So this is a tale of four lakes. We soon saw our first lake, a huge lake called Lake Wanaka, retreating into the distance in both directions.
The road turned slightly, and we were then driving down the side of the just as huge Lake Hawea, the blue water twinkling in the sunshine.
We continued to Wanaka, where we spent the afternoon watching The Second Exotic Marigold Hotel in the cute and quirky Cinema Paradiso, sitting on a sofa, and with an interval for homemade ice-cream!
We camped at The Aspiring Campsite and had an early start with breakfast by the bay before heading through the Crown Range Summit on the highest sealed road in New Zealand, 1076m at the top.
Arrowtown was once a gold town, with gold being found in the gravel in the streambed, attracting men with their pans and rocker boxes sifting through the silt for ‘colour’. Later they used sluicing guns and dredges in the hope of making extraction more profitable but before long, there were better gold finds elsewhere and many left. With insufficient miners to support the economy that had grown up, Chinese workers were imported to work the mines and over 5000 settled in Bush Creek, mainly men sending money home to families to whom they wished to return. By 1930 the last of the community had gone and the settlement was abandoned.
Today Arrowtown has as many tourists in town in the summer as there was a workforce in the gold rush and offers a reconstruction of the Chinese Settlement for the history buffs …
… a touch of Chinoiserie …
… and hi gh-end retail therapy down a shopping street as pretty as a film set.
Onward to our next destination … Lake Hayes! As you can imagine, we couldn’t pass up the chance of not only walking round our lake, but also spending the night camping there.
The lake was originally named after Donald Hay, an Australian looking for sheep country, who discovered the lake in 1859. Over time it has instead ended up called Lake Hayes, influenced by Captain “Bully” Hayes, a colourful local character of the 1860’s.
Looking in an estate agents window, we spotted a lot for sale, so we could even live there too …..!
Next day we headed to Queenstown, home of the first commercial bungy jump and now offering a huge menu of high-adrenaline activities, most with a fairly hefty price tag. We swiftly bypassed all of this in favour of the Glenorchy Drive, 45kms of lovely scenery following the shore of our fourth lake, Lake Wakatipu.
We passed Pigeon Island and Pig Island on the way to Glenorchy – Gateway to Paradise.
In the early days before the road, visitors would arrive on the TSS Earnslaw, a coal-fired lake steamer still running today, then travel 25km by charabanc to the Arcadia Homestead in Paradise, a lovely spot, but actually named after the paradise ducks. Peter Jackson also saw its potential, using the area as locations for Isengard and Lothlorien.
After burgers for lunch, we drove back, stopping to camp at Twenty Five Mile Stream overnight where we saw a rainbow in the morning.
Returning to Queenstown, with its extremes of tourism, we drove up to the ski area of The Remarkables, the range of mountains behind Queenstown for a free vista. We were only able to get 4km of the 13km upwards as they are finally sealing the road and access was closed to traffic, but we still got a final shot of Lake Hayes.
Next destination … Fiordland.
Off Travelling Together 