17/04/08: 47km, climb: 719m, Twelve Mile Delta to Glenorchy and back to a beach on Wakatipu
18/04/08: 38km, climb: will be updated next time, that beach to Queenstown
We were keen to leave the Holiday Park in Cromwell, but we got stuck on the internet so did not get away until after 11am. We decided it would be the last time we would stay in a Holiday Park, not that it was so terribe just rather strange.
The days cycling started with a few stops at some orchard shops where we stocked up on fruit and vegetables and of course we could not turn down the real fruit ice cream either. Then we continued up the lovely Kawarau Gorge lined with gold digging places along the thundering river down below. The sun was shining and it was pretty hot, we were feeling tired and the road kept going up and down. We considered just stopping there and spending the rest of the day swimming or dodging jet boats but we resisted and continued on our way. We picked some apples from a tree by the side of the road, which we made a lovely compot with a few days later.
We stopped at Kawarau Bridge to fill up our water bottles and and watched some people bungy jump. Then we passed through hills lined with vinyards, though it was safer admire them from a distance as we might not have made it much further otherwise. In Queenstown we stopped for a 5 minute supermarket challenge and then continued through town in the direction of Glenorchy at dusk. We arrived at the Twelve Mile Delta campsite 10km out of Queenstown just as it was getting dark but the moon was almost full so we had enough light to put up the tent, make dinner and sample another New Zealand bottle of Pinot Noir.
A DOC official woke us up in the morning because we had not paid our camp fees in the Honesty Box (we thought). But he seemed to be less concerned with the camp fees than with the fact that we were 'a far way from the toilet', checking we had not made a mess on the beach. The only mess he found was some pumpkin seeds that Bea had left out for the birds to eat, which he was not too happy about. So we packed up our pumpkin seeds and set off towards Glenorchy.
A bit weird it being called Glenorchy. There does not even appear to be a Glen called Orchy there. The morning started cloudy and we thought it might rain, but by midday the sun had come out again. We were aiming to get to Kinloch 26km past Glenorchy but had not covered much distance by lunchtime as the road was very hilly. It was following the shore of the Wakatipu Lake but unfortuanatly the road was not as level as the water. Before we arrived in Glenorchy we passed lots of nice spots to camp by the lake so we decided we would just turn round in Glenorchy and come back to camp early and have a swim rather than continue onwards until dark again.
There were some impressive looking mountains behind the town, Mount Chaos being our favourite. Lots of unwashed trampers walked around the place looking for a bus out of there. We used the fine public toilets, bought an overpriced lemon and then went back to our camping spot to have a swim. It was another lovely spot on the Wakatipu. During the night it became a bit stormy and in the morning there was snow on the hills all around us. We decided not to get out of the tent until it stopped raining, unfortuanatly it stopped pretty early so we got up and cycled back to Queenstown where we checked into a hostel for a change. First night after twelve that we will not be sleeping in our tent.
soup eating is serious business
Lake Wakatipu
a random bungy jumper
New Zealand, a country of dangerous criminal vandals
Lake Wakatipu
Have we mentioned roadkill yet? There is so much of it here, at least every 100 meters, must be a hobby around here. And it really smells bad when it starts raining...
still Lake Wakatipu
hello
hello hello
hello
the hilly lakeside road
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