[update: added panorama]
We’re really hurting for internet access (and time) to keep up with these posts … We started the day in Cromwell (poor, pathetic Cromwell), got breakfast and got out. Drove into Queenstown through the river gorge that leads to it — beautiful (duh) but a different kind of beautiful … very arid, like eastern Washington State (or so we think), with a big river coursing through it.
Queenstown itself is a very very touristy alpine ski town, in a picturesque setting but still swarming with human beings. Sharon swears that she saw someone wearing a Branson Missouri t-shirt, and not ironically either. Fortunately we knew this going in and only planned to spend an hour or so just poking around. And that’s exactly what we did and then high-tailed it out of there.
Arrowtown was back up the road a bit and we stopped there to visit a Chinese Settlement. Set back from the town center along a little trail, it shows how Chinese immigrants came in the late 1800’s to work the hills for gold. They had several restored stone huts showing how the men lived there for years with the intention of eventually returning to their families after finding their fortune in gold.
Back on the road, we headed to the town of Wanaka, on the shores of Lake Wanaka. Stopped at a Dept of Conservation info center for hiking trail information for the national park that we were about to drive through. We got kebabs froma cranky Turkish lady and sat in the shoreline park and devoured them.
Finally we got back on the road and left Wanaka — and civilization — behind. This would be the last time we even had cell phone coverage for two days. We pulled up in Makarora and camped for the night under a gorgeous starry night.