Friday 5th January 2018
After a great night’s sleep in the super luxurious Villa Motel in Invercargill, we made our way to the first cafe on the way to have our breakfast. We had some 187km to drive along winding roads and the plan was that we should take some 2.5 hours to get to Queenstown, in time for our excursion by the mountain gondola (cable car) ride for lunch and to admire the view over The Remarkables (mountain range) and Coronet Peak.
Our breakfast was at Lumsden, a sleepy little village of a few streets; also called Oreti (Māori) Lying in a gap in the surrounding hills, it is the location of a major junction halfway along the north- south road from Queenstown to Invercargill, where it is crossed by the east-west road from Gore to Te Anau. We stopped at Cafe Route 6 which was very much like an American cafe from the 1950’s with juke box and a half Buik acting as a bar indoors! I am getting accustomed to variety of scones made in New Zealand – and this time I had a spicy sun dried tomato scone with a cappuccino. According to Eve we were on track re timing so once we were on the way, we had another break to take pictures when we reached Lake Wakatipu.
It took us well over an hour to reach Queenstown and then spent some time trying to find a parking place close to the entrance to Gondola cable car. We were lucky and within 10 minutes of arrival we were walking up to the entrance to exchange the voucher for tickets – there was already a long queque but it moved easily. The trip in the cable car went off smoothly and it was ever so quiet as we were going up the mountain side. Once on top we had time to admire the stunning views – even though it was cloudy and grey, the views were still magnificent. There were some other Dutch people who volunteered to take a picture of the four of us and turned out quite good. Then was time for lunch and while the food was good, the restaurant was so packed that it was ever so difficult trying to get to the buffet tables…….
Once we were back at the car parking, we all made our way to the airport as we had to pick up our rental car – actually a mistake on my part as I had not changed the pick up date to Sunday as Ralph and Eve had planned activities for us till Sunday. But in hindsight it’s no problem as that means when we check out on Sunday, we just get the car out of the garage and start driving to our next destination – Te Anau.
I must say it was quite exciting driving driving in a totally new Automatic Toyota Corolla and of course on the left hand side of the road – mind you I was already used to this driving as I’ve driven often in Malta. Anyway back in Queenstown, we all checked in to our hotel – The Scenic Hotel Suites & Resorts. Perfect hotel, even though we had to walk up and down hill to get to the town centre!! Our (Dutch) legs are not used to walking hills……
After checking in, we went on a drive – according to Eve, this was an extra tour as we were being such good travelling companions – and we went to visit the gold mining town, Arrowtown. This is a charming town and only some 20 minutes away from Queenstown.This mining town sprang up in the 1860’s when there was a rush for gold in the Arrow river. The main street building are all restored as well as the little miners’ cottages off the main street. Once the gold ran out, the town became a fading rural backwater and as there was no pressure to replace the old building with newer houses, Arrotown kept its heritage. This meant that in the turn of the 1900’s Arrowtown was more or less a ghost town! Then in the 1950’s Arrowtown experienced a comeback and the historic buildings have all been restored making it a pleasant place to wander around!
After our visit to Arrowtown, we got back to our hotel to freshen up and later in the evening strolled down to Queenstown centre and had a lovely walk around – the town is very touristic but it was good to feel being part of it all. There is such an easy going feeling – families, young backpackers and also citizens falling into our age bracket – everyone mingled together in a relaxing way. And now looking forward to tomorrow’s activity – visiting the Gibbston Valley Wine Cave Tour! Goodnight all!!
