Day 12 & 13: South Island, Wanaka

Scottie’s Story

After a slight delay we took off from Wellington to Queenstown, where the South Island part of our trip begins. We picked up our hire car, which is certainly not like the previous one and is a lovely speedy little number. However, Queenstown made us feel like we were back in Edinburgh on the city bypass as we sat in rush hour traffic. To be fair it was nothing like as bad as Edinburgh but it did bring back memories for me,

We headed out of Queenstown to Wanaka where we will be based for 2 nights. Rob was in the driving seat and navigated the long and winding roads to get us to Wanaka without issue or diversion.

We arrived around 6:30pm and were rather hungry, having not eaten since late morning, so we headed straight back out to get some supplies. There was a supermarket nearby but when we got there it was very much an organic shop that didn’t have what we needed. Also the milk was almost £4 so we headed off into “town” and found another place which had all that we needed and more. As we were on foot we just bought what we needed to get us started and headed back to base for a cordon bleu supper – OK rolls with cheese (Rob) and pate (me), salad, crisps and wine. We did buy some fruit too, it was not all baddies. Rob tells me that the Anzac biscuits he had later were also delicious.

We both slept like logs and had a nice lazy start to the day, before we headed out for a walk along the shore of Lake Wanaka. The scenery was lovely and although there were a lot of people at the beginning, in Wanaka, it was not mobbed or unpleasantly busy.

It would have been rude not to take a photo of “that Wanaka tree”, so we duly did. The story of the tree is: Dennis Radermacher, a photographer from Christchurch, took a photo of the tree on a misty June day. That photograph went on to win Dennis the 2014 New Zealand Geographic photograph of the year. From that auspicious debut, the tree became somewhat of a social media celebrity. For any gardeners reading this, the tree is a willow. Sadly, a bit like the poor tree at sycamore gap, vandals sawed off some branches in 2019, but this wee willow tree fortunately survived and is flourishing.

It was a lovely walk along the shore of the lake, enough shade to keep it pleasant but not chilly and we reached our destination which was Waterfall Creek … however there was no waterfall in sight. Apparently a small stream enters the lake, rather than a roaring river from a height. As a sucker for waterfall, this was “disappointing”, but hopefully I might see some before we leave. Some googling to be done.

We stopped for lunch on the way back – I had salmon, Rob ordered rib eye, but what he got was not that. I’ll let him explain, however it was all sorted. His chips were looked at with eagerness by the sparrows and one cheeky wee bird swopped down when he turned away and accurately target a single chip and off it went – it was like having Sky at the table. Do not turn away for a minute.

We headed for home and spotted an ice cream parlour – we were certainly not going to walk past that, after all the walking we’d done. Well, that was how we rationalised that particular decision – seemed fair. It was very nice, but we both agreed afterwards that we didn’t need so much and that we’d probably not need to eat until tomorrow.

After 5 hours on the go and over 17,000 steps we landed back at base with gently aching bodies, having had a very enjoyable day. Time to put our feet up for a bit and get ready for more adventures tomorrow.

Rob’s Reflections

Wellington to Queenstown

Up bright and early on Monday, only to find that our breakfast time had moved to an hour later. I smiled and fluttered my eyelashes, and got served at my traditional pre-7am time. This was one of the benefits of the time difference – I have had no problems with getting up early, which as Lorna will tell you is something of a miracle. She picked me up at 9, and we made our way to Wellington airport. We had plenty of time, so browsed the shops, then sat down for a bite to eat in one of the restaurants. Spotted one or two players making their way home, including a Team Australia player wearing his gold medal, and Team China travelling together. Slightly delayed flight, but then a short hop down to Queenstown. The view out of the window was spectacular – we had a clear sunny day, and got to see Mount Cook in the distance, many hills, and multiple lakes, then towards the end the plane turns right and descends between mountains as it makes its way to its destination.

Got lucky with the shuttle to our car hire; got unlucky with rush hour – but after 15 minutes of traffic jam we reached the ‘interesting’ Crown Range road to Wanaka. It’s the highest main road in New Zealand, reaching over 1100m, and combines some of the features of the Devil’s Beef Tub outside Moffat, and Cap de Formentor in Mallorca. I didn’t get to see much of the scenery as I was concentrating really quite hard on the road, but I did notice a bird of prey hovering a couple of hundred metres to our right at one point, and he was a long way above ground. I was very, very grateful that we had taken a step upwards from the Suzuki Swift that we had on North Island to a Toyota Corolla – we’d have had to get out and push the Swift up some of these hills.

Arrived at Wanaka, settled in to our Airbnb, then took a walk to get some supplies. Baled out of the nearest shop, as it turned out to be some sort of artisanal grocer, with not very much, and what was there was expensive. Took a walk to town and came back with what we could carry. Just the bare essentials – things like milk, fruit, bread, wine.

Wanaka

Wow – a lie-in! Not had one of these for a while. I think it was the quiet that did it. After breakfast, we girded our loins (well, our bodies with sunscreen), and then made our way to the shore of Lake Wanaka. Hung a left, walked past a tree in the lake, which provided a scenic opportunity for photographs, and then on past a winery to the Waterfall Creek car-park. About turn, and back along the path. This time we stopped at the Edgewater Restaurant to eat. Lorna went for Salmon, I went for Ribeye steak. Well, that’s what I ordered, but due to an misunderstanding I got something completely different. That was sent back to be corrected, but I retained the accompanying chips to keep me from fainting with hunger. What caused the issue? Apparently “Rib-eye” had sounded like “Reuben on Rye”. Necessitated another glass of local red wine, but that was a sacrifice I was prepared to make. There was also a bird related food theft incident. Then we made our way back towards base. We stopped for what was going to be a take-away ice-cream, but ended up being a sit-down sundae. That may well be it for food today. Back up the hill to home, and that’s us done (in?). Busy day lined up for tomorrow, but I won’t spoil the surprise.