Wanaka

On Wednesday, we spent a leisurely day driving to Wanaka (rhymes with Hanukah or Monica) on the wine trail.  Wanaka is a smaller town than Queenstown, but is also very quaint. It's on a big lake and nestled between beautiful mountains.  On the way, we stopped at the famous bungee jumping bridge over the Kawarau River Gorge, to watch people take the plunge. While I contemplated doing it, I came to my senses in time to chicken out. But it was fun to watch.

Most people jump in silence. There were no "Geronimo" screams

It's a long way down to the river bed.

However, there was a rescue boat waiting to pick up the jumpers after their jump.

 One of the adventure tours was a leisurely float down the river. Looks like fun!

We started driving up the very windy Crown Ridge road (over the mountain top) to Wanaka, but turned back after almost reaching 2/3 of the way up the mountain. However, we got a spectacular view of the area from there.

The switch-back road was fun to drive, but there were lots of hair-pin turns.

Standing on top of this ridge, we wanted to burst into song - "Climb Every Mountain"
or "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music", but restrained ourselves.

That's the Gibbston Valley Winery down below.

We stopped to tour & taste some wines at the Gibbston Valley Wines and had a great outdoor lunch at the Waitiri Winery. This area is known for its Pinot Noir, which is excellent, but very expensive. We did buy one bottle to bring home.

 They had an amazing cave cut into the rock mountain, where they barrel aged their wine.

We tasted several Pinot Noir wines, with different ages. Their reserve label was $100/bottle.

 They also had a wonderful cheese shop

The old church was over 100 years old and was moved to the Waitiri Winery from the Dunedin area.

They had an outdoor wood burning pizza oven to make fantastic pizzas.

Lunch was in an idyllic location.

We arrived in Wanaka to another fantastic accommodation, Beaconfield B&B.  It was situated on 1 acre of land and had its own private vineyard. The view out of our window was of majestic mountains. Our hosts were Carla and Mike Rackley.  You can check out their B&B at www.beaconfieldbandb.on.nz

 This is the front entrance through rose bushes

 Their vines were covered in netting to prevent the birds from eating the grapes

 Enjoying a glass of Pinot outside our room.

Sharing breakfast with Jon and Mika from Holland.

The early morning sunrise on the mountains painted them with an orange glow that was beautiful.

On Thursday, we were supposed to take the Eco Adventure tour to an island bird sanctuary, but it got canceled due to boat engine malfunction, so we ended up touring the surrounding hillside, visiting the Rippon winery and hiking along the Clutha river. 

The Ripppn Winery had a spectaular vista over the lake.

The wine consultant was very friendly and had visited Canada.

 Hiking along the Clutha river. It was very hot (31 degrees C).

Queenstown

On Monday, we flew to Queenstown on the south island.  It is a beautiful town on Lake Wakatipu, situated in the mountains. It reminded me of Banff or Kelowna. We stayed in a great B&B with a magnificent view out of our window over the lake.  It’s called Lake Vista B&B and is hosted by Beverly and Ian McLenaghan. You can view their B&B at www.lakevista.co.nz.  We had dinner that evening on top of the mountain, which had magnificent views of the lake and surrounding mountains.

 Views from our room in the B&B

 Queenstown Mall

 They have a steamer ship which was 90 years old (but not as old as the Seguin in Muskoka)

 Views from the top of the mountain where we had dinner. Spectacular!

That's Queenstown below. It's not very big.

 Para-gliders are everywhere in New Zealand. New Zealanders love to jump off things.

On Tuesday morning, we drove to Arrowtown, an historic gold mining town. It was very quaint.  There was also a preserved section of the Chinese Settlement.  Over 40% of the gold mining labour force was made up of Chinese workers, who were forced to live outside of the town in their own area.

"Main Street" in the old west. Looks like a typical western town.

 Yes, that's real gold on the rusted shovel

 The Chinese merchant's house

 The communal outhouse. No privacy here.

In the afternoon, we drove to the far end of the lake to Glenorchy and took the Jet Boat ride up the Dart River.  What a blast.  The Dart River is fed from a glacier further up stream.

 We drove about 40km to the far end of the lake. It was a very pretty drive.

Getting our protective gear on. Waterproof coat and life jacket.

It was a windy ride. The jet boat did about 75-80/km/hr

The glacier river bed was full of rocks. During a heavy rain, the river is completely flooded.

Having a blast. It was lots of fun, especially when the driver did a 360 degree spin.

On the trip back, we did a guided nature walk through the rain forest (which is an extremely dry area) and then a ride on a 4X4 truck through the area where Lord of The Rings was filmed.  It was a fun day.

 This forest is a rain forest, but it's extremely dry, as all the rain water runs off quickly.

 This tree is over 700 years old

 The tree is hollow for 2\3 of it's height, which will hasten it demise.

 This chair was used in the 2nd Hobbit movie (not yet released) to make the giant look big
and the hobbit look small. It's on lone to the park for 6 months, but then must be removed.

 This is where they filmed a big battle scene in the 2nd Lord of the Rings movie,
where they had 500 horses running over the hills in the background.