Central Otago with a little spring Snow

Bill trying to find Aoraki (Mt Cook) - 3724m isn't enough for
Bill to find it at the top of Lake Pukaki 

After an evening catching up with our Christchurch Hosts Helen & Ralph having returned from their two months overseas travel, and making sure Murray (The Cat) was happy for us to leave, we headed off just after mid-day (thanks H&R for lunch) to Geraldine.

NZMCA Camp at Lake Tekapo

Relaxing after bike ride & lovely BBQ lunch in the pine trees

It was a beautiful day, and relatively smooth travelling on our new tyres. Christchurch like Auckland has a lot of new roading being developed or improved which we noted coming into Christchurch from the North. And now as we headed south, it was more evident huge developments with the motorway heading south too.

Cycling along Lake Tekapo toward the Village
Not so nice with the tide out.

As we arrived in Geraldine, where we thought we were going to stay the night, I realised I may have got it a little wrong! As in the wrong town! I was only 80km out (supposedly an hour further south)! Waimate was the town I was thinking of. Ah well we can't get it right all the time Bill!
Anyway. Not a problem as there was another reason we wanted to visit Geraldine, and that was to catch up with Jane. We lost touch with Jane after we left Nelson 3 years ago. Rumour had it that she had left Nelson, gone to Aussie before settling in Geraldine (bit of a change in lifestyle). But Geraldine had the employment opportunity Jane was after, with the local Funeral Home. There being only one such service in Geraldine, we were able to easily track her down while we enjoyed an ice cream. We had a great catch up and hope to have longer when we come back through in March next year and stay a night or two.

Sunset on Lake Tekapo

We decided to continue on to Lake Tekapo seeing how we hadn't travelled that far today, this putting us half way between Christchurch and our destination of Queenstown, Tekapo having a lovely NZMCA campsite just out of  town on the lake edge amongst pine trees. With the large spacious site, there were a lot of larger Bus's tucked in. Beautiful location. Looking at all the snow on the surrounding mountains, it belied how warm the evening was. It felt like summer was just around the corner!

A few of the Camper Cars on Lake Dunstan

In the morning we rode our bikes on the Cowans Hill loop track and part of the Alps 2 Ocean trail through the Lake Tekapo Township.
We got back to camp for a late BBQ lunch before heading off to Lake Dunstan for the night. For those of you who haven't been in this part of the world, these glacial lakes are beautiful in their amazing colour.
We had a perfect view of Aoraki (Mt Cook) at the top of Lake Pukaki looking very grand amongst the Southern Alps still generously coated in snow. Very picturesque.(once Bill actually spotted it)
On to Lake Dunstan where we parked up for the night (once again on the lake edge), along with about 20 odd Camper Cars in this designated Freedom Camping site. These camper cars are basically a bed with a little kitchen at the back of them. A lot of young foreign tourists are using this form of transport / accommodation which we don't have a problem with so long as they don't use the bush for their ablutions. The local council provided half a dozen Porta Loo's which these visitors appeared to use, great to see. What a fantastic spot for them to park up for the night.The place didn't appear to be abused and everyone was on the road once again fairly early the next morning. Guess who were one of the last on the road that morning😏

Remarkables as our backdrop at J&M's
Bill giving Murray a hand painting the pergola

We arrived in Cromwell later in the morning and after a late lunch went for a walk along another part of Lake Dunstan before heading onto our next destination in Queenstown.
Jenny & Murray have built a fabulous holiday home at Jack's Point just out of Queenstown (away from the maddening crowds). What a location with the Remarkable mountain range as a back drop to their home, and for now, being able to look across Lake Wakatipu and up to Cecil Peak.
Our timing also coincided with another couple who are mutual friend's of J&M and us. Linda & Murray living in Sydney these days, had come over for a few reasons. But the most important one in my opinion of course, was to catch up with us after approx 7 or 8 years. And also to see J&M's new home.

Stunning view (except for the container obviously!)

across Lake Wakatipu to Cecil Peak

We meet J&M at Linda & Murray's wedding 35 years ago (OMG that sounds a long time ago!). I was at Primary and Intermediate school in Hamilton with Linda, and realised after our catch up this time, Jenny must have been at the same Intermediate with us but didn't meet Linda till College. By this time my family had moved back to Christchurch. And here we are all these years later. It was a great catch up.Before arriving at J&M's, Bill had planned a trip into the back country, and what better timing than while both Murray's were here to join him. Over to Bill:

The Nevis Gorge

The Nevis Valley Road had long been on my list of things to do. It is a back country 4WD road basically traversing the valley formed on the back side of the Remarkables.

