On the Road, Wanaka to Queenstown

We left the West Coast to head inland towards Queenstown. We made our way (slowly) up the Haast Pass, 562m above sea level, this sits about a third of the way up the South Island just a short way inland from the Coast.  After starting our descent from the pass we soon found ourselves straddling two beautiful lakes, Lake Wanaka and the Lake Hawea.  The sun was out in full effect and this made for some of the most picturesque driving we have done in our three weeks so far in New Zealand.  The lakes in the South Island are all formed from remnants of long ago glaciers (NZ was in an ice age just 12,000 years ago) so the waters are incredibly clear and shimmer in the sunlight.  With the surrounding mountains rising high at the lake edges it makes for some incredible scenery.

Not too far down the road we arrived at the town of Wanaka, situated at the bottom of the lake of the same name.  In Wanaka we decided to tackle the suitably named Puzzle World.  This included an outdoor three dimensional maze with over 1.5km of walkway, we must have covered about 5km though by the time we came out!  Inside they also had a whole array of puzzling rooms, from the Following Faces room to the balance loosing Tilted Room, and even a Leaning Tower of Wanaka outside, leaning at a crazy 54 degrees.  We spent the night just outside of town in a council campground, we thought we might get away with a free nights camp but were awoken in the early hours with a knock knock on the front window!

The following day we set off for Queenstown but faced a difficult choice.  To go round the mountain or over the mountain.  Going round the mountain would mean sticking to the highway but taking 110km.  Whereas going over the mountain on the Crown Range Pass meant some very steep and windy roads and most likely a lot of second gear crawling, but only 67km of road.  We choose the latter.  Opened in 2000 the Crown Range Pass is New Zealands highest tarmaced road some 1080m above sea level.  With some solid high rev low gear driving we just about made it to the top to appreciate the views before rolling down the otherside to Queenstown.

Queenstown sits on the stunningly clear Lake Wakatipu and is hemmed in by several mountain ranges including the well named 'Remarkables' range.  Queenstown takes its name from its founding when it was deemed to be a location 'fit for the Queen', and the Remarkables mountain range from the fact that they were viewed as 'quite remarkable'.  Queenstown is still quite a small town, the population is listed as less than 15,000 but it is the selfstyled activity hub of New Zealand.  There are over 200 different activities to try your hand at from the high octane; sky dive, bungee, rafting, to the more obscure frisbee golf.  That's nearly one for every working day of the year.  (Not that we know much about that anymore, we've pretty much lost track of days of the week now).  By day the skies over the Gondola are peppered with paragliders drifting over town.  Plenty to think about, and plenty to keep you occupied if you have the money.  However a relatively small town out of the young crowd you find everyone munching on a takeaway humongous Fergburger or with an activity number scribbled on their hand in permanent marker. We could definitely spy the above while lazing around on the grass listening to some live music at the Saturday market.

Queenstown also has some stunning gardens which edge out into the Lake Wakatipu on a small peninsular.  Its here that we can really start to feel the changing of the seasons, although its generally been warm and sunny during the daytime, when the suns not out and during the evening you can quickly feel the chill, and two pairs of socks is often a neccessity.  The leaves on the trees are starting to turn brown and some are already falling as Autumn takes hold, a season we should of been entering six months ago back in October when we left the UK for the Southern Hemisphere.  It feels like a good time to visit Queenstown as the large influx of tourists and campervans is on the decline but the weather is still on the nicer side.  However in such a setting its easy to imagine Queenstown as a stunning setting in every season.