New Zealand
Royal Burn

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    • Day 51

      The other side of Lake Wakatipu

      April 3 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

      After the excitement of Col’s flight yesterday, we kept our feet on the ground, and drove to Glenorchy, via Queenstown.

      Glenorchy is a little place on the far side of Lake Wakatipu, which the Coleslaw (or TSS Earnslaw to everyone else) cruises to, and we fancied seeing what it looked like from land.

      It was a classic hilly, twisty turny drive, with amazing views (of course!). We stopped off at a few lookouts en route, and Col put Buzz, the drone up. A guy (from Hungary as it turned out) approached us and asked Col about flying it - turns out he has the exact same model (DJI mini 4 pro) but is a much newer ‘pilot’. Col gave him some tips, we waved good bye and went on our way.

      Glenorchy is a little place with a general store and a small number of eateries. We picked an Asian place for lunch, I chose something with rice, we went to order it only to be told they’d run out of rice. It was only 1pm so that can’t have been good for business! I’m sure they’ll be talking about the great rice shortage of 2024 for years to come 😉

      After lunch (where they did have the necessary ingredients!) we drove on a bit further only to see our Hungarian friend again. We parked up, Buzz went up again, then our friend joined us on the river bank and put his drone up (not a euphemism 🤭)

      Then another guy arrived, and he put his drone up (the exact same type!) It was like a nerdy drony convention, with Col doing the Q&A session!

      From the ground, it was impossible to tell which drone was which, but luckily the drones knew who belonged to whom and they each came back to their respective grown-ups when commanded! It was hilarious until we realised we were surrounded by sandflies, which are essentially midges on steroids. When they bite we remembered the itching was off the scale. Got back in the car sharpish, leaving our new drony friends still flying and prob being bitten too.

      We’d pretty much run out of proper road at that point, so started the drive back to base with a short food shop en route.

      We’ve become quite fond of the hot, freshly roasted chicken they sell at some supermarkets, which makes dinner a breeze 😋
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    • Day 90

      We took the High Road to Queenstown

      March 9, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

      We met a father and son from London, Ontario, who told us that there were two roads from Wanaka to Queenstown - a high road and a low road through a valley. They suggested the high road as it had wonderful views. So that’s what we did - we took the high road - the Crown Range Road.

      The road starts out fairly straight and flat as it follows a river and goes through pastures with hundreds of sheep. Then the mountains begin. Golden mountains without a single tree on them! Just yellow grasses and a few low bushes. I think that maybe the hard rock is too close to the surface for trees to grow on it.

      We came upon a very strange sight so stopped to take a photo. There was a long fence covered in women’s bras!!! At some point between 1998 and 1999, passers-by began to attach bras to a rural fence. The fence gradually became a well known site as the number of bras grew to hundreds. But some people were offended and stripped the fence of the bras. Other people came and put more and more bras on the fence. It has had a bumpy history. Now there is a pink sign and box for donations for breast cancer and the collection grows.

      Right across the street from Bradrona, there is a historic building. The Cardrona Hotel was built in 1863 and it is one of NZ’s oldest and most iconic hotels. Once it was a “retreat for old miners to rest their weary heads”. Now it is a lovely 17 room hotel used by wintertime skiiers and summertime wedding guests. Money lines the ceiling of the lounge. They also serve great coffee so we ordered 2 flat whites and a in the garden.

      Moving on, we stopped at a viewpoint on the highest point on the road. We could see Queenstown in the distance. Quite the view! A trail continued even higher so of course my mountain goat husband was chomping at the bit to walk even higher. Not me...I went about halfway, then put my jacket down, sat on it, took out the binoculars and enjoyed the views while he marched on. Enough mountain climbing for me. He returned in an hour with some great photos though.

      Another viewpoint took us out on a narrow trail on a ridge with drop offs on either side. A nice lady offered to take our photo.

      A little further, we saw a corrugated metal flag fence. A Canadian flag was there.

