Before we head to lake Wanaka, we first make a stop at lake Matheson, this is a smaller lake, but famous because when the sky is clear, you get nice reflections of the surrounding mountains. No luck for us, but a fun walk in mystic rainforest.

image

The drive to lake Wanaka is one of the best we did so far. Especially between lake Wanaka and lake Hawea.
The scenary has suddenly changed the green rainforest for brownish grassy slopes.

image image

First day we take it slow, relaxing on the beach, icecream, day off for the kids.
Next day back to business : Mount Iron. This was probably slightly too hard for T and I, because it is a steep climb to the top of the mountain. They managed in 3 hours, but it was not their best hiking day. The view on the top and the ices in town made up for that.

image

After some relaxing on the beach we drove a part of tomorrows route and found an overnight area on top of the crown ridge mountains, with view on Queenstown. Except for a other camper we have the place for ourselves. Nice view for aperotime!

image

Nekt day, the capital of thrills : Queenstown
First stop the suspension bridge over Karawau River. The place weer they invented bungeejumping…
A huge modern complex allows people to make the 40m historica’ bridge jump. Inside the building you can watch everything on a big screen. Business at its best.

image

Because of the rain we keep our first day simple and make reservations in the minus 5° bar. Where everything is made out of ice, even the glasses. Fun !

image

We have better luck with the weather the next day, and we take the skyline gondolas to Bobs peak. From there you have a Great view on Queenstown and its lake.
We then drive all the way up Coronet peak 1648m and try to climb to the top, but halfway we take the right decision to turn back, we had another hour of very step terrain waiting and that would have been too much.

image

image

A quick stop at shotover river, where they take the small canyon with a 100horsepower jetboat. We keep it safe and have a beer instead 🙂

image

We are now on our way to Te Anau, for what should most likely be the highlight of our journey…

Categorieën: New Zealand

3 reacties

Reacties zijn gesloten.