This morning we arose after a pretty decent night of sleep in the camper van. By the time we got everything sorted out (primarily me figuring out the finer details of waste disposal from the business end of the RV), it was a late departure out of Dunedin. So we decided to put some miles in before grabbing food, just giving the boys some fruit to tide them over. Well that made for a fun first hour of the drive with the boys getting gradually more grumpy.
At our first opportunity we made up peanut butter sandwiches for the boys and picked up some (surprisingly delicious) pastries in the quaint town of Lawrence from a place called The Prospector. Within minutes the boys were in good moods and ready for the balance of the road trip.
The road was beautiful the entire way, passing through river valleys, small towns, and with gorgeous view’s popping up all the time. The topography was much more varied than the flat drive yesterday from Christchurch South.
After another hour and a half we crossed over the Alexandria Bridge with beautiful views of the Clutha River. We drove through Alexandria- which looks like a really great small town, on to the neighboring town of Clyde where we stopped to check out the Clutha River and find a playground for the boys to work off some energy.
The playground we found turned out to be pretty tiny, but it kept the guys entertained for a bit until we walked through the trees to the river’s edge less than 100 yards away and all started working on our rock skipping skills.
Clyde was founded during New Zealand’s gold rush, and today is a beautiful little town set just below Lake Dunstan, which is an artificial lake that has flooded the Cromwell Gorge . The town is a biking hot spot and is the starting point for the 150 km (93 Mile) long
Otago Central Rail Trail, New Zealand’s original Great Ride - which is a multi day bike trail - today there are
23 Great Rides around New Zealand.
From Clyde we followed along the shore of Lake Dunstan up to the town of Cromwell, then steered the car towards Kawarau Gorge. After passing through most of the gorge we pulled over to see where the Roaring Meg Stream merges with the Kawarau River. The Roaring Meg stream powers a hydropower station right where it enters the Kawarau Gorge by way of a 40 ft waterfall.
Coming out of Kawarau Gorge we passed through more orchards and farms growing and selling fresh fruit, as had been consistently popping up from Lawrence onwards on our journey (in Cromwell they even have a gigantic Fruit sculpture by the side of the highway). There were also plenty of vineyards as Central Otago is a renowned wine region (it is NZ’s leading red wine region).
As the road was once again about to pass over the deep Kawarau Gorge one last time, I asked Sharyl to pull over the camper van. Reef and I hopped out, hoping for a chance to see someone leap off a bridge. It is right here at the Kawarau Bridge that a man by the name of AJ Hackett first strapped himself into a gigantic bungy cord and lept out into thin air.
Unfortunately they were closed for the day, but it was cool to see the place where the sport began. Reef is too young to Bungy Jump, but I let him know that once he’s old enough I’ll jump with him if he wants to do it.
Soon we arrived into Queenstown, and got to see its magnificent lake framed by rugged mountain peaks. Sharyl expertly navigated the roads through town, but Queenstown is hilly, and the GPS took us on a route down Lake Street, which makes Pulehuiki look flat - and Sharyl did amazing, thank goodness the brakes work well! Not long after our Lake Street descent we arrived at the Kamana Lakehouse - the hotel we are staying in tonight.
We had a dinner invite from the entire Thomas Ohana who are here in Queenstown for Spring Break, so we had to get the boys cleaned up - River likes to dump water on himself (it goes well with the food he inevitably drops on himself too), and so he was quite a mess when we got to the hotel.
Thankfully Uber is in New Zealand so Sharyl was able to take a breather from driving the oversized vehicle down undersized roads for the night. When we mentioned Lake Street to our Uber driver he laughed and said that yeah that is a really steep street and there are accidents on it all winter long because the road gets slick and cars can’t stop easily on that gradient, especially in slick conditions. So we will be avoiding that road for the rest of the trip to Queenstown.
Sea and Caitlin found a perfect AirBnB for their crew, with unbelievable views off the deck, close into town, and plenty of space for everyone. They had just taken a boat across the lake that afternoon to a massive ranch on the far side where you get to enjoy everything from a huge lunch spread to watching a sheep sheering demonstration. They’ve got plenty of adventures planned over the coming days and tomorrow is Boston’s 16th Birthday so they are off to do the land luge to celebrate.
Comments
Post a Comment