On Sunday 6th January, Janet, one of the Canadian girls announced that she had had enough of being in the bus so much and decided she would spend three more days in Queenstown and catch an early flight back to Canada on the Wednesday. The general feeling was that there was quite a lot of driving on the trip, but then it is no surprise when you are trying to cover the whole of the South Island in only 14 days. A lot of driving must be done in New Zealand to get anywhere. Barry and Holly (our guides) were quite surprised, as no one had really mentioned the driving issue up until then but in true fashion when girls get together, there had been quite a lot of complaining about it the night before (by three of the other girls - one reason why I prefer to have more blokes on the trip as they are more easygoing and when girls get together they turn everything into a bitchfest - well these girls did anyway). The one good result about Janet leaving though, was that I was able to have a room by myself. No more sharing with the weird, moody Irish girl. I swear that she was in a strop with me because I was up late one night writing notes for my blog and the next morning I accidentally set the alarm for 7am rather than 8am. I mean, if you want peace and quiet, go for the single option. I nearly told her to get over herself and to stop being such a right miserable cow!
After leaving Queenstown, we had a brief coffee break in Arrowtown, a 20 minute scenic drive which was "Born of Gold" in the 1860s. The town's main street is lined with restored historic buildings, over 60 of which from the gold rush days are listed with the Historic Places Trust.
We then headed to Wanaka on Lake Wanaka. Laka Wanaka lies in the heart of the Mount Aspiring National Park (part of the Te Waipounamu World Heritage Area) and it also offers a vast array of activity options similar to Queenstown. In our case we opted for a gentle two hour stroll up to Rocky Mountain on Diamond Hill, which gave us great views of Lake Wanaka and Mount Aspiring (see photos with me in them - the other photo is of Queenstown in the distance. We also met some rather large sheep on the trail!).
Our night's accomodation was in Makarora, which is a small farming village directly next to Mount Aspiring National Park. There is nothing much there apart from the Wilderness Resort, which opened in 1959 as a basic camping ground. Since then, a cafe, restaurant and shop has been built. The bar provided the entertainment for the evening, where we met the group doing the Northbound trip of the Rimu and they challenged us to a karaoke competition. Even though they were older than us, the booze may have gone to their head as they went a bit mad singing and dancing during the karaoke. Maybe our group was just boring. The karaoke was abruptly cut short at 12am when the bar shut, so it was a fairly late night to bed for us.
After leaving Queenstown, we had a brief coffee break in Arrowtown, a 20 minute scenic drive which was "Born of Gold" in the 1860s. The town's main street is lined with restored historic buildings, over 60 of which from the gold rush days are listed with the Historic Places Trust.
We then headed to Wanaka on Lake Wanaka. Laka Wanaka lies in the heart of the Mount Aspiring National Park (part of the Te Waipounamu World Heritage Area) and it also offers a vast array of activity options similar to Queenstown. In our case we opted for a gentle two hour stroll up to Rocky Mountain on Diamond Hill, which gave us great views of Lake Wanaka and Mount Aspiring (see photos with me in them - the other photo is of Queenstown in the distance. We also met some rather large sheep on the trail!).
Our night's accomodation was in Makarora, which is a small farming village directly next to Mount Aspiring National Park. There is nothing much there apart from the Wilderness Resort, which opened in 1959 as a basic camping ground. Since then, a cafe, restaurant and shop has been built. The bar provided the entertainment for the evening, where we met the group doing the Northbound trip of the Rimu and they challenged us to a karaoke competition. Even though they were older than us, the booze may have gone to their head as they went a bit mad singing and dancing during the karaoke. Maybe our group was just boring. The karaoke was abruptly cut short at 12am when the bar shut, so it was a fairly late night to bed for us.
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