Day 25 Lake Cruise & Bob’s Peak

Treating ourselves to going out for breakfast seems to be turning into a bit of a habit! Today’s choice was a lovely chocolate shop on the lake front where we all started the day with a full on sugar high after our incredibly decadent treat. To make the morning even better, just as we were finishing off our breakfast the weather seemed to magically clear! I ran out to the lake and booked myself a cruise for the early afternoon, and crossed my fingers that the weather would hold. I’m glad I booked early as the warmer the weather got the bigger the queue became!

I had an hour or so to kill before my cruise so I took the opportunity to walk around the bay in the sunshine.

The iconic coal burner 

looking back over Queenstown CBD 

My view while I waited for the boat to dock

The cruise was very informative as the driver seemed to know everything there was to know about the lake, including interesting facts, funny stories, lots of history, as well as countless other bits and pieces about the architecture fronting the lake and the animals which live on it, such as the fact the water is so pure it doesn't conduct electricity... The views from the lake were pretty gorgeous too.

Feeding the Trout, there's 3 different types in the lake apparently with the californian rainbow trout being the most aggressive

Voted one of the top ten most scenic golf courses in the world

The new Hilton Hotel

 The famous bridge - there's a whole story surrounding these gates involving two men basically single handedly flooding Queenstown while they went on holiday!

On the left is the expensive section of Queenstown where most houses cost a few million while on the right is the 'dark side' of Queenstown as it goes 3 months without any sun because of the mountains

As soon as I stepped off the boat Axel rang me asking what I was up to as he had given up trying to find the music shop he had been searching for. We opted to go up the gondolas to the top of Bob’s Peak. I’d really wanted to walk it but people had warned us not to do it right after a heavy rain as the path can be treacherous so we just paid to have the cable car ride to the top. The views were stunning!

Once we got to the top and walked around a little bit we went to sit down to soak up the views some more when we found a rather muddy and exhausted Cara and George – they’d braved the walk and looked rather worse for wear for it! So we shared some chips and a drink and spent the rest of the day admiring the views and exploring the lake in the sunshine, finished off with us all stopping off at Fergburger again!

P.S it’s so weird seeing ‘seasons greeting’ and ‘merry Christmas’ lights in windows when it’s 30 degrees and the sun is blazing down… just strange! 

Day 7. Queen Charlotte

After a bit of an early start, I gave mum a quick ring, then set out on a walk around Picton as George was still fast asleep and I wanted to make the most of what was beginning to look like a beautiful day. Me and Axel walked along the harbor side for a bit before Axel, claiming tiredness, went back while I carried on exploring. Men. I managed to find ‘Bob’s Bay Track’ which finishes at a little bay with safe-swimming water. It was a really lovely walk, which only had a couple of scary sections where there’d been landslides and I had to skirt across, and the views were perfect throughout!

The view along the walk

 And what I saw whenever I looked down!

 I still can't get over how clear the water was!

 And the view when I finally made it to Bob's bay!

 Some of the beautiful shells scattered along the coastline 

The bay was lovely and it was great to paddle along the shore and admire the purple and blue shells after a walk in the midday sun (I obviously didn’t think through the timing of the walk). I dawdled at the bay for a while but I realized I’d left my phone with Axel and I didn’t want him to be waiting for me as we hadn’t agreed on a time to set off. After rushing back to the hostel (most of which was uphill) I find George in a hammock having just gotten out of the hot tub and Axel dozing on the sofa.

The route to Havelock 

 at one of the look out spots you could pull into

We did eventually set off, after I rallied everyone (it really shouldn’t be so hard for three people to be ready at the same time), and we took the Queen Charlotte Drive across Marlborough Sound. The drive was beautifully scenic with lots of look-out-points, a few of which we stopped off at. The downside though was the road was very twisty, there were a couple of turns which were painfully sharp and by the end of it we were all feeling a little nauseous!

 Coming into havelock 

 Our view while we ate dinner on the patio of the hostle

Me winning at Risk (even though I'd never played it before and Axel and George claimed to be pros!)

We arrived in Havecock in one piece, just. Found a hostel and were about to settle down for the night when we were told about a waterfall track which if you took at night allowed you to see glowworms up close. Well we couldn’t pass up that chance so after playing risk until the sun went down me and George borrowed some torches and went for a walk up a very steep, muddy path. We actually almost missed the glowworms as we were so busy trying to maneuver a particularly narrow and wet section that we didn’t notice the cliff wall was filled with glow worms! It was obviously impossible to take a photo but it was absolutely beautiful.

Axel heads to Nelson tomorrow while me and George are taking the Kenepuru road up Marlborough Sound, bring on tomorrow! 

P.S we passed two women on bikes twice on the road here (we passed them, then pulled up not long after at a look out & then we ended up having to pass them again) and when we were sat playing risk they walked into the hostel! They said 'hello again' so they clearly remembered us too! Such a small world!