We said goodbye to Te Anau about 10am on Monday. The drive to Wanaka took us back to
Queenstown, and then north through the mountains. Just outside of Queenstown we stopped at the Stoneridge
Estate Winery for lunch. It is a
beautiful property, complete with 6 room inn and a chapel for weddings. The café had only been open 4 weeks, and was
being run by a young English couple from Camberley. They are getting ready to move back to
England and start a coffee and sandwich shop there. We talked for at least 30 minutes about their
travels, coffee, the winery, our travels, etc.
It was really a delightful visit.
They encouraged us to stop at Arrowtown on our way to Wanaka. Arrowtown is an old mining town with the historic
buildings restored and now filled with interesting shops, cafes, restaurants, and
ice cream parlors – our type of city.
After walking around the town we went to see an old Chinese
settlement. Just like in California, and
about the same time, the Chinese came to New Zealand to mine for gold.
After Arrowtown we drove to Wanaka, over some pretty impressive
mountains. The road was under
construction a lot of the way and the speed limit was 30 kmh, about 18 MPH. The rest of the time the speed limit was
100kmh, about 60 MPH, except due to the tight curves it was hard to go over
45. Basically it took a lot longer than
expected to get to Wanaka, but it was worth it.
Our hotel is a nice resort with three swimming pools and perhaps 10 hot
tubs. Misa was very excited, she finally
got to go swimming.
After swimming we did homeschooling and I ran into town for
groceries. These motels and
apartment-style hotels are saving us a lot of money because we are cooking in
the room. All three breakfasts and
dinners in Te Anau and now dinner in Wanaka we ate in the room.
The setting here in Wanaka is very tranquil, open prairie
surrounded by soaring peaks. Tomorrow we
will leave for Franz Josef Glacier, stopping at Mt. Aspiring National Park on
the way.
