Today was the start of our activities in
the happening town of Queenstown. River rafting was the event for the day. It was a short walk from our motel to the
town centre. Before reporting to the rafting centre in town, we got ourselves
some sandwiches from the café nearby. We signed up for the morning rafting
session with the Queenstown Rafting but ended walking into another companies
river rafting counter and when they saw our email confirmation they just
politely informed us it was the other rafting company down the road. Well, who
can blame us as all of them look alike and offering the same rafting at the
same location.
Even though we were 1st timers,
we signed up for the Shotover River
(Serious White Water) package which is deemed as grade 3 ~ 5. Why we
choose this is because of the route which travels from the Skippers Canyon all
the way to the rafting base which shares the site location as the shotover jet boat ride. Some prerequisites like participants needs to
be water confident since life jackets are provided.
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| At the Shotover River Rafting Base |
We were the 1st of the group to
arrive at the shop and after registration, we just hanged around the shop while
waiting for the other members to arrive. There was a free coach transfer to
bring us to the rafting base where we suited up with thermal wet suites,
collected our gears like life jackets. It was weird walking on those wet suit
shoes and boarding the mini bus that would take us to the launch point for the
rafts. All our belongings like wallets and passports were left in group lockets
at the rafting base house. A few boats were loaded onto a wagon towed by the
bus. The bus has to be small because the
narrow mountain road that we would be travelling to get to the start point. The
bus left the rafting base and travelled on the tar road before climbing up a
steep mountain road where we could see The Remarkables and even Corona Peak in
the distance. The climb was steep and it
seemed like the bus could take forever to reach the top. The staff helped to
alleviate the boredom by telling jokes and working out the paperwork and indemnity
form for us to sign. We were the only Asians in the group with many from
Australia and some from European countries.
The mountain road was very narrow, just
enough for the width of one vehicle and only at certain parts that the path
widened up for 2 vehicle width. The sides were steep drops down to the gorges
and ravine below and the staff told us of stories of accidents that happened
before, making the drive seemed much more exciting. At certain parts of the route when we stick
our heads out of the bus window and looked down, we could see the ground and
river below us. Any mistakes by the driver and definitely would be fatal for
everyone.
It was a relief when we reached the river
banks and started helping to unload the boats from the wagon. Everyone grabbed
a rowing oar and assemble for the briefing. The mood started casual but turned
slightly serious as the one of the staff explained the safety and recovery
procedures that needed to be followed during the rafting. When the briefing was
done, it was photo taking by their official photographer so that interested
participants could purchase those photos back at the base. Well you cannot
bring your own camera to take pictures unless you bring one that is waterproof
and shock-proof (Don’t know if they allow that). The rest of the explanation
and learning was taught while we paddle down the river, learning how to
navigate through the different rapids. We went through most of the rapids
without much difficulties, although there were some which causes the paddlers
to fumble inside the boat knocking hard into each. Luckily we had the helmets
on as I got a hard knock on the helmet by the paddlers in front of me. If not
sure would get a bad bruise on the head. The grand finale was the last rapid
where we rowed the boat into a long dark tunnel (man-made) before exiting the
tunnel with a drop to the Shotover River near the rafting base. This is the
part where our photograph will be taken by their standby photographer. From
here it was just guiding the boat back to the river banks where we got off the
boat. That marked the end of the rafting
activity and it was back to the locker room to change and retrieve our
belongings. Photos were displayed for sale at the booth of the café, we decided
not to purchase the photos as it did not have ourselves captured nicely. Some
choose to hang around the café enjoying their cuppa. But was for us, we took
the next shuttle transfer back to town for lunch.
