Stop over in Cromwell

Day 4: weather forecast, blue skies.

As usual we got up early, well reasonably early to have some breaky, pack some snacks for the route, check out of the motel and on the move again. What was the plan today? drive all the way to Queenstown stopping over in Cromwell to have a bbq with my dear friend Lucho, which I hadn't seen since the time we were worked together in Peru.

Just leaving Twizel there is another Salmon farm, it could have been another option for the bbq but we decided to keep going. 20 minutes later after a series of curves we arrived to the first town, Omarama. We were supposed to check the big Merino here but I think locals already ate it as there was no sign of the statue. Continuing along SH 8 the hills start to get closer to the sides and the road starts to get steeper, signs the we are approaching Lindis pass. There was a lot of traffic on the other direction, I guess it was the last day of the Easter Break in NZ and people were coming back home after spending sometime in Queenstown or thereabouts.

Lindis pass was an easy drive however it has lots of curves and slow traffic especially when we caught up again with a couple of cars from the 50's, yes the same ones that got me running the day before in Mt Cook. Lake Dunstan awaits at the end of the pass, to our luck one of the cars took the right turn to Wanaka so it didn't take me long to overtake the other one. The lake has a beautiful blue colour and apparently is a good spot for fishing.

Cromwell sits at the end of the lake, there SH 8 continues towards Dunedin, to the right over a bridge the entrance to the town and the connection to SH 6 to Queenstown. It took us two hours to get here from Twizel.

Now we need to find out where Lucho lived and also whether he was there, I knew he had spent the long weekend over in Dunedin. As suspected he was still on his way so we decided to explore the town. A few signs showed the way to the old cromwell town, a sort of recreation of the old mining towns, a resemblance to a far west town, good spot for some photos and to visit art galleries and restaurants.

Lucho finally arrived and we got the long awaited BBQ with his family. Time flew really quick so after thanking and promising another catch up this time in Gold Coast we were on the road again, this time on SH6 on our way to Queenstown.

It only takes 45 minutes from Cromwell to Queenstown, the road is a typical gorge drive where the hill sits on one side and the river on the other. After passing the detour to Arrowtown we arrived in Queenstown, Another 15 minutes to get across the city centre and we finally made it to the hotel, it was 6pm. Just a quick glance to town gave us an idea what to expect for the next two days

We stayed at the Lomond Lodge apartments, we found the room rather small with basic kitchenette facilities but no sink, there was a share oven and cook top outside our room. The motel location is ideal, just around the corner from the Gondola and within walking distance to the centre Shotover st, the vertebral spine of Queenstown. There is only 4 car parks in front of the motel and on street parking is nearly impossible, fortunately we were given and access key to an undercover car park across the road, we were going to save petrol here.Read more