for a few drinks before the nasty black flies forced us back into the van! The following morning we went for a walk around the lake which had some great views and scenery across the lake.
Next we headed to Arrowtown. Its an old gold mining town that was rebuilt the way it was before a fire destroyed it. It’s a very quaint town with some lovely buildings and a very old worldy feel. We wandered around the Chinese village remains which was quite cool as the ruins gave a real feel of the way they lived during the gold rush period here. We didn’t stop very long and headed towards Wanaka. There are two routes to get there and Dad and Sandra had told us that the route over the Crown Range Road was a better drive than the main highway. So we took the turn off and headed up, and up and up and up. The road weaved around the hill side
and we weren’t sure how high we were but were quite impressed to be higher than an aeroplane that was coming in to land!! We stopped at the top and the view was just incredible - it really felt like you were on top of the world! We later found out that the height of the Crown Range Road reaches 1076m! Probably not as high as we have been but we seemed to get there quicker!! We weaved around the hillside on the way back down and then suddenly arrived at Lake Wanaka!! It was a really long lake but unfortunately it was a really windy day and not that good for a picnic by the lake so we walked around town and picked up a few supplies before heading off to a nearby DOC site to bunk down for the night. The rain didn’t let up all night and due to the wind blowing across the lake we didn’t sleep very well. So instead of heading back towards Wanaka we headed onwards towards Haast as there wasn’t a lot we could do at the Lake on a wet and windy day!!
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