Invincible Gold Mine

Jan 3, Liz and I went exploring the town of Glenorchy, which is nothing more than a stopping point for beach access and a camping and picnic area.  There were some fairgrounds there to be fair, and there was an event going on while we were there which brought in a small multitude of people who came to view the horse shows and whatever else was going on.  Liz and I quickly passed through town in search of the Forest from the Lord of the Rings movie where the Elves of Lawthlorian lived.  We only were able to find it because we saw a tour bus parked along the side of the road. 

Later in the day, we tried a hike called the Invincible Gold Mine hike.  This hike is a 1.5 hour trek straight up the mountain to the site where gold was being prospects at the end of the 19th century.  There was still the power wheel and some sifting machines in place.  The view from the mine was exquisite.  It overlooked the deep valley below where a river meandered along side snow capped mountains.  I have a nice photosphere to add to the blog soon.

Queenstown

Queenstown was our final destination for New Zealand and we made it there with a couple of days to explore the area.  The area around Queenstown is by all means incredible.  It has lakes, hikes, many activities, and ski slopes.  Queenstown was the most popular place of our trip too, and the number of people we had to deal with was bordering on too many, though nothing compared to dealing with the lunch lines at Google, or fighting traffic back at home.  Also, everything in Queenstown is geared towards making money.  They make everything that one could want to do fit neatly into an overpriced tour option. but that is probably the only source of town revenue.  Still, the town is a great place to spend the time, the sunsets are beautiful, and the hiking worth while.

Rob Roy Glacier

Jan 2, we took a hike to the Rob Roy Glacier.  It's a 2-3 hour hike at the end of about 20 km of gravel road where the highway ends, which takes you up and into a valley carved out by this glacier many years ago.  The glacier is a mere remnant of what it once was, however, looking up on the mountain to see the ice capping the crest was impressive.  Two or three times during our stay at the top, we heard a sound like a clap of thunder as the ice broke and bits fell down the side.  There were gushing waterfalls all along the mountain face, and the site was magnificent. 

I am glad that we got to see a glacier on this trip since we skipped the west coast of the South Island, which would have allowed us to see one of the more famous glaciers of New Zealand, the Franz Joseph Glacier. 

Doubtful Sound

Liz and I spent the first day of the new year doing a boat cruise in Doubtful Sound.  This is a region carved by glaciers where steep mountains climb directly out of the ocean inlets of the sound.  The scenery is amazing, and since it had rained the day before, there were plenty of temporary waterfalls coming down from the sheer cliffs. 

The cruise took us across a large lake and by bus over a mountain range that had been built to bring supplies for the construction of a large hydroelectric plant at the end of the lake.  The water flowed from the lake through a 10km tunnel that was bored through the mountain and exited at the inlet to the sea.  There was a massive engineering feet but it produces enough power to sustain Christchurch. 

The day was pleasant with some great scenery.  We even were able to get up close and personal with a few of the water falls, where the droplets fell serenely from high above us to the water below.

Te Anau New Years

For New Years Eve, we spent the day doing a lot of driving.  We drove from Oamaru to Te Anua with a stop in Dunedin to see the famous Cadbury Chocolate Factory.  The factory tours were so full that we couldn't get on one, so we just had a look around and bought enough chocolate to last the rest of the trip.  It was the best deal that we got in New Zealand at only $5.

After checking in to our hotel, we decided that we would have a slow paced New Years Eve celebration.  We brought back to the hotel some dinner, watched Austin Powers, and shared a bottle of Riesling.  At about 11:30 we walked to the lake to see the fireworks and view the bonfire in the community park.  It was a fun night, and we went to bed pretty earlier, which was good since we had to get up at 6:30 for our tour of Doubtful Sound.

You keep saying it's crowded...I don't think that means what you think it means

We are traveling in New Zealand during the peak travel season, not only for foreign visitors, but for Kiwi's themselves. This means that every holiday town in the country is, apparently, if you ask the locals who live there, innundated with people at the moment. We have encountered this sentiment time and again as we have traveled around. For example, we will ask an inn keeper for a dinner recommendation, and they will invariably tell us that we should be happy with what we can get, given the massive crowds, most restaurants simply wont have tables. We thank them for the information, then head into town to explore the offerings. There we find that we do, indeed need to take what we can get. It gets dark well after 9 pm here, so we take advantage of the daylight hours to go on hikes, visit botanic gardens, and generally enjoy New Zealand, before we pause to have dinner. So, most days we have dinner after 9 pm. By this time (and really most of the time) the towns are nearly devoid of people. The word "sleepy" comes to mind. Most of the towns where we stay only have a handful of restaurants, and only a fraction of those are open past nine. So, we do indeed find that we need to "take what we can get" when if comes to dinner, but not because of the crowds, rather because of New Zealand's early bed time. For the record, we are usually seated right away, the longest wait for a table being about ten minutes.

While we find the Kiwi's idea of a crowd charming, we have certainly found it advantageous as well. On New Years Eve we stayed in the resort town of Te Anau. The New Years festivities included a bonfire and live band in the park, and a fireworks show over the lake. Due to the very small "huge" crowds, we were able to walk out of our hotel room around 11:30, stroll to the park, get a spot right in front of the bonfire to enjoy the band and the warm crackle for about ten minutes, then stroll across the street to the lake to have a front row view of the fireworks display. We then strolled back to our hotel and were in bed by 12:30 so that we would be fresh for our early morning boat ride to Doubtful Sound.