From Wanaka to Queenstown, and on to Mount Cook

On the road again!

 After working in Wanaka for two months or so, I've now started on the final leg of my New Zealand Journey.

 First Stop, Queenstown, only about 100k away from Wanaka, so thankfully, not a long bus journey! Getting to Queenstown was quite a culture shock, as within 5 minutes or so, I'd already seen more people than you'd see in Wanaka in two days.
 As I said at the end of the last entry, I came to Queenstown for a weekend last May, so had already done alot of activities in the area. With two nights (so one full day),  I decided to have a nice relaxing time, and spent most of my time on the full day in Arrowtown. Getting back to Queenstown in the late afternoon, it was a bit grey and murky, so the photos didn't do the place it's full justice. No worries! I took some back in May, so will put them together.

 Originally a town made for the gold rush, Queenstown now boasts that it's the adventure capital of the world. It's got the Original site of commercial bungy jumping (and a couple of others), and is a popular destination for Skiers in the winter. Like Wanaka, it's got lots of mountains surrounding it, including the range called the Remarkables;

Now (March)

Back in May

The reason they're called the Remarkables is simple; they run directly from North to South. Or South to  North depending on where you're standing. Remarkable!
 While I didn't do anything adventurous this time, back in May we did a whole heap of stuff, all free thanks to work at the time!
 This is a link to one of the things I did, which was probably my favourite;

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzhAMscTxyc

So Arrowtown is a small little village near Queenstown, again created due to the gold rush down here. There's even a preserved Chinese village from a load of miners that came over. My first stop was to get the best pie in the world though. A Lamb and mint pie from the Arrowtown bakery. You have to come here and get one if you get the chance.

So good, I took a photo.

 I then took a walk along the beautiful Arrow river and the town itself. There's not much to do here, but it's a beautiful spot. Good retirement option....

So after two nights here, it was back to getting up early... I had not missed these day, especially as I'd been back in the life of barwork... get up late, sleep late. But we headed to what I think is one of the more beautiful spots in the country.....

Mt. Cook

So Mount Cook is the highest peak in New Zealand, and it's also where Edmund Hillay (The first guy to climb Everest) did a lot of his practicing. He was a Kiwi if you didn't know, and there's a little museum dedicated to him at the complex where our hostel was for the night.
 It was unfortunatley another rubbish view from the hostel window (with  balcony) ...

The complex and roads are in the valley that used to be part of the glacier. On my first full day here I did a walk down the Hooker Valley to a glacial lake that comes from Mt. Cook, and it's a wierd feeling to walk down a place that you know was just ice a longtime ago. Good walk to a lake created by the glacier though...

Not Mt. Cook, but there were a few Glacier fed lakes and rivers around

Bouncy Bridges over rivers and big drops seems to be a New Zealand Standard. 

And to prove I'm actually here for all you doubters, here's me at the end of the track, about to ignore a recommendation (like everyother person who was doing the walk):

The big glacier fed lake under Mount Cook. You can see the ice in the water still on the right hand side. Worth ignoring a sign for I think!

On of the nights I was there, I also did a star gazing trip to get used to the Southern Hemisphere a bit more. Anyone from the Oswestry area who's been out in to the country would be familar with the amount of stars you could get here, but it was still beautiful. The whole of the Mount Cook area is a light pollution reserve, so it's always good for viewing!
 
 I may have watched a Champions League football match during my stay here, but I won't talk about that...