We woke to a fresh but sunny day overlooking the lake and snow capped mountains. It really is picture postcard scenery and you can just keep taking photo after photo.
We headed into Queenstown and booked a cruise on the lake and wandered around the shops stopping at Starbucks to have a coffee before our trip. Cruising down the lake we were able to have our photos taken on the bow of the boat with the Remarkables mountain range and its snow capped peaks in the background.
The water is so clear and pure that it is purer than bottled water and electric tools will still work under water. It would take thousands of years for a tree to rot if it fell in. You could see the weeds on the floor of the lake. The deepest part of the lake is 350 metres deep and it is third largest lake in New Zealand. It is 212km around the perimeter and it is 5.5km across on average.
We cruised up to the end of the lake where they have built a bridge to take road traffic through to Frankton and Cromwell. The jet boats go under the bridge and into the rapids of the river. One came out when we were there and did a donut spraying water up around it. We cruised along beside beautiful houses built overlooking the lake and saw a couple of very rare New Zealand water birds. These birds can’t walk and live their lives on water.
We arrived back at the jetty after 1.5hours and wandered around the shops buying some souvenirs and gifts. We found a lovely café called Tattler for a lovely lunch of Eggs Benedict and French Toast. Yum Yum!!
It was time to get in the car and head for Twizel. Once again we passed picture post card scenery and kept taking photos as we drove along. The snow-capped mountains surrounded us and little rivers ran along beside the road. We went back to Cromwell and travelled further along Lake Dunstan before heading into more mountains and gorges. I suppose the most amazing thing is that the mountains are not green, they are a brown dirt colour and mainly rocks and brown stubbly grass. There are no native trees in New Zealand so there are no trees on the hillsides.
We arrived at Twizel to find we were staying at a very large and impressive motel and it is very nice – more brownie points for me. We stayed in for dinner and dined very well on breads, salmon, pork belly and lamb hot pot. Back in our room we relaxed and watched the TV.
