Sun 8th Feb – Sat 14th Feb
Accommodation: RuRu Retreat on AirBnB
Thursday 12th
We woke to the most glorious morning with not a cloud in the sky and sunshine filling the whole house. Literally filling the house as the large common area of the upper floor had huge glass windows, and sliding doors, and not one of them came with any curtain or blind. This didn’t bother us in the least but I could imagine some window furnishings might be appreciated in the depths of summer or winter.
We started the day much the same as yesterday; Mark went for a ride, Colleen and I for a walk and David went for another dip in the lake.
We didn’t waste any time after that though as our plan for the day was a trip up to Glenorchy where we had booked to do some afternoon kayaking. We stopped off at Bob‘s Cove along the way and did a walk for about an hour before heading up to Glenorchy to have lunch before an afternoon of kayaking.
Bob’s Cove is about a 15 minute drive north of Queenstown and is a beautiful section of Lake Wakitipu that has a limestone promontory thereby creating the Cove or beach. The walking track hugs the water for much of the way making for very pleasant trekking and the water in sections was the most magnificent blue it was jaw droppingly beautiful. You could just sit or stand there gazing at it for ages which is what many others were doing. This is an activity that is well worth considering if you’re ever in Queenstown.
The morning wasn’t without some drama though as Colleen realised, once back at the car, that she’d lost her glasses somewhere along the track. She doubled back to find that, fortunately, someone had placed her glasses up on a rock plinth so they were happily reunited. Anyone with prescription sunglasses will understand the relief she felt!
It turns out that wasn’t the only drama on our schedule for the day. Our next stop was a further 45 minute drive up the Lake at Glenorchy where we had booked a 1.45 pm kayaking session with Rippled Earth Kayaking. However, on our arrival, Mark realised he’d received an email that was sent earlier in the day asking us to cancel our reservation. The lack of wifi along the way meant we hadn’t received this update until our arrival. This was information, as they say, that would have been more useful to us earlier. We thought we were going to be left stranded out at Glenorchy with little to do but, just as we were forlornly heading back to the car, our guide turned up. Andy apologised for being late and explained it was going to be quite windy and gave us the option of cancelling. He seemed quite hopeful we’d cancel but, given postponement wasn’t an option for us, we opted to persevere. There was one other couple there and they, too, opted to continue.
Andy had warned us about the wind being an issue and he was absolutely correct. The paddling trip out, into a strong headwind and some decent waves, took us an hour but the journey back only took 15 minutes. The other Chinese couple could not get their kayak away from the shore so they decided to abort the outing shortly after starting which left just Andy and the four of us for this outing. It ended up being a quite tough but most memorable adventure and made more enjoyable due to Andy who was a delightful and most informative young man. He hailed from South Hampton in the UK but had fallen in love with the lifestyle down in this hemisphere when visiting his brother in Australia. He had made a huge decision to leave his career in the UK and follow his passion down here in NZ. I would highly recommend this kayaking activity if you’re ever in the region and make sure to ask for Andy. Mark and David capped off the outing by taking a plunge in the water once we got our tandem kayaks back to shore.
It was around 5 pm by the time we got back on the road to head home with just one stop along the way for dinner supplies. Dinner tonight was another BBQ at home which was delicious. We’d discovered these potatoes that seem to be unique to New Zealand, Perla Potatoes, and I kid you not, these were the highlight of all our home based meals! They were amazing and we’ll have to check if we can source them once we get back home. You are surely thinking ‘how could a potato excite anyone ’! But just you wait until you try one!
It had been another great day and we were all very grateful. Tomorrow is our last full day for Queenstown with the plan being to visit Arrowtown in the morning followed by a dinner excursion out to Walter’s Peak Station via the Earnslaw vintage steamship. Thankfully, the forecast had been accurate as the rain had departed and the sunshine was back on.
Friday 13th
We woke to rain this morning which kept all of us at bay but the forecast had this finishing at around midday and sun thereafter. Our plan for the day was to visit Arrowtown shops in the morning and take a walk nearby in the early afternoon so the dismal weather didn’t really upset our plans.
We set off in the rain for the 30 minute drive to Arrowtown and were lucky to find a convenient parking spot. It was forecast to rain for the next hour or so so we filled in the time at a cafe and browsing the shops. The retail scene seemed greatly diminished compared to when we were last here but that was before Covid so it’s probably not surprising. I recalled a number of nice boutique jewellery shops from my previous visit but there were none to be found on this trip. Luckily for us the rain eased and we were able to take a walk along the Tobbin Track that is accessed from behind the car park. We did a 5 lm loop track making the trip out here worthwhile.
It was 1 pm by the time we left Arrowtown and we went back via the airport to see if Colleen and David’s rental car was ready for pick up. They were able to collect it just after 2 pm so that worked out well and saved us an extra trip out tomorrow. We spent a couple of hours sorting ourselves out for tomorrow’s departure before heading down into Queenstown to check out some of the Art Galleries before our 5 pm Earnslaw dinner departure.
Our dinner trip out to Walter’s Peak Station on the vintage steamship Earnslaw was a great evening; much better than the previous two times Mark and I had been out here. It was a most glorious evening and the dining experience was excellent. We even went to the sheep shearin demonstration at the end which is now located in a huge new purpose built event space; a huge improvement from the last time when we were all corralled into a shed. The only weird aspect of this activity was that the girl doing the shearing was newly from Colarado! So many of the cafes, restaurants and tourist activities we had experienced were all hosted by travelers. We kept wondering where all the locals were? Was it too expensive for them to live and work in Queenstown? We’d love to find out. Regardless, we had a great night and were very glad we had factored this activity into our itinerary. This was our last night in Queenstown. Tomorrow we head to Oamaru.
