New Zealand Queenstown Bound & Begun 30Dec22-31Dec22

30Dec22 Blue Pools/Wanaka/Cardona Valley ~

It was a big drive day for Dave. Five hours of NZ roads from Franz Joseph to Queenstown. Sheesh. We did stop at "The Blue Pools" along the way on our fav road State Rt 6 (sound familiar Summit rez folk?), along with everyone else on this holiday week... admittedly in NZ that is not too many folk but 125 cars in parking lot, mostly tourists like us... fun facts: NZ is the area size & population of CO, but has 6000 miles of coastline whereas CO has none. It was chilly and foggy here this day ~ NP, a travel day. The Blue Pools were cool ~ a Kiwi suspension bridge and Kiwi elevated walkway aided track to the confluence of the X & Y rivers. Deep pools with no fish but plenty of folks... I do love the simplicity of Kiwi engineered signage. It was super good as an interlude @ the 3 hr point on our journey south.

We headed out again with road snacks - some sodas & chips & cherries. In between hairpin turns I was able to destem and depit the cherries (which are so good right now here in the subtropics of the southern hemisphere). We arrived at the (humorously) 4* Holiday Inn in Queenstown in due time. The way down Cardona Valley from Wanaka (we could not score lodging there) to Queenstown was cool but packed with traffic and completely littered with cool wild lupin... completely amazing and harrowing switchbacks.

We were freaked we were on arrival in Franktown as it was again industrious (pumps, airplane parts, and bearings), but this turned out fine, and our hotel was top a notch, top tech, spot even if we did have to pay $15NZD/day for parking. Top tech note: I did not make my phone the "remote" for the TV or even stream from it, as Google wanted. View from the room on arrival.

We headed across Franktown to the Franktown Arm on the lake here for dinner. More traditional fare of pints and fried cod and "southern fried chix" sandwhich. Tavern tasty with a killer view. Plus, there was all sorts of gaming going on here ~ dog races and cricket on the screens, games in the back room. We didn't understand what was going on really ~ but it was going on.

31Dec22 Hoppy New Year's Eve: Queenstown Vibe, Arrowtown Hike, And Shelter Tavern ~

Queenstown is freak and reminds me of Summit/Vail Valley/Aspen... it is a skiing destination and lake adventuring spot (jet boats, parachute pull, submarines, etc.), sky stuff (iFly, skydiving, paragliding), weird canyon things (bungee jump, canyon swing, jet boating) and tramping jumpoff and partying haven... especially between Christmas & New Years. Our first day in QT is the busiest day of the year here and it is whack ~ we hit the fly shop for news and then in town there's no place to park at all; if you do find one it's $10NZD. I dropped Kala @ the DOC office to discuss hike choices... and I found parking at a liquor store nearby (grabbing brews & bubbly for NYE). It is a gorgeous day... 72° in a much different geography than what we've encountered in NZ before. Shown are the Remarkables range above Queenstown ~ total vert show; skiing is on the backside; they are named unremarkably by there exact N-S orientation.

We chose a relatively close but aggressive hike above Arrowtown, forgoing our plan on the Routeburn Track due to driving distance. We climbed 1300 ft over ~2.5mi on a track up Sawmill Gully to Eichardts Flat to Mt German over Arrowtown, a nearby town to Queenstown. The hike was excellent but on an unimproved track like rocky ones in Colorado, and the down path on this loop required some technical moves and a dozen stream crossings... all done but we earned it. Great views of the Southern Alps and Arrowtown. Again Kala liked my brown trout hiking socks. This area contained some actually wildflowers along the route ~ a rarity in colorless (but wickedly green) New Zealand; some seemed proximate to our in sub-alpine CO.

Coming back down was more difficult. It had many stream crossings and a much wilder track through a gully with cliffs. We ultimately came to a maintained track above a river road and observed why so many Kiwis' trucks have snorkels... they not only drive on the beaches but they drive in the rivers too. We met an Aussie couple on the descent who were tiring of the track too and the lady shared a story of her lost outing on it when she broke her femur on a biff! At one keen waterfall I "blessed" some greenstone in it that I'd toted on the hike.

Whew. We contemplated dining in Arrowtown with the Aussies but bolted for Franktown near the hotel and hit the Shelter Tavern in the hood. Not much open here on New Year's Eve... and frankly often closures on Sun-Mon or Mon-Tue. The hospitality sector has been hammered by closing the borders for so long and restaffing is seemingly slow. We enjoyed the fare here though with prawns and chili sauce and kindof tacos our choices, along with some brews.

With the good hike we did not make it to midnight... though I still tasted a few more brewers' offerings and concluded easily that Waitoa hazies from Wellington were the best. More later.