After leaving the glaciers we headed south enroute to Queenstown. There is only one road along the west coast of New Zealand and it passes through Haast and then crosses the Southern Alps via Haast Pass in Mount Aspiring National Park. Although it was pouring with rain the mountain scenery was moody and impressive and we stopped in Haast Pass whilst John braved the rain and went for a short walk. During the afternoon the weather improved and we stopped at a DOC campsite on the shores of Lake Wanaka. We went for a short walk into the mountains but decided to return to the campsite to put up the tent as the rain slowly came in. We camped underneath some pine trees which was fairly dry and the pine needles gave us a lovely soft bed!!
After a somewhat chilly night sleeping in all of our clothes (even John had his thermals on!) we awoke to a lovely sunny day and had our coffee and breakfast on the shores of Lake Wanaka looking up to the snow-capped mountains behind. We got back on the road and drove from Lake Wanaka to Lake Hawea, with wonderful views the whole way.
We wanted to do a bit of hiking and so drove up a gravel road alongside Lake Wanaka into the mountains. We parked up and walked a short way into the hills with lovely views of the lake behind us. Unfortunately we couldn't do the loop as the river in the valley was flowing at it's full rate meaning a river crossing to get back to the car was impossible without getting significantly wet!
We drove on on the road to Queenstown and passed the Kuwara Bridge bungy where John did his bungy jump a "few" years ago! It's credited as being the first bungy in the world, where it all started! We wandered in to see if anyone was going to jump and there was a girl all ready to go......but unfortunately she chickened out at the last minute (SB: kudos to her for even getting up there in the first place in my opinion!!). John was considering another jump but decided that he'd done it once before and that was quite enough (JH...and I think the skydive demonstrates that I still have at least some sense of adventure!).
We arrived in Queenstown and booked into a Top10 holiday park (rapidly becoming our favourite place to stay in NZ as they do backpacker cabins for $60..but this time we stayed in their lodge. What luxury!). We wandered round Queenstown, which is on the shores of Lake Wakatipu and is a lovely town with loads of adrenalin-fuelled activities. Whilst Sarah went for a massage, John had a look round the outdoors shops. In one of them he bumped into a cyclist we had noticed on our travels who had the flags of many countries attached to the back of his bike. John spoke to him briefly and asked how long he had been away for...."10 years" came the answer! He was from Argentina and figured that he ahd about another 2 years of cycling to do before he got back home!
The next day we took the Queenstown Gondola up to the Skyline complex on top of one of the mountains. This is a glass-fronted building containing a restaurant and cafe with brilliant views across Queenstown and the surrounding lakes and mountains. There was an outside viewing platform where you could watch people doing bungy jumps over the side of the moutain. There was also a lovely walk through alpine scenery which Sarah managed to persuade John to do as we had got the scary steep mountain climb out of the way on the gondola journey!
There was also a luge track down the mountain which Sarah was actually brave enough to consider... after a practise on the "scenic route" we progressed to the advanced track. (JH - The gauntlet was clearly laid down when Sarah said "I want to go first so I am not stuck behind you!".... rapidly she was overtaken and all I could hear was the rapidly fading screams behind me as she crested the brow of each slope!). Much fun was had by both participants and there then followed.... an extreme cup of hot chocolate before heading back down the mountain!
Another reason for spending a few days in Queenstown was.. vermin control! When camping at Lake Wanaka we were awakened in the middle of the night to a rustling in the food bag we had stupidly left in the "porch" at the front of our tent. On investigation with our head torch a very guilty mouse was seen exiting the crime scene! The food was moved into the sleeping compartment and we continued our chilly slumber. Next morning we packed all our gear into the boot of our hire car and thoughht no more about the mouse. However when we got to Queenstown we found a mouse sized hole in our loaf of bread which had remained in the car while we were camping! Somehow (possibly in one of our rucksacks) a mouse had hitched a lift into the boot of the car... and then set up home behind the back seat where we could not get at him! We removed all our gear and food from the car to deprive him of sustenance and then plotted his downfall.
We were lucky that the campsite had a mousetrap we could borrow and this was loaded with a hunk of cheese slathered in peanut butter for extra mouse attraction. 2 hours later we returned to find Micky had licked all the peanut butter off the cheese and scarpered without setting the trap off! Again it was set and we retreated to mission control... again we returned to find the peanut butter gone but no mouse, on the 4th attempt with much tactical planning and use of bottles and boxes to direct Micky's entry point to the front "action" end of the trap.... one dead mouse!
With the death of Micky and the glory of the hunt still fresh in our minds we left Queenstown and headed further south to the very famous Milford Sound.