      Finally, we arrived in Queenstown, a tourist zoo. Not our cup of tea. We got out of there as fast as we could and headed to Arrowtown where we are staying.
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    • Day 53

      Gibbston Valley Canyoning

      January 22, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      The weather today doesn’t look so good. It’s really cloudy and at first, it was not looking like this will change at anytime soon.
      Shortly before 10 am I left the cottage to drive to Queenstown.
      I want to explore the city today.
      I was really lucky to actually find a free place to park my car that is also not costing anything and still quite close to the city center.
      So it was only a short walk beside the lake to the city center.
      And even the weather got nice now, not as warm as the last couple of days, but warm enough!
      Queenstown has a lot to offer. Many restaurants, pubs, shops and even more tour operators.
      It is a real challenge for me to stay strong here and don’t start to book tours like hell. There is so much you can do around Queenstown, some many things that I really like to do 🙈😬
      I went to buy some fudges for my friends as a little thank you for letting me stay at their cottage for free. Then I was really feeling for a pie, and I found a really good one that was actually not as expensive as expected. So I could really enjoy this one.
      Normally I wanted to eat one of the extremely famous Ferg Burgers, but I was just not hungry enough for one of their big burgers, but they looked really good and there are always a lot of people standing in a line, waiting to get their burger 😳

      For the afternoon I had booked a Canyoning trip, that I found for a really good price online.
      I was actually a little bit worried, that this one might be to easy because it sounded very easy on the website.
      We got picked up in the middle of Queenstown. I got teamed up with a family from Switzerland, that now lives in Nelson and a couple from India.
      After a short briefing, we left Queenstown to drive to the Gibbston Valley. It took around 35 minutes to drive here. We got our equipment from the guides and started to get changed, I was definitely ending up in the slow group as the other group was leaving at least 15 minutes before us.
      When everyone was ready we walked down to a little creek for some safety instructions and a little rope training. And then we started to walk to the canyon. We followed the creek for around 10 minutes and then had to climb down in the canyon.

      This canyon is totally different from the other canyons I have been into so far. It is partly very narrow, like 50cm I guess.
      It was a lot of climbing this time, sadly no jumps but some really good slides that made up for this.
      The water temperature is around 12 degrees we guessed, definitely not too cold so that is nice.

      We were moving quite slowly through the canyon as the couple from India were very insecure and also no swimmers, so they needed an extra hand a few times to get through everything, but they were really trying and doing all stuff.
      So we were a really good team! 💪🏼
      After a big slide the guide, Ross is his name, took the two children and told them to lay down on their back in the water. He then pushed them with the head first under the waterfall, or the former slide, so the water was pushing them down and they came up a few seconds later again. That looked really funny and in the end, everyone was doing it, even the couple from India was doing it as well! Really cool from them, as they can’t swim!

      At the end of the trip, we had to abseil down a waterfall. That was not so easy as the rocks were extremely slippy, but we all came down.
      Unfortunately, the trip came to an end here. We had around 15 minutes to walk back to the bus, where we got changed into our normal clothes and then drove back to Queenstown. We were supposed to be back in Queenstown at 6 pm but we were running late and were back in Queenstown around 6.45 or so.
      Together as a team, we convinced Ross to sell us the photos for a good price. Normally it’s 30$ pp but we got them all together for 30$ so we had to pay only 10$ each, the family and couple counts of coarse as one 😉
      Nice!

      After that, I rushed back to my car and left Queenstown as I was invited for dinner with Vicky and Jeremy.
      So I stopped only fast at the Cottage to hang up my wet stuff and get changed and then followed the road to their house.
      They have built themselves a really nice home and the food was sooo good and it was so nice to spend some hours with them.
      I gonna miss this place! It’s like a little paradise and their dog Lilly is so lovely and always happy, just like Snoopy! ❤️
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    • Day 20

      Blick über Queenstown

      January 3 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      William Gilbert Rees und Nicholas von Tunzelmann waren die ersten Europäer, die sich im Gebiet des heutigen Queenstown niederließen. Rees legte zusammen mit seiner Frau 1861 eine Farm an der Stelle des heutigen Stadtzentrums an. Die Goldfunde 1862 im Arrow River brachten Rees dazu, die Schafzucht aufzugeben und stattdessen ein Hotel namens The Queen’s Arms zu eröffnen. Viele Straßennamen von Queenstown erinnern heute noch an die GoldgräberzeitRead more

    • Day 18

      Skippers Canyon (really!)

