South Island – November 2022 – Part 2
I’m finally getting around to writing up our 2022 South Island Holiday. Again, we went during the couple of weeks straddling November and December. Last year, we had a trip to the same part of the South Island at around same time of year. This time, John particularly wanted to spend a few days at Lake Ohau Lodge – to do some cycling, to just ‘hang out’ and take lots of photos, and to enjoy the Lodge’s delicious meals. And we also wanted to spend several days in Arrowtown, another one of our favourite places.
This is quite a long story, so I have written it up in five parts:Part 2 – Christchurch to Arrowtown
Sunday 27 November – Christchurch to Arrowtown
It was raining when we left Christchurch to make our way to Arrowtown. We stopped in Geraldine for a very pleasant lunch at Café Verde and to charge the car. From about Fairlie, the rain eased off, and we started seeing lupins by the side of the road. They must be about two weeks behind the norm as many of the spikes of flowers still had unopened buds at the top.
We stopped at Twizel for another top-up for our EV, and for coffee and fruit crumble pies in a not very nice bakery café, but it was the only one that was open that was not a bar. It was Sunday, after all …
The Lindis Pass, as always, was spectacularly beautiful. The colours are marvellous, and the scenery is so dramatic. We stopped briefly at a spot just past the summit to take photos.
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| The Lindis Pass |
We stopped in Cromwell, for yet another charge. I made a sarcastic remark – about “17,000 charges" – but John was not amused. He accused me of being crabby. Cromwell’s town centre is particularly unattractive, especially after 4 pm on a Sunday. It is absolutely dead. We managed to get an ice-cream from a petrol station, while we wandered around waiting for the car to charge.
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| Charging the car – again – in Cromwell |
The drive to Arrowtown from there was lovely. We stopped at the “Roaring Meg” viewing spot. There is a small power generating station where water from a stream comes and throws itself into the Clutha River below. Beautiful rocks and a roaring river.
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| Roaring Meg power station |
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| The Clutha River |
We drove through the Gibston Valley with lots of wineries. We got to the cottage in Arrowtown at about 6:15. It had been a long day!
We had stayed in this cottage last year, and it was as lovely as before. We were going to be here for the next three nights. We brought all our stuff in from the car, sat around for a bit, then headed down to the pub for dinner. But the pub was closed, and a sign said it would be closed on Monday and Tuesday as well, because of lack of staff. So we went to the “Postmaster” restaurant, and had some flash burgers and some chips to share. Quite nice.
We had an amusing moment, when the Indian waitress took a shine to John, and while rubbing his arm, told him he was “so cute”. John didn’t hear or understand (he has no hearing in his right ear), and thought she was talking about a stain on his sleeve. But she told him a couple more times “I think you are so cute”. Perhaps she thought he was quite elderly – like in his 90s. It’s the sort of comment one might make to to a really old person, or someone who has gone a bit doolally.
After dinner, we wandered down the main street and back, and found Nadia Lim’s Royalburn Shop, that we had seen on the Nadia’s Farm TV programme a few weeks earlier. It was closed of course (this was about 8:15 pm). It was a lovely walk back – so quiet and peaceful, and not nearly as cold as the forecast had made us believe it would be.
Monday 28 November – Day 1 in Arrowtown – Lake Hayes
We wanted to bike the track to Queenstown, but didn't have a map. So I went into the i-Site and got a couple of maps, then we biked to the bike shop/hiring place, where we got another map and better instructions.
We were not keen to go via the Millbrook resort, so went on a track along the river, then after a bridge, we took an ‘escape’ route to the road – Centennial Avenue.
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| That is an amazing tree root I am leaning against |
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| On Centennial Avenue |
From there we got onto the cycling track, rode down Hogans Gully Road, and we ended up at a winery where we had scrumptious waffles last year, after our unsuccessful attempt at biking around Lake Hayes. Last year it was called Akarua, but it was now called 'Mora Wines and Artisan Kitchen'. We stopped and tried to order waffles again, but we were out of luck. “Breakfast is finished” we were told by the man with spiky hair, an American accent, and an affected manner, “but we can book you in for breakfast tomorrow". The place had changed hands, name, and obviously, attitude. So we just had coffee and scones. John was horrified to find they were savoury scones, and what he had thought were dates, were actually olives! I thought they were delicious.
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| A lovely place to stop for morning coffee – shame about the waffles, though … |
I was amused to see a “Māori guide”, wearing a piupiu over his shorts, standing by the wine counter, checking his phone, while his customers, a youngish couple, were doing a wine tasting. Later I saw them driving away in a van marked “Waka Haka - Enjoy the NZ experience”.
Having failed to bike around Lake Hayes last year, we decided to give it another go. This time, we managed to bike right around it. Some sections were a bit hairy and scary – very narrow with a big drop down the left. The views were lovely, though.
