RED, RED NZ WINE HAS GONE TO M'Y HEAD---BUT IT'S SOOOO GOOD!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 2011 – TE ANAU – Top 10 Holiday Park – 9 PM - extra note--the Chardonnay is good stuff, too!  :)  And keep those comments coming--we love to read what you think about our trip!

·         We just ate a good Chinese meal at The Ming here and when we came out ofter a bottle of Five Flax Chardonnay, Geoff found himself going on the “Wong Way”! 

         To backtrack today we left Queenstown and went up to an old gold mining town called Arrowtown—full of historic bits and pieces—an interesting but pretty “touristy” type place.  We shared a steak & mushroom pie and had cappuchino from a little place called “BonJour”  

·         Headed back towards Queenstown but turned off and started driving next to one of the other “spurs” of Lake Wakatipu heading past the beautiful mountains known as “The Remarkables”---the cloud cover was “remarkable” and they are quite craggy and rough looking while being gorgeous! 

 

·         The drive to Te Anau took a couple hours through a huge velley after leaving the Lake Wakatipu on the right (what a huge lake!) 

·         We stopped for a minute to use the public toilet at Garston which is the most central village in NZ—a tiny, one-half horse town!

·         Saw SEVERAL fields of farm raised deer!  Saw an ad in the local paper looking for a “Deer Farm Technician” but no wage rate posted…hmmm…a potential job for Tim in retirement???  J   Just kidding, Shelley!  

·         After checking in here, we looked at all the option for going to Milford Sound.   We decided NOT to drive up to Milford to camp and keep the camopervan here and take a bus so Geoff can enjoy the ride views, too.  We booked a 2 hour cruise for tomorrow so it will be an all day trip on the bus from Te Anau to Milford Sound…really looking forward to it!   The cruise we opted for will take us our into the Tasman to a small island.   Will report about it tomorrow…that’s it for now.   Love, Sue & Geoff, the pisspots of Te Anau now!  J   PS  I went and bought a fleece scarf, knit gloves, a knit hat and some long stockings for the boat since the weather is rather cool---Geoff says I probably just insured that we would have sunny weather…I hope so!

WEDNESDAY, JANAUARY 19, 2011 – Queenstown Top 10 Holiday Park – 10 PM

·         Yesterday was a great drive through the ski area of Cardrona where there was a great historic pub: 

·          Then over the Crown Range on a road that is the highest in NZ—very curvy on the way down but the views were great from the drive summit though the clouds rolling in look like rain! 

·         Spent the first part of the day today walking around Queenstown checking out the town since last night it started to rain so we just stayed in the campervan drinking wine, beer and cider and eating snacks while listening to “Solid Gold” on the radio!    A very good radio program broadcasted over all of NZ!   Right now the “House of the Rising Sun” is playing! 

·         Retrieved my “package” at the post office—it was my favorite nightgown that I left behind in Byron Bay—they sent it on to Sydney (after we had left) and The Mint staff in Sydney sent it to me care of the Queenstown post office!

·         Walked down to Lake Wakatipu   

·         Where it was windy and had lots of gulls: 

·         Then walked through the Queenstown Gardens—lovely flowers…this park reminded me of Lake Chelan, for some reason, in places!  

            After our walk, a visit to Starbucks so Geoff could get wi fi for his iPhone while I shopped around town!   It was a blast and Geoff found some of those huge Bing cherries to munch on, too!   Ate some KFC for lunch—tastes the same as in the USA and UK!

·         Next stop was the DuxdeLux Pub & Brewery where we sampled their home ales—the sample platter was 6 beers (my favorites were the Alpine Ale and the Ginger Tom).   It was a great place to sit and people/lake watch so we were there for a few hours…including Happy Hour where we drank two “jugs” of the Alpine Ale (a “jug” is 1 liter!)  It was good stuff, I must say.   Geoff said people probably “think we are a couple of pisspots”—I say “who cares?”  LOL   For further information, call my Mom…Geoff and I talked to her on the phone from the pub! 

·         Headed back to camp for dinner…sitting here post dinner which included a bottle of White Cliff (NZ) Chardonnay so guess who is asleep while I type?  J  Is that a sleeping beer fart I hear again??????????????????????????

·         Tomorrow we head to Arrowtown then to Te Anua and the Fiordland National Park!

·         Love, Sue and Geoff, the 2 pisspots of Queenstown  xo