      January 22, 2023 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

      This is a real place that developed during the 1860s gold rush in the Otago Valley near Queenstown. Skippers Canyon Road is considered one of the most dangerous roads In all of New Zealand. In the 1st picture you might see why. The road is carved into the wall of the canyon with steep cliffs on both side: 1 up and 1 down. Of course there are no guard rails. And the road is a 2 way public road, mostly one lane plus a bit wide that got away interesting when dirt bikes came flying by and cars that don't expect traffic have to react. I'm told it gets even more interesting when school buses bringing kids on field trips are on the road.
      Also in the 1st picture you can see the original "road" into the canyon. It's the narrow path way down on the far side. Until recently, that was the only way for the folks who live back in the canyon to get in and out.
      The 2nd picture is a look into the canyon. The 3rd picture is the top of Lighthouse Rock, so called because of its shape and because it was a natural marker defining which part of the canyon was the correct way out. The place is a maze.
      The 4th picture is Castle Rock, so called because it looks like a castle. The last picture is Heaven's Gate. It's a 1 lane wide rock cut with 90° turns at both ends. There is also Hell's Gate, another narrow rock cut that's longer and more blind than this one.
      In spite of the name, I'm glad I wasn't driving.
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    • Day 242

      Wanaka und Arrowtown

      October 13, 2023 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

      Arrowtown ist ein kleines Örtchen auf dem Weg von Queenstown nach Wanaka, dem zweiten Outdoor Tourismus Hub der Gegend. Als ehemalige Goldgräbersiedlung gibt's ein wenig Geschichte zu sehen und das war's dann auch. Der Weg nach Wanaka ist sehr hübsch über den sogenannten Crowns Pass. Wanaka fühlt sich an wie eine etwas verschlafene Version Queenstown, auch wenn sich das mit etlichen Neubauprojekten bald ändern wird. Der See mit der Aussicht ist atemberaubend schön, der berühmte Wanaka Tree nur ein wenig enttäuschend. Aber man kann eher gut wandern gehen.Read more

    • Christmas Day

      December 25, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

      Merry Christmas 🎅🏼🎄🌟

      We spent Christmas with our wwoofing family. Jörg, his girlfriend Nadine and his friend Phil, Anna and her boyfriend Carlos, Aya, Nori and the neighbours Tony and Fleur were here for dinner. We had turkey that was prepared on the bbq, roast potatoes and vegetables. Isi made Plätzchen (Christmas cookies) which we had for dessert.Read more

    • New Year's Eve

      December 31, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      Happy New Year! 🥳🥂
      We spent New Years at our wwoofing place with Jörg, Nadine, Aya, Nori, Tony and Fleur. We made pizza in the new pizza oven, watched Dinner for One, played games and had lots of drinks and fun.Read more

    • Arrow River

      January 15, 2021 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

      Jörg's daugther Anna took us down to a "secret" swimming spot on the Arrow River. It wasn't that secret but definitely beautiful. We went there quite a few times as it's a perfect spot to go for a swim after a day of work in the sun. It's even got a small river rapid.Read more

    • Dinners with Jörg

      January 3, 2021 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

      Dinners at our wwoofing place with Jörg were always amazing. We have never eaten so much fancy food EVER. 5* Restaurant worthy. It'll be hard to go back to van life and van meals again!
      On the pictures are pasties made by Jake, Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Gateau) made by Jörg and Nadine and Apple Strudel made by Isi.Read more

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