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| Parts of the track were steep, narrow and with a big drop to one side … |
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| … but the views were gorgeous |
After the steep bits, over the hill and down, the track went through a wetland – the edge of the lake, presumably. At times we were on a raised gravel path with water either side of us, and some of the time there were boardwalks.
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| A raised track through the wetland … |
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| … and some boardwalks |
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| By the lake’s edge |
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| 'Flash' accommodation, somewhere along the road … |
Having completed the circumnavigation of Lake Hayes, we returned to Arrowtown by the same route as we had come. We never made it to Queenstown. We finished our ride with an icecream at Patagonia, and returned to the cottage.
Tuesday 29 November – Day 2 in Arrowtown – Frankton to Queenstown
Since we didn’t make it to Queenstown the day before, we decided to go there by the lakeside track that leaves from Frankton. It is a lovely track, lots of trees, and close to the lake. Pretty much flat, except for a few humps.
We biked that track on our very first South Island trip with the non-electric folders in April 2014. I was amused, when I looked up the blog I wrote then, that this time, John took a photo in the exact same spot as he did then. Even the yellow dinghy was there!
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| Same tree, same dinghy as in April 2014! Even the weather is similar ... |
We had left fairly early, as the forecast was for rain by the middle of the day, and we got to Queenstown by 11 am. The track goes through some of the Botanic Gardens.
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| The weather was starting to look a little gloomy |
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| The track through the Botanic Gardens |
The waterfront between the Bot Gardens and the town is being improved so it was rather messy. We walked our bikes through the area where all the cafes are. We saw a busker who was playing the guitar and singing, and was “accompanied” by his dog (an Old English sheep dog, I think), who ‘sang’ along. There was quite a crowd of people around him watching. We didn’t stick around.
After brunch at “Pier”, we thought of biking further along the waterfront, but it started to spit, so we made a quick ride back to the car instead. It rained on the way back, but it wasn’t too bad.
Back in Arrowtown, we went for a walk in the village, despite the light rain, and had an ice cream at Patagonia (one scoop in a little tub – much easier to manage than a cone). We looked into Nadia Lim’s Royalburn shop, and got some Royalburn Alpine honey, which was delicious.
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| One of the lovely tree-lined streets in Arrowtown |
Wednesday 30 November – Day 3 in Arrowtown – Kingston
It was still raining, so not a day for cycling. I suggested we drive to Kingston. Along the way, we had a wee nosey around the Lake Hayes Estate – a flash new subdivision – then headed south towards Kingston.
It’s a beautiful drive, despite the rain. The road skirts the southern half of Lake Wakatipu for much of the way. The rocks and just general landscape are fantastic.
Kingston is famous for its vintage steam train, The Kingston Flyer. A passenger service operated between Kingston and Invercargill from the late 1870s, but by 1950 passenger numbers declined and in the 1970s, the Kingston Flyer became a tourist operation. This suffered a series of ups and downs, but in 2022, a Grand Opening Ceremony was held to celebrate the return of commercially run public train rides on the Kingston Flyer, from Kingston to Fairlight. It appears it now runs only on Sunday afternoons, from August to May.
Being a Wednesday, we found the site deserted: we took photos through the fence of a shunting locomotive and a passenger coach. The vintage steam locomotive was nowhere to be seen, and will have been in the shed. The former Kingston Railway Station, which is now a café and bar, was all closed up.
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| The shunting locomotive and a passenger coach, with a guard compartment (DP) |
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| The former railway station is now a café and bar. |
We drove through the small township, and in one street we discovered a fence line made up of all kinds of big wheels and cogs – locomotive and train wheels, but also steam engine wheels, I think.
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| An interesting fence line |
We carried on further south, and at the end of the lake there are lots of moraine build-ups. The valley was obviously carved out by the glaciers that created the lake. We got to Garston and thought we would have coffee there, but the “café” was just a van, albeit a pretty fancy van, named “The Coffee Bomb”. It was surrounded by very wet tables and chairs, and lots of puddles, as it was still raining. So we took our coffee, slices, and cheese roll back to the car to consume.
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| The Coffee Bomb in Garston (DP) |
There was an interesting display of photos and information about Garston and the geology – John took photos of most of it. Garston is the most inland village in NZ. Village is a big word for this place, there is just the main road with about three buildings, a loop of road that goes behind it, and a school! I suspect a school bus collects kids from the surrounding farms.
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| One of eight information boards about Garston |
As we headed back to Queenstown, the rain stopped. On the way back, the scenery was even more magnificent than on the way down. We stopped near an outcrop of rocks to take photos of the “Devil’s Staircase”.
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| The Devil’s Staircase (DP) |
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| Across the lake from the Devil’s Staircase (DP) |
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| The road snaking along the edge of Lake Wakatipu from the Devil’s Staircase (DP) |
Before going back to our cottage, I stopped in Arrowtown to buy a book I had spotted the day before. We were heading to Ohau the next day, and if it was going to be raining while we were there, I wanted something decent to read!
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