With us staying here  in Queenstown, this seemed a good opportunity to do it accompanied with Murray and Murray. (Murry's have featured a lot in our life's of late). Sheryl was (sadly) not considered as a starter for the trip (the screaming gets to you after a while) so the boys took the  challenge on.

 It starts at Bannock Burn near Cromwell, following the Nevis Valley after cresting the Duffer Saddle at 1300m (the highest public Rd in NZ beating the Crown Range by a whopping 179m!). The road is atypical of the Central Otago back country with large Tors (rock formations) scattering the wide open alpine tussocked and spear grassed hills and valleys. This was “Gold Rush country “ and historically had a large population of gold miners and numerous pubs and stores to support them, then ultimately the schools and churches to support the miners families. The road winds through this lonely desolate back country  for an  odd 70  Kms before cresting another saddle to match the Crown Ranges Height, coming back  to the main road at Nokomai near Garston  past the bottom of Lake Wakatipu, a round trip of 210km. This was a trip of over 6 hours but could’ve taken longer had we investigated all the old gold workings (which were in  abundant evidence) and bodes well for this trip to be done again armed with  more detailed exploratory notes and, a cup of tea.

Several fords like this to test the sturdy Suzuki.

An historic ski hut whose founders
went on to start coronet peak further
up the valley.

Bill checking out the depth of the river before the car entered. 
this was largely snow melt. Brrrrrrr.

 This was also to be the first challenge for our Suzuki Vitara. Why would you own one if you weren’t going to use it??It performed well and handled the many fords and steep loose sections adequately, much to my pleasure. All the boys got to drive as I would walk some of the fords to gauge their depth but mainly to get some photo opportunities.

Some of the remnants of extensive gold workings
in the Nevis Valley

Dredge & Mining relics half way through
the Nevis Rd.

I think the Murrys both enjoyed the trip getting a feeling this was something neither had experienced before, the big isolated back country of the south Island, and perhaps leaving a dawning awareness there is is always more to see in this lovely sparsely populated  country.

After about 3 hours of catching up, the girls headed off for some lunch and groceries. Queenstown was full on with tourists! I can see why J&M have built a bit further out. They are on the doorstep of this very touristy town for any events / restaurants they may wish to visit but at the same time enjoy the peace and quiet and spectacular landscape from their lovely warm home. And being based here, very handy into Central Otago and surrounding areas.
With L&M returning to Sydney, we decided to stay on a few more days to explore the area a bit further with J&M.

Murry & Jenny, Murry, Bill & I with a few nibbles

Linda, Jenny and I with Jenny's lovely Southern Men
Who knew 35 years ago we would meet here!

We had a beautiful day travelling up the side of Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy, a place of Bill's childhood memories with his grandparents. With the fresh snow down low, it was looking pretty spectacular.

Looking up Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy

Glenorchy Wharf

We also met J&M's new neighbours Bronwyn & Gus - can you believe what a small world it really is! Bronwyn was a neighbour and close school friend of Helen when I was at Primary school in Christchurch. It's probably 20 years since we last meet in Nelson. Helen had told me they had moved here but I just thought not much chance of meeting up with them. Haha. It was a good night, I'm sure the two new neighbours will get along well.

Looking pretty racey Jenny 😊

Our last day with J&M before they returned to Auckland wasn't great weather wise, but good for us to get out for a blustery walk down to the end of Jack's Point that then follows around to Kelvin Heights - but a bit too long for this day with it being so windy. Jenny managed to get out for her first ride on her new electric bike. I'm sure J&M will have a lots of fun on their bikes and with all the cycle trails in the area, will be able to travel far. Hopefully we join them at some stage soon. Their plans are to spend half their time in Queenstown and the other half in Auckland - with the direct flights taking under two hours, very achievable.

Leafy streets of Arrowtown

Bill admiring the Wisteria in Arrowtown

We continued playing tourists after they left us. Had a lovely day doing the loop around Arrowtown which was just as quaint and pretty as ever. Not sure I would like to live there with so many tourists, but certainly lovely to visit and walk around the Chinese Settlement from the 1880's. Interesting history in this part of the country back then with the Government encouraging the Chinese to come  and gold mine once the Europeans had moved on to more lucrative mining elsewhere. The Government wanted them to keep the communities thriving after the Europeans left. The Chinese worked hard, and as their numbers grew so did the antagonism against them. Unbelievably was a Poll Tax against the Chinese as they arrived at ten pounds per arrival in 1881, increasing to 100 pound by 1896. Sadly many of them lived very poor lonely lives and never finding enough gold to make them wealthy enough to return to their homelands.

Southern Discovery Bridge on one of
Queenstown's many walk/cycle trails

Queenstown Foreshore

The picturesque view from the lounge after a blast
of fresh snow