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| End point of the rafting session at Shotover River |
.JPG) |
| Delicious Japanese food at Queenstown |
We chanced upon this Japanese restaurant in town
that served quite authentic Japanese food prepared by Japanese chefs. It was
not that pricey for the good quality and taste, and it was really value for
money. After lunch, it was back to the motel for some washing up. Problem with the
activities at Queenstown is that you only got time to do one activity a day
since most of the morning activities end around lunch time, making it
impossible to rush for the afternoon activities. Since we were bored, we took
the car and drove to Arrowtown. We were there back in year 2009, so it was just
to kill time by revisiting the place again.
Arrowtown is a popular stop for tour groups but I found the place not
that existing and meant for family activities like bring the kids down the
stream for gold panning. We spent an hour there only before headed back to
Queenstown.
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| At one of the shops at Arrowtown |
.JPG) |
| BBQ ribs at the "Flame" Restaurant |
.JPG) |
| TSS Earnslaw, docked at the Skippers Wharf |
The rest of the day was wandering the streets of Queenstown until
dinner time which we got ourselves a nice table at a restaurant called “The
Flame”, with a view of the park near the
jetty. This is the part of the town where there are loads of tourists hanging
around that area for strolls and dinners. We ordered some ribs and cream pastas
as main course and ended with some nice deserts.
Day 5 (Queenstown, Ben Lomond Hike)
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| Halfway up the track to Ben Lomond SUmmit |
The blog for day 5 is already covered in a
dedicated blog with the URL link as mentioned below.
Here is a short video taken at the summit
with a 360 view of the surroundings.
Day 6 ( Queenstown, Earnslaw Farm, Te Anau)
.JPG) |
| Getting out tickets for the cruise and the farm tour |
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| Sailing across Lake Wakatipu towards Earnslaw High Country Farm |
Today was out last day at Queenstown before
driving to our next destination of Te Anau. We signed up for the TSS Earnslaw
& Walter peak High Country Farm when we were at Queenstown the 2nd
day. Did not book in advance as there were lots of vacancies for that part of
the year. You can take the cruise alone which is a round trip across the
beautiful Lake Wakatipu, or bundle it with a visit to the Walter Peak Hugh
Country Farm. We took a 10mins walk from
our motel down to the Steamer Wharf near the town centre where the boat was docked . After registering with the ticket counter to
get our tickets, we boarded the boat and went to the upper deck to enjoy the
sun and the view of the lake. Morning was slight gloomy and some dark clouds
were forming in a distant mountains.
With a blow of the boat’s horns, it left the wharf and slowly cruised across
the wide open lake towards the farm. The
boat has a small café on board for passengers to grab some light breakfast and
tea should they missed them. It was an
additional morning time slot only available in summer, and being early in the
morning should explain the lesser crowd. After 50mins on the boat, we arrived
at the high country farm.
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| Walter Peak High County Farm Map Layout |
The host of the farm was already waiting and waving
to the passengers on the boat, welcoming those that would disembark to join the
farm excursion. And yes, the NZ journey staffs would be checking your tickets
to see if you had paid for this part of the excursion.
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| Sheep coming down the hill, being herded by the sheep dog |
The first stop was a short walk to an open
field where the farm dog (couldn’t remember the name) would round up the sheep
cornering them to stand in group near us. The host would whistle to the dog for
tasks to show the visitors. Then came the feeding part which everyone enjoyed.
We grabbed some feed from the farmers’ bucket and fed the sheep that surrounded
us. They seemed hungry maybe because we
were the 1st group of the day.
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| A sheep udnergoing the "shave" |
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| A reindeer at the farm |
Next was the sheep shearing shed where the farm staff picked an innocent
sheep for a quick barber session. Guess
it was the explaining that made the entire shearing task seemed long, if not guess
the sheep should be bald in just minutes. With that it was the end of the
guided tour.
