Glenorchy…
We made the most of last weekend and the end of the warm weather to hit the beach, taking Aria and Ted with us. It was a fun day, the kids even found a penguin with some babies. We took a quick look then left her in peace.
Rich had found some maple syrup on sale in his last shop and the boys made pancakes just like we used to have in Canada, it brought back fond memories 🙂
Then it was time for a our holiday.
We took most of last Friday to drive down to Glenorchy, meandering on purpose, wanting to enjoy the drive. Our first stop was Roxbourgh , the birthplace of Jimmy’s pie (the boys favorite).
We stopped just out of Queenstown to look at some people river boarding, so cool!!!! Just past there was where I did a bungy jump 30 plus years ago, on the original AJ Hackett jump. Rich and I both said we are pleased we did that jump in Costa Rica, no way would we be able to build up the nerve to jump now!!!!!
We arrived in Glenorchy just on dusk, so beautiful…..
That night we went to the pub below our accommodation to eat and enjoy the ambience. Was a typical Kiwi pub, all the farmers arriving after work in their gumboots for a pint or two . Luca and the local kids played darts while we relaxed. Such a lovely little village.
The next morning it was an early start as Luca and I heading off riding. There was of course a stable dog called Bo who Luca made friends with 🙂
It was an incredible few hours through amazing scenery. Luca’s horse Sully is due to appear in the new Jane Campion movie “The Power of the Dog”, and a lot of the other horses have been used in movies likes Lord of the Rings and Mulan. These movies and others like Narnia and Mission Impossible filmed here. You can see why NZ is such a sought after filming destination.
It was hard to say goodbye…..
In the afternoon we all went for a hike , so so lucky with the weather, we are almost into winter here so we were prepared for bad weather! However it held for us and we were able to enjoy the colours of season in their full glory.
Luca had become rather hooked on darts so it was back to the pub for the evening after the hike 🙂
It was an early start the next day as Rich and Luca were heading out for a jet boat/kayak day. Unfortunately it was pouring and by 9am they were back to the room as it had been cancelled. So disappointing!!! We waited for another hour and the weather started to pick up. While we were riding Rich had discovered a hike that he did part of, he said it was lovely so we packed up and headed out hoping for the best. So happy we did !!!!!! The weather came right and we were able to do the whole loop.
After the hike we drove to Kinloch across the lake from Glenorchy . It is a tiny, tiny village but the setting is spectacular…
The boys went for a bike ride when we got home and did some Geo cashing, finding a sought after ‘travel bug”, Luca was thrilled!!!!!!! They then went to the pub for a drink and waited for our take out, happy, happy boys 🙂
The next day was our final one and we wanted to do some biking around Arrowtown, a picturesque village on the way home. It is an old gold mining town filled with stone cottages, shops, hotels and churches nestled in between the mountains.
While we were having a lovely brunch…
the heavens opened and it poured down. We sat in the car while drenched people around us came back from the trail we had been about to hit. We decided to wait it out and so glad we did, the sun came out again! The trail was soaking so we thought walking instead of biking would mean we would not get filthy from the back spray, which given the 4 hour drive ahead seemed sensible.
Then it was time to leave….
We decided to go over the Crown Range to Wanaka and home that way. Rich, when he was cycling NZ in 2002 biked it, (iron man that he is!!!), and the last time I did it in the late 90’s it was a gravel road!! The Crown Range is a steep “zig zag”road, the highest main road in New Zealand. From the top you can look back toward Queenstown and the lake it sits on, spectacular! Glenorchy is an hour past Queenstown following the lake.
While we were at the top, a plane flew through the mountains to Queenstown airport , it was at our level, pretty incredible…
We made it home late last night tired but happy. We stopped a couple of times on the way for some geo cashing and supper, it was a smooth trip back, easy driving. Aria was here when we got back , Rich and Luca took her back to her flat as she had an early start the next day , the animals had been well looked after !
The whole trip has just made us want to go back and see more, the Routeburn track is down past Glenorchy and is now high on our list 🙂
I went to pick Pica up as soon as the kennels opened at 8am ,the boys made breakfast pancakes again using the last of the maple syrup, and Luca put the “travel bug” he found geo cashing in the one in “our” graveyard and logged it, (be interesting to see where it travels to next), a lovely way to end our holiday 🙂
Do you think these two missed each other??????
