Today is New Year’s eve and we are camped at Lake Hawea, a huge lake surrounded by mountains near Wanaka. 

The camp site is very large and gearing itself up for the New Years Eve celebrations, we seemed to be last in but we had managed to find a quite spot tucked away in the family section behind a few trees.

The previous day we made arranged to go fishing with a retired farmer called Harry who now takes chartered fishing trips on the lake.

We started fishing at 09.00 on a gloriously sunny day. Harry is without doubt a ‘back country man’, he had a very long ‘zz top’ style grey beard wears a ‘swan’, the ubiquitous check shirts they seem to wear in rural areas, and knew the lake like the back of his hand having fished on it since the age of 6.

We fished all morning and caught 3 rainbow trout and then went for a swim in the lake. Meg fell asleep periodically as seems to be her habit when on boats.

In the afternoon we drove into Wanaka for a look around and the kids swam in the lake (a different one but again impressively big) while we lazed on the foreshore. In the evening we cooked one of the trout (we gave the other two to our neighbouring campers in exchange for some tin foil and the use of a barbeque. In the evening we had a few drinks with some campers from Christchurch to the background sound of  music a Aika Moia playing live live at a pub a mile down the lake. We see the New Year in with our campsite neighbours and sit around their campfire until the early hours chatting away. “The problem with the society is that the rights of the individual are given more importance than the rights of the masses” is  a comment the Cantabrian farmer leaves us to pondering.

The following day we pack-up the tent and again hit the road on our whistle-stop tour of NZ and a 90 mile drive to Queenstown (a short hop by recent standards) via the Cardrona pass the highest mountain pass in New Zealand.

In Queenstown we checked into the Copthorne Hotel as the Bangladesh cricket team checked out (they had played a one day international the previous day – NZ had batted second and beaten the 93 scored by the Bangladesh side  in 6 overs and 31 minutes to take a 3 – nil lead in a one sided series). After several nights camping, the comfort of the hotel  is very welcome.

In the evening we took the Gondola to the top of the mountains above Queenstown and had a couple of runs on the ‘luge’ that operates from the top.

The next day Queenstown, considered by some to be the adventure sports capital of the world, is out play ground.  We have booked to go jet-boating in Skippers Canyon, an old gold mining canyon outside Queenstown (an astonishing 4000 people had lived in the canyon at the peak of the gold rush). We travelled by 4 wheel drive minibus on a single track dirt road perched precariously on the side of the narrow, 200m deep canyon which has startlingly sheer drops. Hitting 50 mph in a jet boat and with periodic pirouettes thrown into made for an exciting time . Cari and Ellie loved it. Meg said she did not like it. In the afternoon we headed back for a look around Queenstown town centre which is extremely well equipped for removing money for your wallet.

The following day I had booked a bungy jump on the Nevis bungy – the tallest in NZ and the second tallest in the world at 134m.

 

The act of booking it demanded huge will power as, in my frame of reference, once its booked your committed so its the speaking of the words and paying of the money at the till is the true point of no return.

The build up to the jump is extremely scary and the jump itself is absolutely exhilarating – it is an amazing feeling after you have done it!!

Ruth and the kids had booked horse riding in the morning too at Glenorchy (at the the other end of the lake to Queenstown). The horse riding was a big success too. In the afternoon we drove out to Glenorchy which is a spectacular place for a picnic. Time to leave Queenstown and head north on our long return journey north to Auckland but we’ll definitely be back.