It had rained heavily in the night and we woke to a grey day with a new dusting of snow on the hill across the river. Luckily our little cottage was cosy and warm!
We opened up the breakfast box that had been left in our fridge and tucked into toast and jam, fresh fruit and yoghurt and muffins. Breakfast of champions!
We have two full days in the area and I’d kept our plans fluid so we could plan around the weather. I decided to keep our road trip to Glenorchy until tomorrow as I think the weather will be better then. Today we would spend in and near to Queenstown itself. Our first stop was Arrowtown, a little town that was built on the back of a goldrush.
After finding a parking spot we walked down to the Arrowtown Chinese Settlement. Central Otago had several Chinese settlements. Arrowtown’s was studied extensively by archaeologists in the early 1980s and is the best memorial to these settlers. It is now a mixture of stabilised hut ruins, reconstructions and restorations. The huts that they built for themselves are so tiny! Even I had to duck to walk in the door of them!
We strolled up and along the main street of the town with it’s cute little shops. It reminded me a lot of Berry. We looked inside some of the shops and stopped for a touristy photo at the Old Post Office.
Then we visited the Lakes District Museum & Gallery. This was an outstanding museum! It showcases the history of the Queenstown Lakes District and was contained within three historical buildings on the main street. It was packed with an abundance of artefacts and really clever displays.
The exhibits told the stories of the original Maori people, the tough-as-old-boots gold miners ( and their women!), and the hard-working settlers settled here. As we wound our way through it we walked through and old grog shanty, a Victorian schoolhouse and a blacksmith’s workshop!
Before heading back to the car we searched for the place where “X Marks the Spot”! In the carpark down near the river there is a plaque and monument to mark the location where, in August 1862 ,Jack Tewa (known as Maori Jack) found gold in the Arrow River – and strated Arrowtowns boom time.
The drive from Arrowtown to Queenstown is only a short one , but I got a bit of a shock when we approached the town and could look up to where the Skyline Gondola takes people up to the hilltop behind the town center. We enjoyed that ride and the views on our previous visit to Queenstown. It was a pretty ride up the through the pine trees to a green outlook at the top. HOwever, at some point recently they have cleared all the trees on either side of the Gondola and it looks like a scar on the hillside! I suppose it may have been done to improve the views on the ride up, but geez it looks ugly from below!
We found parking in a large multi-story carpark in the center of the town. We spent a while wandering around the busy, busy shopping streets and malls and down to the waterfront. To be honest I’m not really a fan of Queenstown. I remember it as being busy and touristy ( as Ski resort towns often are) but it has become even busier and tackier in the last 25 years. Back then the waterfront right in town was quite attractive, now the view of the lake is obscured by the docks for the Real NZ tourist boats and the rows of pop up stands with people selling all sorts of touristy tat. If you needed to buy press on nails, or huge lollies on a stick then you would be in just the right place! We both agreed that the main town waterfront, and the overcrowded shopping malls that run up the hill made the place feel like Vegas-By-The-Lake. Fortunately, you can get away from it, and can see the lovely lake and Remarkables in a more pleasant setting by walking down away from the town center along the park that edges the lake – which is what we did!
We were getting hungry so I suggested we head to Canyon Brewing for lunch. This local craft brewery sits on the edge of the Shotover River, right near the Edith Cavell Bridge. It’s next door to the main headquarters of the Shotover Jets, so after a tasty lunch and a new beer for Neil to try, we went up to the viewing platform to watch the jetboats tearing up and down the narror river gorge.
On the way back to “our” winery we stopped in at the Kawarau Bridge to see if anyone was indulging in a little Bungy jumping. The bridge was built in 1880 and pushed design limits of the time – a century later it became the birthplace of bungy and the A.J. Hackett Bunjy Jumping Centre here cater to all the daredevils who wish to pay $320 for 30 seconds of terror! We watched a guy dressed as Batman take the plunge ( ’nuff said!)
We took a short detour to drive up to the first lookout on the Crown Range Road. This is a high country backroad the connects Queenstown and Wanaka. The views were lovely but it was blowing a gale and freezing!
Back at our little winery cabin we thawed out for an hour and then walked out in the wind again to head for the Cellar Door. Our accommodation package includes an intensive wine tasting. The Kinross cellar door represents their own vintages as well as the wines of 5 other small local vineyards. Our sommelier, Marcelle, was a passionate lover of wine and was also very French! He explained why this region produces outstanding cold climate wines, particularly Pinot Noir, and we sampled 6 wines which were all delicious. I’m not generally a fan of reds but all three of the Pinot Noir that we tried were excellent. One of them comes from a winemaker who has been awarded the best Pinot Noir in the World four times! We chatted with the two other couples who were all Kiwis and were very familiar with these wines, in fact they were subscribers to the Kinross wine club and enjoyed coming back and visiting here regularly.
The Cellar door is a lovely building both inside and out.
For dinner tonight we had ordered one of their pre-prepared meals that you can heat up in your own little kitchen. Our Chicken, Leek, Bacon and Sweetcorn pie was so tasty! And also very abundant, we have enough left over for tomorrow night. The weather report for tomorrow is more promising, so we’re planning a drive up to Glenorchy.