Narnia - Aslan’s Camp

The location of 2 caches interested us as they had references to the movie Narnia..The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.  We had left Queenstown and were heading for the coastal town of Omarau for an overnight stay and couldn’t resist checking out the amazing geographical formations around the town of Duntroon on the way which included a well preserved fossil of a Anatini Whale, was part of the Vanished World Heritage Trail.

Narnia,  Aslan’s Camp - from the movie set.

And also Elephant Rocks

And of course.....where the cache was hidden.

Seriously? #10

We were always taught that the shortest distance between two places is in a straight line.

Queenstown Lake Watakipu, the telegraph poles go straight through the lake instead of around it, with no warning to boating traffic.

It also has an average depth of 230m so this also makes it quite amazing.

Arrowtown - Tobins Track

Last time we were in Arrowtown we explored the town and the Chinese gold rush history.  This time we wanted to make the most of Autumn and see it from the best vantage point. 

We climbed up the 3 km of Tobins Track which is behind Arrowtown, affording great views over Arrowtown, Lake Hayes and down the valley to Lake Watakipu. It rises up to the Crown Terrace farm plateau, and then joins the old roads over the range to Wanaka. The Autumn colours were fabulous. Bumped into a young woman who has just got residency in NZ, she was from Brighton UK, and grew up in Haywards Heath...same as Derek,  we chatted for ages about all sorts of things.

Views back to Queenstown, had lunch up here.

We found the remains of Thomas Tobin’s Hut just off the track, and a special geocache at the foot of an old telegraph pole just befind his hut. I have enjoyed reading his history on the Queenstown Historical Society web site...He had 8 children so 10 lived in this small hut during the 1860s.

Serious work this geocaching

We drove back to Queenstown through Arthurs Point for some last minute shopping.  

Shotover River

Bypassed Hell

We are doing quite well, only 1 takeaway - KFC, 1 steak sandwich with chips at a pub, and the rest home cooked food. 

Heading up to Akoroa tomorrow.

Queenstown In Autumn

Queenstown, on Lake Watakipu. 

We stayed at The Copthorne Lake View Apartments, fabulous and would recommend them for location and view.  

Queenstown was relatively quiet as ski season has not started yet.  Walked to town centre, the gardens and the lake walk. The biggest change we noticed is that Queenstown has become a huge residential area now, not just a boutique holiday destination.

We only had 2 afternoons of showers, so managed to get our walks done.  Queenstown Hill Time Walk, was an 800m high summit,  but Lake Watakipu is already about 310 m above sea level, so it was still a 500m elevation climb from our hotel. Fabulous views over Queenstown and felt as though we could touch the snow on the Remarkables.

Walk up from our hotel

Start of track

Gate

A lot of the track was through an “enchanted forest”, we were sure we were going to meet Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretal.  The cairns are always a lot of fun, and the toadstools are real and everywhere, shows how dark the forest was. I made my own cairn too.

Some people have a lot of fun with it. Cairns everywhere. It was a circuit track up was steep snd down was through the forest. 

The Basket of Dreams near the top was totally unique. Had lunch here.

Only 15 minutes to the top.

Views from the top

Hikes are always worthwhile with spectacular views to reward us.  We made it back before the rain.

Lakes and Snow Capped Mountains

Following our lovely visit with our Ducker cousins in Christchurch, we headed south through the centre of the South Island, down one of the most scenic roads ever driven, to Queenstown, via Lake Tekapo. We have hired a Toyoya Yaris, thought we would be getting something bigger in that class, but just as well it is economical as the fuel is about $2.20- $2.30 a litre.  Ouch.

The trees are turning their leaves to all sort of beautiful Autumn colours, the Alps are snow capped, the weather is crisp but sunny and we managed to make the 6 hour trip take all day (9 hrs). We are good at getting tourist (ie Asian bus loads) free photos, have it down to a fine art now.

Lake Tekapo, we had snow capped Alps along side of us, all the way down to Queenstown.

We had to wait for 2500 sheep to cross the bridge

The Ancient Clay Cliffs at Omarama, on private land, $5 gate fee - well worth it.

Lindis Pass, amazing how the pass is just wide enough to forge a road through as the mountains come down on both sides and almost touch.

The scenery is so green, the sheep are in their thousands literally, we waited 2 1/2 minutes for some to cross a small bridge near the Ancient Cliffs, the farmer had a chat and said there were 2500 that had just crossed, they should also be classed as mountain goats.

Sheep on the hills.

Queenstown next stop

Kia Ora........Kiwi Kapers

We are in New Zealand for 3 weeks to not only see some more of the South Islands splendid scenery which we missed 18 years ago, but to help our Kiwi friend Nigel from Brisbane, celebrate his 60th birthday in Akoroa nr Christchurch.