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| Place to get our complimentary tea and snacks. |
Morning tea or juices were
available at the homestead besides the farm and this is complimentary as part
of the package. Those that signed up for the BBQ lunch would proceed for the
lunch meal. We decided to give the BBQ
lunch a miss as we thought of the greater variety of food back in
Queenstown. It was a free and easy after
the tea session and we wandered around the farm to spend some quiet moments
with the animals while waiting for our return boat to arrive. Normally there
would be quite a fair bit of time for visitors to shop around at the souvenir
shop. We took a leisure walk to the lake side with some of the other
visitors. At around noon time, the TSS
Earnslaw came, unloading new batch of farm visitors while picking up the
initial batch for the return trip to Queenstown. I did curiously check on Google
map if the place can be reached by land and I believed so, but it will be a
very long drive till you get the main highway. Not sure if they accept visitors
who drove to the farm or not.
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| TSS Earnslaw approaching the Skippers' Wharf at Queenstown |
At around 1pm, we were back at Queenstown,
walking the streets to pick a place for lunch before the drive to Te Anau. We
were expecting lesser food choice at Te Anau and therefore wanted to stuff our
stomach first before going to Te Anau. We picked a restaurant bar by the name
of Captains Restaurant , which only has
a few dinners at that time( seldom anyone want to get alcoholic during lunch
time), maybe because competition is touch for customers during lunch time as
most of them would be out adventuring or joining some excursion. The ambience was great, quiet and food was
good as well. We ordered 2 main course to share and the portion was huge for
Asian like us. It was really an enjoyable meal for us and we took a picture of
the restaurant to remind ourselves where found this place.
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| Lunch venue for the day |
With our stomach
filled, we walked slowly up the inclined road back to our motel to collect our
car for the drive to Te Anau. It started
to drizzle again with the dark clouds above, and after 15 mins of drive out of
Queenstown on highway 6A, we did a quick stop at the Remarkables shopping mall
which is located near the Queenstown International Airport. There were some shops catering more to the
locals where you will find supermarkets, medical clinics, DIY marts and DVD
rentals.
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| One of the shops at The Remarkables Mall |
We continued highway 6 which skirted along
the Lake Wakatipu, giving us great view of the lake and the mountains all the
way to the southern tip end of the lake with a town by the name of
Kingston. The drive from there onwards
was over the flat farmlands between 2 sides of the mountain. It was around 4pm
but the evening sun seemed to give the impression of a later time. From highway
6 we changed to highway 97 via the town called Mossburn which eventually joined
to the Te Anau-Mossburn Highway of 94. Could not recall where the exact
location when we saw a sign board saying last stop for fuel before Te
Anau.
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| Taking a photo shoot break by the road side of a quiet road |
We stopped at the shop and got
ourselves a mint ice cream, taking the opportunity to stretch out a little from
the driving. Actually it wasn’t a tiring drive compared to the ones we had
before from Kaikoura to Franz Josef, the distance between Queenstown and Te
Anau us about 175km and can be completed about 2.5hrs. From this ice cream stop
it was a non-stop drive to Te Anau. We reached the town of Te Anau about 5:30pm
and 1st stop was to the local petrol station to fill up the
tank. We planned for a 3 night stay at
Te Anau, wanting to use it as the base for our next 3 days of activity which
include a visit to Milford sound.
.JPG) |
| Motel signboard just along the road facing the lake |
.JPG) |
| Front view of the motel |
We
check-in at the Lakeside motel which is located just next to the lake and a
short distance to the town centre. We
got ourselves a big unit, sort of like those chalet or cottage type which has
everything from kitchen, living room, 2 bedrooms and toilets. The unit can
house a family of 5. So we had the entire big unit to the 2 of us. Knowing small towns tend to have shops and
eatery close at an earlier time, we unloaded our bags into our rooms and drove
to the town centre looking for food. Actually when we came into town from the
highway 94, we spotted an Itallian restaurant serving pizza and pasta which
caught my eyes. So it was a straight drive to the restaurant. The food
establishment seemed to have some authenticity of Italian food. Well it turned
out the food to my taste buds were good.
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| Yummy pasta in the town of Te Anau |
End of Part 2.
Proceed on to NZ South Island, Part 3
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