Glenorchy

 Monday, March 3

Today was the craziest weather day, we didn't know what to expect!  It started off cloudy with a 90% chance of rain.  We actually only got a sprinkle the entire day, and the sun came out in the afternoon.  We've been really lucky this whole trip.

For our last day here, we didn't really have anything planned for the day.  We ALMOST took a Lord of the Rings tour to see some of the filming locations.  It would have been interesting to see how some of the locations were used, like this field that they turned into Isengard:

Imagecredit: https://www.getyourguide.com/queenstown-l498/glenorchy-half-day-4wd-lord-of-the-rings-tour-t171390/?ranking_uuid=12a9083c-919e-4d2c-91db-547e2fe08c94

But instead of spending $500 for the tour (a bit pricey for a half day tour!), we decided to drive ourselves to Glenorchy.  Frankie only had to tell Anton once that he was driving on the wrong side of the road.  That's the first time all trip, so he did really well!

Glenorchy is a small town (population 410, which we thought was VERY precise LOL), and it took 45 minutes to drive 47 kms, which tells you how hilly and bendy the road was.  But there is really great scenery along the way.  It is apparently one of the most scenic drives in New Zealand.

We started by trying to find the Isengard Lookout ourselves, just past Glenorchy.  But it doesn't quite match the picture above 😕

We explored a bit of the town, including the famous Glenorchy Red Shed at the Glenorchy Wharf.  It's just a boat shed:

They like hedges here in New Zealand:

Mrs. Woolly's General Store was very interesting.  We finally found the Secret Garden that the sign kept teasing:

We found a great website https://newzealandwanderer.com/glenorchy-to-queenstown/#:~:text=How%20long%20should%20I%20spend,create%20a%20memorable%20day%20trip.  that listed stops or viewpoints or hikes between Glenorchy to Queenstown, so we picked some of those.  Of course, we could only do a few of them.  The road is literally called the Glenorchy-Queenstown Road.

We tried to find Little Paradise Wharf.  But instead we found a place that called itself Wild Dream Garden that wanted to charge us $20 each to walk around their personal garden.

Bennett's Bluff Lookout was a pretty major tourist spot:

We did a half hour loop hike at Bob's Cove Track:

A quick stop at Wilson Bay for a picture:

To get to Moke Lake, it required leaving the Glenorchy-Queenstown Road.  Now we were out in the middle of nowhere.  It was about a 7.5 km drive which started off  narrow and paved, and then became gravel with cattle grates (private land).

There is a 2 hour loop that goes around the lake which we thought we might do, but here is where it started to rain and the trail seemed a bit iffy.  So we only did a few sections of it.  Enough to get some spectacular scenery shots.  This is so iconic New Zealand!

We were done with the Glenorchy-Queenstown Road, so we took a side trip north to the historic goldmine town of Arrowtown, population 2930.  What a cute little town!  In 1862, Maori Jack found gold in the Arrow River, and thousands of people flocked here for the goldrush.  We were told it was the second largest in the world after the Klondike.  The government invited Chinese workers here in 1865, and some of their homes are still standing.

Frankie browsed the small public library and noticed she had read quite a few of the books.  But no Freida McFadden, so she recommended the author to the librarian.

We found a nice restaurant and shared a pizza on an outdoor patio:

We were quite impressed with the public toilets.  A voice told us exactly what to do:  Push button to enter.  Push button to close door and lock.  Your maximum use time is 10 minutes.  Toilet will flush when you wash your hands.  Soap, wash, hand dryer.  Push button to unlock door and exit.

Yeah, okay, we are easily amused...

Back to the hotel to shower and pack.  We figure roughly 30 hours door to door????

Milford Sound

 Sunday, March 2

We really wanted to see Milford Sound, but the drive EACH WAY is 4.5 hours and seemed a bit much to do in one day.  

