Day 19 – 25th November, Hawea river walk

This was the last real day, and so went a little calmer. Pat, and Sam drove Erin to Twizel, so we went for the Hawea river walk, just past the dam and heading to Albert town

Another fine day my friends

looking back the dam

and walking alongside the little canal trail, above the river which was a bit hard to get at

and back through the spooky trees

and Alison destroying the fairy house, oops

Maz doing a running jump

And little glimpses of the river

and a crane on the rocks

very beatiful

video – tails by the river bank

As ever might have got a little carried away with the camera, but really

and lastly a couple of late night shots to finish the day

Another great day …

Day 18 – 24th November, Transport and toy museum, and Puzzle Town, Wanaka

Bit more of a relaxed day, and the views from the batch throughout are just too distracting so took a couple more before we went over to Wanaka

the blue of the water is just hynoptic and so clear

And there is hardly any one on this beach – amazing

So after a short walk we went across to Wanaka, and the toy and transport meseum – but got distracted by a great rainbox effect through the clouds on the way – this was the first horizontal rainbow i think i have ever seen!

Starting with the Toy and Transport mesuem – which Alistair Clayton could remember visiting so we went to see that – totally eclectic and if you get to Wanaka you should see it just to see how weird all this stuff is. We met the son and later the daughter of the guy who started all this. Originally into car wrecking and made his cash, but when he retired Alsyma’s started for him – so we went on a 12 year spending spree buying so so much stuff, and people donating various toy collections to them.

Its such a weird mix, in multiple hangers now

and captain scarlet and thunderbirds

planes

heavy canon

tractors aand diggers, and the list goes one

out the back nd ready to be ‘sorted’

and they are running a campaign to get a bunch of new zealnd native planes from the war and beyond in. However theres a planning regulation that non of the buildings can be over 9m.

So ‘no worries’ we’ll just dig a bloody great whole, park the planes in there, and build the building around them later! Here is the hole tacking shape

and the two front halves of a car

The list goes on including a wall (3000+) of commerative spoons

Just totally bizarre and way ahead of any expectations – the family are just kinda bonkers and have a legacy from Dads spending spree to sort

Well, what to do after that – puzzle world of course

A bit simpler but great fun

and the tilty room

and a very lifelike wax work – a little freaky

plus inventions you never really need

baby duster

the all electric hammer, very useful on the right day

and the baby dribbler

They also had a great maze made of boards you couldn’t see through – so about an hours worth of fun getting round that

and some great trompe l’oeil in the loos

It was then back to Hawae for that view

and down our flora dora parade

Its very difficult to get bored of this view and changing light during a day – and the weather again was just amazing

and that amazingly clear turquoise water

just so good

and a group timed selfie

Just amazing place to stay

Day 17 – 23rd November, the blue pools and forest bathing

On thursday the day started a bit wet ( there is a surprise), but we went off to the blue pools, however the the bridges had been shut as they had reached there end of life and not replaced. We ran into some a group of youngsters in shorts which i thought was a little in appropriate, however they had the last laugh as they tromped through the stream in there sandles and shorts leving us for mud on the riverbank.

Kinda wanted to look at the blue pools, in its original beach forest setting but it was not to be

This is what it can look like if you can get there

Instead what we got was the forest walk down to the riverside

and here is the escapees

And those left behind with no shorts on

however the walk down to the river had some great ferns along the way

And moss

And the virgin beech forest

we also did a loop through aforest at Morataki

and Fushsia trees with there bark

Then a stop for a coffee, and the aptly named wonderland !

Having been wet all morning, on the way back the sun came back out with fabulous views over lake Wanaka

And on the other side lake Hawea

then back home to the batch

Day 16 – 22 November, Arrowtown outing

So after a day hunting hills and views, we spent the next day hunting gold. So off to Arrowtown

Arrowtown is a historic gold mining town in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on the banks of the Arrow River approximately 7.5 km from State Highway 6, heading to Queenstown.

https://www.arrowtown.com/our-town/then-now/

There is a long very windy swicthback bit of road as you head down the mountain into the valley

quite steep in places

The town was established in 1862, during the height of the Otago gold rush, and then left to the Chinese to tidy up as the europeans kept skipping from one place to the rest. As usual, the europeans dont cover themselves with glory, to the extent that the chinnese are forbidden in law from getting any states pension at this point.

The town has a very’ western’s’ feel about it

this is the main drag through town

They were also grinding fresh coffe in the coffee shop – great stuff too

and the other way

You did feel in the period

The tree blossom was blewing as well and looked like snow

They have done some recreations of the chinese village buildings for the gold hunters, and very meagre they are too

We then did the circular river walk which was lovely

along with more lupins alongside the river

we also ran into the local school outing by the river bank

and every where we go the waters are just so clear its amzing

another lovely day out and slightly less engergetic ! and a nice sunset

Day 15 – Tuesday 21st November, Marian’s 60th Birthday !

So it had had all been working up to this. Marian wanted her birthday basking in the sunshine. So the good lord provided, along with Sam and Erin suggesting we tried the Diamond lake walk ( which had multiple options for difficulty)

The map looks somehat like this

This was a bit of a drive away but the scenary around here is all pretty good

so first off morning breakfast view

Not bad for starters. The lower slopes are easy enough up to the lake, and you can just do a simple lake walk around the diamond lake

however we elected to go up to the lake view point, which had a little bit of a rise to it but we decided we could cope with this.

However, we were brave souls and went on abit further

This was a steeper climb but the views just got better

So here is team members getting up the slide

This then leads to a second plateau

We were quite hot at this point and so stopped for a lite lunch

Views from here were great looking down over lake Hawea

At last a water stop

now we could have truned back at this point, but we’d had lunch and felt a liitle more refreshed

So we all sihned on for the summit peak walk – which proved to be quite steep in places

however we get some viws mt Aspiring

And little panorama

To be honest it was hard to find rubbish view in any direction

Alison and Pat with mt Aspiring

and down onto lake Hawea

And the riverbed

All in all pretty spectacular

And a quick video view

Then – what goes up must come down again

So we were pretty tired after all of that, so stopped briefly at Glendhu Bay

and a little bit of paddling to cool the feet

and Marian with her titular date

and a much needed beer

Then finally Sam had us covered for supper as well

So all in all a pretty great 60th birthday – then away to our beds for a well earned rest !