How to Plan an International Trip: Travel Tales and Tips : New Zealand Trip Report, Day 13: Arrowtown, QT, Day 14: Drive to Aoraki village

Day 13: March 2, 2017, Thursday

YHA QUEENSTOWN:

We had to park on the street quite further away from the YHA as can be expected in a busy city. There are heavy fines for parking in forbidden areas. I got dropped at the hostel and son parked the car where slot was available and walked back. No issues!

We had an early start and it was a good time to get some pics of the busy QT pier.

ARROWTOWN:

Our drive for the day was as follows, short day trip to nearby attractions:

Arrowtown is a historic gold mining town on the banks of the Arrow river. It is á scenic drive from QT.

We reached there early in the morning. Parking is free for 120 minutes, then we can shift the car to another slot for another 120min. We parked and walked the historic Buckingham street and the main drag with shops. We drove around and got other nice shots as well with the church for instance.

This is a contemporary statue...

This is an old bar in the Buckingham street lined with old cottages from 1800s...

This is the restaurant just set up...

Main drag with interesting shops ...

Jade....

The old post office where we can get immortalised on stamps...

This vintage bus was ferrying a group of tourists...

This is the museum and you can get yourself photographed in Victorian costumes...

Antique engine...

Fruit laden apple tree...in front of a lovely home

A Church...

There is a living history museum of the Chinese miners... poignant tales of their oppressed life with the original cottages...

The walk loops back by the side of the gurgling Arrow River...

There is gold panning experience available for $15...

After a picnic meal, we drove back from the quaint town.

LAKE HAYES:

Lake Hayes is a very scenic spot...on the way back we stopped for a little while... terrific reflections in the mirror lakes...

After a drive into this secluded beach, we drove back to the main road and reached QT.

SKYLINE GONDOLA & LUGE:

We parked the car. We walked up to the gondola station, Bought a ticket for gondola with 2 luge rides.

There are several adventure sport options. For luge, after taking the gondola up, we took the chair lift, then out on the helmets and got a short instruction on handling the luge. Ticket for one luge experience is $42, 2 luges is$49, of course everyone opts for the latter...

AWESOME EXPERIENCE!

They stamp the hand for the second ride. ..

Son's luge stopped and jammed before he started his first ride, mine jammed in the middle of my second ride. Some how I managed to get it started back. It again jammed near the finish line and the guy tells me to lift the top of the luge, wiggle the handlebars... all this firefighting should be told BEFORE the ride!!

People just go up for the views also which are GREAT!

Jelly bean Art:

These are Jelly bean Art... fantastic!

Cemetery with veterans ...

QT GARDENS:

We then went to the Gardens. BEAUTIFUL...

This is a Scottish band playing at town center,,,

The silver fern, symbol of NZ...

Huge Redwoods...

Lavender...

A nesting bird...

We walked back along the lit up town center, watched the sun go down the lovely Wakatipu lake

DAY 14, March 3, 2017, Friday ,

DRIVE TO AORAKI VILLAGE/LAKE TEKAPO:

This is the map of our drive of the day

https://goo.gl/maps/hsnWeaD2SYRquUY76

Our next destination was the famed Aoraki/Mt Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ's Southern Alps. We did not get accommodation in the village, YHA was booked up with only dorms available. Hermitage had only its most expensive room at $350 available. As the weather is very fickle, and there is very little chance of seeing Aoraki, we decided to stay at Lake Tekapo and drive down for our hikes.

Son went off to bring the car near the YHA for loading our bags and taking off. Even at 8 am it was difficult to find a slot for a 5 minute loading but we managed it and started off on the drive.

Needless to say, there is lovely scenery, we were passing through a famous pass Lindis pass.

Raging Maggie and Gentle Annie Waterfalls:

This is Raging Maggie and Gentle Annie ...named after two bar girls who were carried across this raging stream by gallant miners. Maggie kicked up a storm during the fording while Annie was quiet... the waterfalls here are named after those two!

LINDIS PASS:

Lindis pass is truly a symbol of man's ingenuity... awesome engineering in the mountains...see the winding road through the relentless hills.

The lake Pukaki was shimmering in grand blue hues...

We decided to drive straight to the Mt Cook village and the visitor center, do a hike and then move on to our accommodation at Lake Tekapo

AORAKI/MT COOK NATIONAL PARK:

Clear weather all round except for Mt Cook...whose vague outlines only can be seen

This is Hermitage... we did not choose to stay here because of fickle weather

This is the Visitor Center... best to reach here, get info on conditions and then start the hikes ...

As close as we can come to Tenzing... who climbed Everest first...(sherpas not included!)

AAHH.. Aoraki coming into view...

HAPPY!!

TASMAN VALLEY HIKES:

We drove to the Tasman valley ... parked the car and started off on the hike. The trail starts from the visitor center also, but adds more kms. Best to park in the valley and start the hike.

At the fork, we took the lake hike first... and reached the pier. Good views of the Tasman glacier. No point in taking the costly $145 cruise on the lake as they don't get better views