Saturday 19th February

A slightly grey day but even as we had breakfast at Gusto the cloud base started to lift.

A fascinating detail about the road that we drove along yesterday is that there was no road from Haast to Wanaka until 1965.  It was constructed from both ends and the gorge at the Gates of Haast was the final challenge.  This was an unsealed road until 1995 when the final piece had its tar coating. 

We left Wanaka at about 10am after picking up petrol from the BP station.  We had a choice of over-priced petrol stations but decided to help keep Joe’s Dad in a job!!

There are two roads to Queenstown, the one that goes through Cardrona, which is very steep and has lots of tight bends but on a clear day affords spectacular views and the low road through Queensbury that passes Mount Pisa which is very pretty even on a grey day, according to the friendly receptionist at the Wanaka Hotel. Hardly surprisingly Ian chose the high road. 

The panoramic view from the summit of Crown Range Road would have been spectacular if it had not been for the cloud base.  We even took videos of the cloud rising which gave occasional glimpses of the view.  The road down had more than a few hairpins.

We stopped at Arrowtown to become tourists.  Arrowtown was a town created during the gold rush and at its height had a population of 7000+.  Nowadays the population is about 1200 although during the summer with the visitors and the day trippers from Queenstown the town has to cater for over 7000.  There are two distinct areas of Arrowtown, one is the original mining town with the small miners’ cottages and the avenue of Sycamore and Oak trees which gave shade to the homes, the other is the Chinese mining area.  Linda found this area extremely sad as the Chinese suffered great racial hatred, earned half what their white counterparts earned and mostly lived without their families who they had left behind in Canton.  Occasionally whole families clubbed together to send one family member out to New Zealand in the hope that they could send money back to the family.  In 1902 the bodies of over 500 Chinese miners were exhumed and sent back for burial in China, unfortunately the boat sank on the way back and all the bodies were lost.

In the main street of Arrowtown the souvenir shops sit quite happily alongside the town’s normal shops including the local furniture shop.

We stopped for a cup of tea in the old Postmaster’s house, where we were served real English Breakfast LEAF tea in a teapot with china cups and saucers.   Delicious!
The gentleman serving us said that as we were English we had to drink our tea with a little finger crooked!!!

Leaving Arrowtown we diverted via Coronet’s Peak, where we had a spectacular view onto the plain below and on to Arthur’s Point.  The houses on this area look far more affluent than around the Haast area, which is testament to the money that is flooding into the area from the tourists and the New Zealanders who holiday here.  We drove past a new estate with private roads where obviously the post man does not deliver the post to the individual houses as there was a long line of post boxes, some of which were highly original, including one made out of a Caterpillar engine radiator.

 

 

 

In Arthur’s Point we stopped to watch the people come down the river on jetboats, they seemed to be enjoying it. 

We drove into Queenstown and called at the supermarket to buy our lunch of cereal bars and bananas.  Then it was onto the Esplanade to eat our lunch and to admire a huge tree.

After lunch we drove along the side of the lake to Bob’s Cove to watch the Seich phenomena of the lake where every 5 minutes the lake’s surface drops by 150mm.  Unfortunately when we were at the observation area there was a pleasure cruiser close to the beach causing some ripples on the water and then a beautiful collie came to play, both of which prevented us from observing the Seich.

We had intended driving up to Glenorchy but the light started to fade and as it was over 40km along the side of the lake we decided not to go.   Glenorchy was a location area for Lord of the Rings .  The area has also become The Canadian Rockies and The Alps, as well as Middle Earth and Narnia.

We decided to book into the hotel early. The Rees Hotel and Apartments is amazing with about 150 rooms.  We had a superb view over the lake in a one bed roomed luxury apartment with private balcony.