Advertisement
Published: June 26th 2008
Sheep
Anywhere you drive in NZ there will be sheep. NZ Day 5
Who said traveling was the worst part of the trip?
Whoever it was was not driving through New Zealand. Sarah and I spent the entire day enjoying driving through the New Zealand countryside from Fox Glacier through the Haast Pass to Wanaka and a short jaunt to Arrowtown before ending up in Queenstown.
Actually the beginning of the day involved a lot more rain and a lot less views. But we still made the effort to stop and the good lookouts. For example Ship Creek beach (we couldn’t see the beach and we got drenched running to the shelter but we stayed long enough to read most of the signs telling us about the area. By the time we reached Haast though the sky was showing us a lot of bright blue and we were able to enjoy the scenic drive over the pass without any snow getting in our way.
The views everywhere were gorgeous. We took many stops by the side of the road just to get out, stretch our legs and snap as many pictures as we could without freezing our fingers off in the blistering winds on the
Rain view
yeah I think this was a beach but all we could see then was rain. side of the mountain.
We took a little detour when we reached Wanaka to stop and the Puzzle place that I remember going to when I was here with the folks over 10 years ago. We didn’t have much time so we didn’t go through the maze or the illusion rooms but we spent quite some time racking our brains on all the puzzles in the lobby. We also volunteered to help them get one of their building back upright after it blew over from the big westerly storm that blew through the area last night.
We took the shortcut road from Wanaka to Queenstown that showed us the most breathtaking views.
All around the Queenstown area was where most of the Lord of the Rings movies were shot. They are even marked on our road Atlas. I don’t know if we’ll have time to see them but that would be fun. So just imagine the vreathtaking views in that movie and that’s about the tenth of the beauty that we were seeing all along our drive.
Just before dusk we stopped in Arrowtown. It used to be a small mining town but now it just
Road View
Here is a typical view once the sky cleared. Can we say gorgeous? has some quaint little shops. It reminds me of Johnson City or a tiny version of Fredricksburg. There is also a little section of old buildings and plaques about the Chinese settlement that was there.
My favorite part however was the obstacle course at the primary school. It had some of the coolest apparatus that I had ever seen and it was all open to the public to come try out. Of course I stopped to get some photos and I had to try out some of the items to…make sure they worked…wink wink!
When we got to the hostel in Queenstown we rented some equipment and booked a shuttle ride to go skiing tomorrow. It should be exciting. Neither of us are very good skiers but I guess we can’t get out of amazing NZ without trying it. Queenstown is known for its extreme sports like bungy jumping, skydiving, canyon swinging, whitewater rafting, etc. But skiing is much more in my price range and I think it’s the better extreme sport to keep my body in good working order.
Well after skiing tomorrow we were not able to get a room in Queenstown because the Winterfestival
A true Vista
I think this was over Lake Wanaka starts here tomorrow so we are headed to Te Anau and then out on Milford Sound the day after that. It will all work out and be good fun. I have to get up early tomorrow for the shuttle to the slopes so adios and goodnight.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.16s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 56; dbt: 0.095s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
