NZ Trip – Wanaka to Queenstown

Day 6 (18 May)

The weather God’s were smiling down on us today. The rain stopped! It was still a cloudy day but we actually saw glimpses of blue sky on occasion. This morning we did a lakeside walk past the famous #ThatWanakaTree and Edgewater (a lakeside Hotel) to Waterfall Creek and then back to town. Everywhere we turned was stunningly beautiful. As a nature lover I was very much in my element! Lots of photos were taken! After our walk we went to Trout Restaurant Cafe/Bar for coffee & a savoury scone. Then off we went to ‘New World‘ to buy some frozen meals to zap in our microwave for dinner tonight (too expensive to eat every meal out).

Dinner last night at Speights Alehouse was delicious, and as I said in the last NZ Trip post, it also served as my lunch today (I could only eat half of it so got a doggy bag) once heated up in the microwave.

In the afternoon we did a 2 hr cruise & nature walk to Stevensons Island that was very enjoyable and extremely picturesque! It was a small group of people which was lovely. Stevensons Island is a small 65 hectare island in the Stevensons Arm section of Lake Wānaka. There are two small islets close to the south end of the island. Lake Wānaka is so huge and so beautiful. We were in awe and this cruise showed it off beautifully to us. We swooned over some of the lakeside residences that are worth are pretty penny or two (to say the least).

Dinner tonight was our frozen meals zapped in the microwave from New World and quite delicious too I might add!  

In the gallery of photos below you’ll see a photo of The Hand that Nurtures which was just by where we waited for our cruise. This is a sculpture done by Llew Summers that symbolises notions of nurturing, safety and protection as well as friendship, openness and honesty. It was commissioned by the Aspiring Arts & Culture Trust and unveiled March 10, 2005. 

Day 7 (19 May)

Before we farewelled beautiful Wanaka (very hard to do because it is just gorgeous!) we dropped in at the Wanaka Lavender Farm. It wasn’t flowering season but it was still very beautiful with a variety of farm animals and ‘purple’ themed features around the farm. The sheep they have there are mountain sheep brought in from the Swiss alps but for some reason I didn’t photograph them! They have a lovely shop and tearoom where we tried some tea and shared a nice hot muffin.

Then off we went to Queenstown via Cardrona. Stopped to see the well known ‘BraDrona’ the Cardrona Bra Fence named so to raise money for breast cancer and tens of thousands of dollars have been raised by people leaving donations in the box at the site. The drive through Cardrona and surrounds was high country and cold! There were also lots of beautiful snow capped mountains and fabulous lookouts along the way.

 We eventually reached Queenstown with time on our hands (too early to check in). We found a little cafe to have some lunch and then wandered around checking out Queenstown. Once 2pm came around we checked into our room at the Ramada where we will be staying for 4 nights. I was so excited to be in one spot for 4 whole nights! This will be a base from which we’ll do some day trips! Our room had an incredible view out over Lake Wakatipu and was a beautiful room and bonus was that it had a washer/dryer (very handy!). It was also nice and close to everything, just a short walk downhill to central Queenstown, but of course this meant an uphill walk back to our hotel. We didn’t mind though – it’s all exercise and it was cool enough that it wasn’t a bother. We had a delicious dinner at ‘Pub on Wharf’ and boy it was a popular place, crowded and noisy but such an exciting vibe.

The next NZ trip post will continue on from Day 8 in Queenstown. I absolutely LOVED Queenstown and its surrounds. What a beautiful part of the world. In between NZ Trip posts there will be some more Art Chat posts where I’ll share my travel sketches. 

Ciao for now,

Linking up with Denyse Whelan’s ‘Wednesday’s Words and Pics‘