This morning was yet another beautiful day in South New
Zealand. It started out quite cool, but
the sky was blue and the sun shone brightly so that by mid afternoon it was
lovely and warm.
This was another travel day – we left Twizel at 8:30
travelling south – a total distance of a little over 200 Km, but with lots to
see along the way. The scenery is ever
changing with wide expanses of fields
that are being irrigated with huge irrigation systems, similar to those found
in Canada, but at times several hundred meters long. This is set up against a backdrop of dry
hills and further away – mountains, a few with snow. In the winter there are several ski areas in
this part of the country. The land is very busy with large herds of cattle and
sheep, and the sides of the road show a
lovely display of lupines.
About one hour into the drive we passed through Lindis Pass
– with its truly beautiful scenery.
Our first stop was a quick comfort break after about 2
hours, then we drove a while further to Cromwell where we stopped for tea, and
some shopping. A few really lovely items
were purchased – mainly summer clothes which are now on sale here as it nears
the high point of summer.
After enjoying our coffee and tea, Richard took us to the
New World supermarket where
we purchased lunch fixings for today’s lunch and
perhaps for the next few days. It was
not surprising that a few bottles of wine escaped from the store disguised as
groceries.
Next stop – still in Cromwell was
Jones Fruit Stand. Here we all sampled
some of her delicious dried fruit and picked up some fresh fruit to eat with
our lunches. A few had their dessert
first, in the form of custom made fruit ice cream which is a specialty of the
fruit stand. This place is obviously
well known as we were sharing the fruit stand with a busload of young people
aboard the Kiwi Experience, and another busload of young people aboard another
Oceania Bus. Most of us forgot, but
those who did not – managed to wander through the magnificent rose garden out
back.
On the way to our lunch break we
stopped at the world famous Bungee Jumping spot. It is a neat structure with a ‘sort of
ramp-with stairs’ down to the jumping off bridge in the Kawarau Gorge. Here we watched as a couple of young women
from the Kiwi Experience bus jumped off the bridge – well secured with ropes
and belts. Each was pulled into a small
boat that sat waiting for them at the end of their jump. The first girl dunked her head into the
river, while the next girls who was much lighter did not make it to the water
level at all.
After lunch we all wandered through the main street of this
delightful little town. There were souvenir shops, a wine tasting shop, a
quilting shop, numerous clothing shops and almost any other kind of shop you
could imagine.
At 2:30 we were back in our bus headed for our final
destination – the Novotel Queenstown Lakeside.
We are all on the third floor of this lovely hotel, some facing the
inner courtyard while others are facing the roadway. All the rooms have balcony’s and are nice and
spacious with all the modern conveniences including air conditioning.
The rest of the afternoon was spent at each person’s
pleasure. Some explored the town, others
took the opportunity to rest and prepare for lots of exploration tomorrow.
Dinner at 6:30 was in the hotel dining room, with choices
such as chicken, fish or gnocchi for a main course preceded by either a crispy
spiced squid salad or a tomato, grilled artichokes, olive and parmesan
tart. Then this was topped up with
either a dark chocolate mousse cake or raspberry and white chocolate crème
brulee. Another great dinner!
This evening is at everyone’s leisure, some exploring while
others will relax in their rooms – figuring out what best to do tomorrow. Those of us who have checked things out have
found them to be pretty expensive and some – the timing is just not right. Walking around sounds like a great idea for
our free day tomorrow – and maybe a bit of a sleep-in.