Our solution?  We splurged and booked an excursion with Milford Sound Scenic Flights that included a flight and a cruise once we got there.  However, yesterday we got a call that our 8 am flight for today had been cancelled due to weather conditions. But they had a 10 am if we wanted?  We said okay but were told to call again this morning to check weather conditions.  So it was a lot of will we or won't we?

They ended up calling us this morning to say that the flight was still on at 10 am if we wanted, but they could not land or do the cruise. So they would refund part of our payment.  Okay then. At 9:15 am, they picked us up at our hotel, which was nice. 

The plane was a 13 passenger Cessna Grand Caravan.  Everyone had a window seat!!!

The flight was a bit over an hour long, with a VERY young pilot who has been flying for one year.  We went through 3 mountain ranges and it got quite bumpy in places.  At times we had to reach up to grab our stomachs...

But it was truly stunning scenery:

We had views over Glenorchy, where we are hoping to go tomorrow:

We could see the Milford Sound airport below us:

By the way, Milford Sound isn't actually a "sound"; it's a fjord.  It rains 184 out of 365 days, with 6412 mm of rain per year, making it one of the wettest inhabited places on earth.  There may be more rain here in one day than some countries get in an entire year!  Despite all that, it is New Zealand's most visited tourist attraction. Rudyard Kipling called Milford Sound the "8th Wonder of the World".

Mitre Peak is the most photographed mountain in the southern hemisphere.  It rises 1690 m (5544 ft) straight out of the water.

Because we didn't get to land, the pilot did a special side trip to see this waterfall:

He literally flew right between 2 mountains and did a very tight turn in front of another mountain.  Anton's favourite part was that as he was doing this, the pilot was reaching over and taking photos:

We flew back over the Southern Alps, he flew right over a road and so close to the rugby game that we could have plucked up a few players.  We were dropped off at our hotel around noon.  Time to recover from the bumpy ride.  No more small plane scenic flights for us!

This gave us the afternoon to explore Queenstown a bit.  Yesterday we had cancelled our 5 pm evening cruise for today because the weather looked horrible.  Now today the weather was nice and we regretted it (that's how changeable weather here is!).  When we checked, the evening cruise was no longer available, but Frankie found a last minute booking on the lunch cruise that left at 1 pm.  Confusing?  It all worked out!

Lunch plans: We made our way to Steamer Wharf where we boarded the TSS Earnslaw Cruise at 1 pm.  The TSS Earnslaw is a vintage steamship, launched in 1912 (the same year as the Titanic).  She was called the Lady of the Lake.  She was almost scrapped in 1968, but was rescued by RealNZ and restored to its original condition .  The TSS Earnslaw was featured in one of the Indiana Jones movies, but they pretended it was an Amazon River Boat.  We were even allowed into the engine room to watch the coal-stokers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQmei010Gpo

The cruise started at the Steamer Wharf and went 45 mins across Lake Whakatipu to Walter Peak Farm.

This is Walter Peak High Country Farm.  It was originally constructed in 1902 but had to be rebuilt after an accidental fire in 1977.  It is 63,000 acres of land, has 20,000 sheep and 1000 cattle.

At the farm, we had a buffet lunch (TONS of gluten free options!),.  We stuffed ourselves good because we knew we would not be eating supper.  We got a great seat outside:

Afterwards we visited the wonderful gardens.  It was odd to see cosmos and dahlias blooming at the same time as sedum:

Then there was a sheep-sheering demonstration, we saw one like this in Patagonia last year:

Our favourite part was when he demonstrated how Kim the sheep-herding dog rounded up half a dozen sheep from way up the hillside, in one minute flat!  This kind of shepherding dog costs between $10 -15 thousand at auction.  They are preferred because they herd by stance rather than barking.

The TSS Earnslaw took us back to the Steamer Wharf, another 45 minutes.  The whole excursion lasted 4 hours.

Afterwards, we took our time and browsed some shops and bought a few souvenirs.  Mom - we got you something, we hope you like it!

