Very tired, so took a (longer than planned) nap and the walked near the hotel to catch first glimpses!

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#motherdaughter #travel #queenstown #newzealand #lake #mountain #photography #nature #outdoors #hilton #doubletree #burnthecouch

Arrowtown & Wanaka Lake plans were best suited for the rainy day. Hiking is not at all safe in wet weather. It ended up being a road trip of scenic sites.

ROAD TRIP

Introducing our hopefully trusty transport vehicle for the week:

Lake Hayes

A few stops along the way to Arrowtown. We were so enthusiastic about the viewpoints (even in shitty weather) we probably made more stops than we’re worth it 😅.

Most surprising but awesome find was Cardrona Distillery also nicknamed “Bradrona”. According to Wikipedia, it’s something that random passerby’s started (for who knows what reason) and it just grew. The breast cancer awareness angle is probably a more recent thing?

▾ How fast do you think you can do it? Play video.

ARROWTOWN

We actually got lost looking for Arrowtown. It’s an old mining town that consists of only three streets. So, easy to miss. We ended up stopping at a motel to ask for directions, and turns out that motel is one of the labeled spots on tourist maps. Like I said, tiny tiny place.

We walked through all the streets - it’s very cute and tiny. Lots of cute boutique stores and “hipster” spots. I completely forgot to take a photo. We stopped at one place called Good Days for a coffee. They also serve brunch, but we were in a rush to get to Wanaka.

WANAKA

Stopped at the Wanaka info center and got some quick food at... Subway! There was a nice view across the street we managed to check out before the rain chased us back to the car.

Seagulls quite enjoy the bad weather, it seems.

And then on to the obligatory, but very beautiful even in sub-par weather, Wanaka sites!

Glendhu Bay/ Waterfall Creek Seat. Don’t ask me why it’s called that because there is no waterfall and no creek that we saw.

Car commercial

Roy’s Bay...

... where the famed Wanaka Tree lives!

And then on to Eely Point Recreation Reserve where the sun rays managed to peek through the clouds.

We finished the day with views of the most striking blue waters. This was our favorite - no other people, just us!

Clutha River by Albertown was a nice find. We were looking for a lookout, but couldn’t find it so we ended up just finding our own spot under the bridge.

Look how clear the water is!

And then even more striking was Lake Hawea. Can only imagine how beautiful it must be on a clear weather day.

The view from the dam:

And we got a view from the other side at Lake Hawea Esplanade Reserve.

We drove back to Queenstown a different way than we left (stuck to Route 6). More beautiful views of gorges, but it was getting dark and we were tired, so we didn’t stop for any photos. We also missed Lavendar Farm, so were hoping to make it back on the only sunny day we have (Wednesday 🤞).

So pooped by the time we got back. Immediately passed out.

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#motherdaughter #travel #wanaka #queenstown #newzealand #lake #mountain #photography #nature #outdoors #distillery #winery #roadtrip #blue #turqouise #green #tree #rocks #bra #dam #lookout \240#river #burnthecouch

We watched lots of classic movies that we had never heard of before, but recognized A-list actors, and played a million games of Welcome! board game (yes, Mummy packed it). She beat me for the first time and scored over 100 for the first time!

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#motherdaughter #travel #queenstown #newzealand #lake #rain #mountain #photography #nature #outdoors #hilton #doubletree #upgrade #view #blue #turqouise #green #tree #rocks #burnthecouch

ZIP LINE ECO TOUR

Zip lining went perfectly, but it was surprisingly cold.. we had to bundle up. There’s more footage on the GoPro, but for now:

Stairs to nowhere 😂.

▾Play video’s!

We got rained out of all our planned hikes, so a pleasant surprise was a 20 minute downhill hike to the last line. So Mummy did not waste luggage space bringing me brand new hiking shoes 😬.

▾Invasive species: Douglas firs. Also side note: I have this same view captured in a previous photo that was taken in The Netherlands (Ede)!

The nice thing about this tour is that they had an emphasis on educating us about sustainability. All of their tree houses and lines are built in accordance with their philosophy and definition of sustainability. There were 4 principles that I don’t remember but the first two had to do with protecting the earths resourcing and using them wisely where it can’t be avoided, and the second two had to do with supporting those in need so that they do not have to resort to “short cuts” that are harmful to the earth.

They also taught us a few fun details about native nature and more recently introduced nature and how they interact, etc. There were a few “rushes” that brought waves of settlers who made changes to the natural ecosystem to support their communities at the time. Green rush (for jade-like stones) by the Maori people, the Gold rush by westerners, and currently the Adventure rush by tourists like us.

We grabbed a quick lunch in town and took an Uber back to the hotel because we were silly geese that forgot to check the water taxi schedule and would end up waiting more than an hour for the next one.

WANAKA LAVENDAR FARM

We did a quick change of wardrobe and prettied up a bit in anticipation of photos at the Wanaka Lavendar Farm!

I have thousands, literally, of photos from our “photo shoots”, so will put these up later after I sort through them. iPhone photo burst is both a curse and a blessing 😝.

▾ Literally frolicking.

The shop has a shit ton of lavender products (oils, soaps, etc.) and honey products! They are very pro-bees 🐝🐝🐝(makes sense). We took some time to rest in the tea room with lavender tea and berry ice cream with lavender and honey ice cream with lavender.

▾ Also, in case you ever get rained in during what’s supposed to be an outdoor holiday, here’s an idea for releasing energy (play video):

And I almost forgot to mention they have an animal farm, which we avoided so I could avoid any allergic reactions, but on the way out... LLAMAS 😍.

Scenic Drive

We headed back towards Queenstown via Route 6, the same as the other day, so that this time we could make a few scenic stops.

▾This was a spot on the 49th parallel (as in longitude of the Earth). I can’t remember exactly but something about the glacial movements and deposits here makes the landscape special - “terraces” in the landscape were formed.

▾The windy parts of the way back home follows Kawarau Gorge. The pictures are taken from Roaring Meg Lookout point. We think the rain waters from the past two days is making the water color cement-y instead of the characteristic turqouisy color we’ve seen everywhere, but who knows, we’re not the experts.

▾There are some efforts in this area to kill invasive plant species to make room to re-habilitate native species.

Dinner

Headed straight into Queenstown town (parked in the Queenstown Gardens 4 hours are free) in the hopes of getting the famous Ferg Berger for dinner. This is the line-waiting thing for this place.

We ordered the Ferg Berger Delux and opted for salt and pepper squid (calamari), which turned out to be more memeorable than the burger for me! And of course forgot to take a picture of it, but captured the box at least?

The plan was to eat while watching the sunset, but riiiiiight where the sun went down was a massive gray cloud. And only there in the sky was there a cloud mass you couldn’t see through. I said New Zealand hates our plans, also referring to the 2 out of 4 full days where the rain took over, but Mummy offered the alternative that New Zealand really wants us to come back 😊.

Our last views of the beautiful Wakatipu Lake before our early morning flight:

Side note: New Zealand has been dubbed the “adventure capital”, is I guess it’s only appropriate that even the scaffolding isn’t boring ▾

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