EC-Rider Travels

Oh my goodness, what a beautiful drive we have had today and could not believe the changes in the scenery and suddenly, the population! For the first hour or so, we were still in deep rainforest coming along the west coast, only occasionally glimpsing the sea.

Not a soul or a car on the road, let alone a house, shop or indeed a petrol station. Fortunately we had a full tank! Despite trees covered in all sorts of plants growing up them, there were no wild flowers which was interesting. We made a brief stop at the Thunder Creak Falls, which are very pretty and then continued through the Haast Pass which we also claim as Caroline Dobson’s sister Mary, was married to Julius von Haast. (Caroline was Mum’s Great Granny, married to Charles Franklin Todhunter) Caroline and Mary were Arthur Dobson’s sisters – got it?! Hopefully I have!

We continued on to Lake Wanaka where the scenery completely changed as indeed did the population. Wanaka is a buzzing town which doubles as both a ski-resort and summer retreat. We had made a plan to meet Heather Woon, who used to sell the wonderful merino/possum jerseys at Upham which Mum patronised every Xmas for Tim’s present. After lunch I went for the most glorious walk around the lake, it really is very, very lovely and surrounded with wild flowers again, including lots of new ones.

We then headed over the Crown Range towards Queenstown. This was a breathtakingly, beautiful drive winding up steep mountains on Monte Carlo type roads with hair-pin bends, lined with more lupins than you can believe possible. Beyond beautiful. We had to stop a number of times, simply to take it all in.

We also came to quite a sudden stop when we came over the hill to see thousands of bras hanging along the side of a track just off the main road. All shapes and sizes had been removed and were waving in the wind. We did not add ours and were slightlyconcerned as to what else we might find waving in the wind when we got to Queenstown.

Before heading to our lodgings, we drove into Arrowtown, as Mum had fond memories of her visit there in 1987. It had changed beyond recognition and spread for miles with chic, modern bungalows of every style of architecture. The central street however, was much the same and looks like a stage set from an American western, apparently having barely changed since the days of the gold rush.

We then drove to the Kinross vineyard (thinking about Davina!) which was about ten miles out of Queenstown, amongst a number of other vineyards along the road (some with very curious names – who wants a wine called Wet Jacket?!). We are staying in a very nice cottage with adjoining rooms looking out over the vineyard and the rabbits – you have never seen to many.

There are also lots of my chirpy little quail friends – love them chasing their top-knot.

Q