Another lazy evening at the hotel.

Mt Cook to Queenstown

Saturday, March 1

Another driving day!

Even though it was only a 3 hour drive, we took 7 hours because of stops.

We left in bright sunny weather at 9:15 am.  We noticed how Lake Pukaki is receding:

We stopped at the NZ Alpine Lavender Farm, one of the largest organic lavender farms in the southern hemisphere. Anton was tickled pink to get lavender ice cream sprinkled with bee pollen.  Really!  

Although the best time to view the fields would be December and January, we still thought the lavender fields looked pretty.  They had muskoka chairs placed in the middle of the fields for us to sit and relax:

Check out the size of these pine cones!

We made our way to Twizel (long i sound), a small town of 2000 people, about 45 minutes from Mt Cook.  There is a small airport here that was created to facilitate travel to Mt Cook.  Aviator Sir Harry Wigley planted a stake in the ground, drove straight one mile in his Chevvy Bel-Air, and planted another stake. We wouldn't have recognized this to be an airport:

imagecredit: https://www.airportpukaki.co.nz/about/history

Frankie had planned a ride in a biplane to surprise Anton, but cancelling this pretty much paid for her new cell phone.  So we watched another couple take off for a ride instead:

Half an hour after Twizel, we stopped at the tiny town of Omarama (meaning "place of light"), population 350.  We passed on the Wrinkly Rams Cafe because it had nothing that Frankie could eat, and absolutely no one could tell us where the community market was, so we moved on.

We stopped for a view of the Omarama Clay Cliffs, which were formed by layers of silt and gravel deposited by either ancient glaciers or lakes.  Then the layers were lifted up by an active fault, and this has formed very interesting geological formations.  Frankie wanted to drive to them, but Anton said the viewpoint was good enough:

About half an hour past Omarama, we went through the Lindis Pass.  It is one of New Zealand's highest roads at 971 meters (3,186 ft).  It is a beautiful mountain pass covered in tussock grass.  The road is 60 km long through this section.

This is the official lookout at the highest point, 971 m (3,186 ft):

We tried a side trail, but it was straight up a hill, and we turned around half way:

We decided the official viewpoint was safer!

Half an hour after the Lindis viewpoint, we stopped at the village of Tarras, population 606.  There are no Tim Hortons, but everywhere in NZ you can find public washrooms like this one:  

Tarras is famous as being the home of Shrek, a merino sheep who evaded shearing for 6 years.  He was eventually found in a nearby cave, and his shearing was broadcast on national television (he had become that well-known!).  By then his wool weighed 60 pounds.

imagecredit: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/511733/farmer-remembers-the-pivotal-moment-godlike-creature-shrek-the-sheep-was-found

We stopped to see Roaring Meg:

Just outside of Queenstown, we stopped at the Kawarau Bungy Center to see if we could see any brave/crazy ???? bungy jumpers.  This was the first commercial bungy operation in the world.  Here you can jump off the 43 meter Kawarau Suspension Bridge that was built in 1880, and it will only cost you $300 per jump.  We were happy enough to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6lYVN4DbkTY

Then our last 25 minutes of driving, and we were finally at our Queenstown hotel!  This is a much larger city, population 27,700.  But it does not even come in on the list of New Zealand's top 20 cities in size.  The city is built around a bay.  This is the view from our hotel room (on a busy road):

We walked into the city, downhill, which took about 20 minutes, and just walked around.  This is an actual roundabout, it's just a circle painted on the road.  We've seen a few of these:

It felt different than Auckland or Wellington.  More tourist based, kind of like Banff.  We found the famous Fergburger, and were lucky enough to only have a few people in line ahead of us.  We found a spot outside on a bench to enjoy, they were big and messy!  

Anton had fun feeding the sparrows:

This is what the line looked like by the time we were done eating:

We walked around and explored the town, then walked down by the wharf and along the beach

and through the Queenstown Gardens: