Snow and ice

Dawnbreaker
Lars Alfredson
Fri 11 Jul 2014 10:05
Pos 43:56.59S 171:39.91E
Tinwald

Bluff
Riverton
Te Anau
Shotover (Queenstown)
Wanaka (2)
Lake Tekapo
Tinwald


Above is the list of places we have been to in 8 days.  Alot of
the time we have had no connection to WiFi or the Internet which
makes Lars crazy.  The connection are not that good until we get
into the larger cities and then sometimes it's storms or other things
that get in the way so, hope you don't get bored this time around.
I will try and make as interesting as possible.

We went to Bluff just to see a Paua House we had heard about and
were told by the Caretaker of the campgrounds that the House had
been moved to Canterbury in Christchurch 15 years before.  I wish
someone had told us before, we wouldn't of gone so far.  We later
realised that the Museum it was in was just around the corner of
the gardens we visited in Christchurch. Oh well it's going to be a
journey back just to see the Paua House.

We went through Invercargill to go shopping for food and found
ourselves in America USA again.  The roads are very wide and the
shops all look like they've just come out of an American Movie.
It was even hard to find any booze. We went up and down the
street and it wasn't until we were just about to give up that we
found a Liquorland, no kidding. It was hiden, near enough just
outside the town. 
We stayed in Riverton for the night and had a beautiful view of
the mountains around us.  We enjoyed our stay there, they were
very friendly and helpful.
The next morning we ended up going the wrong way and it wasn't
until I saw a letterbox from the day before that we realised it and
had to turn around.  We needed the 99 to Orepuki to see some
wind swept trees.  We never did find them.

In Te Anau we actually went to the cinema to watch a film about
the Fiordland and then after the new X-Men film.  It was late
when the film finished, about 21.30pm and everywhere was closed.
We found 1 Cafe Redcliff open and they would onlly cook Pub
grub.  We ended up eating Wedges and Springrolls, what a dinner.
We got sstuck in Te Anau the next morning.
Snow! Snow! lots of lovely new snow.  They just have no idea how
to drive in snow.  All the roads out of the town were closed due
to road accidents, from black ice and no grit on the roads.  Here
they use brushes to clear the snow.  We had to wait until after
13.00pm to hear if the roads had been opened, we were lucky,
otherwise we would have had to stay the whole day.

    
             New WET snow but it's actually snowed in July.                                                                    Everything covered in snow, it's great.


We didn't get very far because of the delays but we did make it to
Queenstown and a little place called Shotover in Arthur's Point.  The
mountains are all around us and it's beautiful with the snow everywhere.
It was only 0.5C in the sun as we left the campground the next day.  Lars
just loves all the dirt tracks and winding roads in NZ.
We're in mountain country now and there's lots of new snow and ice
around.  When we made a stop to look at all the mountains around
us, we had a hard time getting going.  We only have chains for the
tires, which are only used if needed.
    
             This is a gentle winding road, we've been on worse.                                                           The range of mountains of NZ




                            Lots and lots of new snow. Beautiful.



Wanaka was one of my favorite spot.  Before we checked-in at the Camp
site we stopped at The National Transport & Toy Museum. It was packed
firstly with toys from the 50's to now and cars, well, cars were everywhere.
Outside there were cars from nearly every country in the World.  They
were building a new complex to put the rest of the cars in.  It took us
nearly all day to get around and Rosie was alot of help.
The next day Lars went for a very, very long walk.  6 hours later he got back.
If he'd stayed out for very much longer I would of checked with Reception
and see if we should send out a Patrol for him.

             The Transport and Toy Museum - Andy Pandy.

     
                            cars, cars, and more cars ...................                                                               lovely old cars, restored to there original glory


Lindis Valley Pass is just hills, mountains, rivers and a few trees but
mostly bushes and scrubland.  In amongst all that is Mt Cook.
    
           Mt Cook the highest mountain in NZ


Twizel and Lake Tekopo is a very quiet village with flatlands, hills that are
brown everywhere and in the background snowy mountains.  The temperature
has gone up to 12C.
The Lake is part of the Hydro Power system that is all along that area.  It give
1/5  of the electrical power of NZ.
Our Camp site gives us beautiful scenary with snow covered mountains out
our back windows.  The Lake is turquoise but the water is freezing, I should
know, I dipped my feet and came out with Frostbite.  The Camp site is very
popular as all the cabins are full and by the end of the day most of the
power sites were full with just about every type of caravan and camper van
available.  It's huge and it also has Hot Springs but when Lars checked it
out it was crowded with hundreds of people, nothing for me.

At Tinwald where we stayed, the park is lovely with a huge amount of
different ducks and geece.  For a change they seem more content to be in
their lake than coming around for bread.
We decided to go out for a Roast dinner at "The Stables".  We had heard it
was the place to go.  We had Roast beef which was lovely, it just melted
in your mouth but we didn't get any yorkshire pudding and we had Kumaro
instead, sweet potatoe.  The roast potatoes were frozen so it wasn't what
I would call Sunday Roast. Only 2 stars from me.
      
Our starter, galic bread???? A ring Lars gave me??                                           Our Sunday Roast.             



           A eucalyptus tree in the Park.


We are back in Christchurch again.  This time, just to go to the
Museum and see the Paua House that had been moved long ago.
We parked in the same place as before and this time we found
what we were looking for.
The couple in Bluff had over many years, had over 1 million visitors
to their home.  They opened their home in 1963 when the husband
put all his Paua shells all around their front room.  They loved
having visitors and after they died their Grandson donated their
home to the Museum in Christchurch so people were still able to see
it.
    
                    The Front room as you come in the door.                                                                      A picture of the couple on your right


    
                        Other parts of their collection.                                                                              I just had to HUG a Redwood in the park.




                                     A White-faced Heron



Enough for today, you'll get the rest tomorrow. Hope you enjoy our little
trip so far.

Love Caroline and Lars x