Xmas Trip

Another year, another Xmas and bugger me here we are back in Queenstown. We were supposed to be walking the Kepler Track but for a number of reasons this fell through and we ended with 10 days to kill and no plan of action.

We flew down to Queenstown and spent the first night there and then took the bus to Te Anau where we spent the next four nights staying at the distinctly average Kiwi Lakeside Holiday Park. Truth be known the accommodation was perfectly acceptable and reasonably priced but utterly devoid of character. What the heck though, it’s only somewhere to sleep the night and a base to explore a part of New Zealand that has character in spades.

We went on a couple of ½ day walks and effectively covered the last section of the Kepler track as far as Moturau Hut. Shortish walks were the order of the day as the weather was really scorching and certainly too hot to walk much after midday. We did have one rainy day where we decided to do something different and visited the local glow-worm caves which are a 30 minute boat ride across Lake Te Anau. The boat journey and caves are well worth it, but if you are into your glow-worms, not a patch on the North Island’s Waitomo caves.

 The three pictures below were all taken on the Kepler Track.

 

 We found this nice little lake signposted just off the track.

 

 Overlooking Lake Manapouri.

 

Shallow Bay.

 

We then took the bus back to Queenstown and stayed for four nights at the Southern Laughter Sir Cedric hostel. Odd name but not a bad hostel and really well located.

To give us a bit more flexibility we decided to hire a car. The best thing about the car was that it had air conditioning which we really came to appreciate as if we thought Te Anau was hot then Queenstown definitely turned things up a notch or two and it really was a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. Given the weather, it was somewhat incongruous to see the odd patch of snow still lingering up in the hills.

We visited Wanaka which was relaxed and chilled out and probably much like Queenstown 20 years ago before it exploded into the big brash tourist mecca that it is now.

Next on the list was a trip to the nearby Mt Aspiring National Park. We decided to head to a place called Raspberry Creek where there looked to be an interesting walk up to the Rob Roy glacier.

The road to Raspberry Creek started off as tarmac but then turned to the gravel with the road surface gradually deteriorating. After a while we came to a ford. I didn’t really like the look of the ford particularly as we in a hire car and faced a big bill if the car was damaged but went across anyway. Shortly after this the road became single lane and right on cue a dirty great lorry came round the next bend. There was no way of getting around the truck so we had no alternative but to reverse all the way back to and over the ford. This was rather unnerving as I am rubbish at reversing and there were some nice steep drops awaiting if I got it wrong. It turned out there was a sign near the ford advising that there were a total of nine fords to cross which were only suitable for 4-wheel drives and even then only in good conditions. All in all it was rather fortuitous that the lorry came along.

This was taken near the ford and basically as far as we managed to get. The mountain is Mt Aspiring.

Ben Lomond (no not that one) is a high peak overlooking Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. This is a tough climb but one that I really fancied giving a go, not least as the views from the top were purportedly stunning. Neena is nowhere near as fit as me but decided to come along anyway. To be honest I didn’t think she would get all that far but stunned me and I think herself and made it all the way to the summit. Mind you she could barely walk for the next couple of days, but still thought it was well worth the pain. And yes, the views were indeed rather stunning.

The pictures below were taken on the climb up to Ben Lomond.

 Walking up from Queenstown.

 

 Looking up at Ben Lomond from a saddle. The track got a lot steeper from this point.

 

 As we climbed above the saddle these mountains came into view.

 

 Ditto.

 

At the top.

 

There is a bit of a Scottish theme going on here as we also visited the rather lovely Glenorchy and the even more enchanting Kinloch. Kinloch is a tiny village but had an absolutely terrific camp site at the edge of Lake Wakatipu and is definitely on the list of things to do next time we are down this way.

We drove to the Remarkables Ski Field which is about 40 minutes from Queenstown. From here we walked uphill for an hour or so to Lake Alta. The lake is in a fantastic setting and a great place for a spot of lunch and a muck around in the patches of snow left over from winter. There are some demanding hikes from here and on another day we would have given them a go, but we both fancied an easy day after the rigours of Ben Lomond. So I walked and Neena hobbled back to the car and then onto Queenstown and ice cream and latte heaven.

The pictures below were all taken at Lake Alta.

 

 

PS If you somehow find yourself in Queenstown, assuming you survive the numerous adventure activities on offer, head to Patagonia who do amazingly good ice cream.