We were woken up this morning by the wooshing sound of a hot air balloon. That never fails to get Oscar excited so there was no sleeping in after that. The air this morning is still, but a bit grey and moody, and a bit on the chilly side.
There is a lovely path around the lake here (Lake Hayes) so we took the dogs for a walk before heading back into Arrowtown to have a look at the museum. It was as good as it was reputed to be. It had lots of displays, lots of information about local people, local industries (not just gold mining), and the local way of life.
Once we had a good look we found a great coffee and shared our table with a teacher from Clyde. We got into a discussion about how much nicer we felt Clyde was compared to Arrowtown. It was lovely that she was so passionate about her area.
Having refreshed ourselves we headed to the road that goes over the Crown Range. We stopped at the bottom of the hill and picked up a young hitchhiker from Dublin, called Darragh. She was pleasant company, and had been travelling for three years now.
The views from the top of the Crown Range were amazing and we had a clear view of the planes coming in to Queenstown airport, and we could see the runway in the distance, although almost impossible to pick up on camera. I suspect this area would be very windy most of the time, so we were glad we had another still day.
We had been given warnings about foreign drivers over this range, but we found that other drivers were well behaved and we had no concerns. The road was steep and windy, but the road itself wasn’t really a problem either.
We eventually ended up at Cardrona for lunch. We did a drive by of our friends Kristine and Gary’s places, before pulling up in front of the pub. We were lucky we arrived when we did because the pub was to be closed at 3pm for a wedding.
The pub itself is delightful and we can see why Kristine and Gary like it so much. We need to tell them we put our coffee’s on their tab! It was warm and sunny so we took our drinks outside and enjoyed the ambience. The proprietors obviously take great pride and care in the gardens and the building itself.
Once we were refreshed, we headed on down the road to Wanaka where we delivered Darragh, and we then parked on the water front to give the dogs some exercise. They really love chasing sticks into the lake. We were amazed at how low the lake was compared to the last time we were here.
Bruce and I also decided to shout ourselves a gelato and the anticipation of it was as good as the reality. While I was waiting for it, the server was explaining the differences between ice-cream and gelato. Icecream is made with cream which is beaten so it has a lot of air in it. Gelato is made with milk, unbeaten, so it does not contain air. Gelato would have more ice crystals though. Nevertheless, it was delicious.
Before long we were on our way back to Tekapo. We had promised ourselves a soak in the hot pools here which we did not get to have last time we were here. We like the NZMCA Park at Tekapo. It is pretty big, so there is no competition for a spot. It is right by the lake and right next door to the dog park, so a winner all round. It was a big day of travelling, but the hot pools did not disappoint. I had been pretty sore today so the hot water was a real help. We must have spent at least an hour here before heading to set up camp at the NZMCA Park. We are expecting wet weather so we wanted to be all sorted before it came.
It was amazing looking at the cloud being stopped by the mountains. You could see it just lapping the tops of the ranges and every now and then seeping down into a valley like a thick blanket. Fascinating.
Once again, the lake was a lot lower than at our previous visit.
It didn’t take long to settle in, and start our plans on our trek further up the island. Pity the holiday has to end soon.
Away From Home NZ 