New Zealand   New Zealand !!

Well after 40 years of waiting we’ve finally arrived here.Formalities completed with a minimum of fuss at Christchurch Airport and we were out to pick up the Hertz car hire and on our way by about 6 am after what seemed like a very short 3and a half hour flight from Melbourne .The time difference of 2 hours meant that it was really 4 in the morning with a big drive ahead of us so tiredness was something to look out for as we headed south towards Timaru on an overcast morning just as the dawn was breaking.

The Canterbury plain looked  flat and not very interesting as we made our way toward our first turnoff to Geraldine which we reached after driving for about an hour and a half when the lack of sleep made us pull over  and catch a few zzzzz’s.From Geraldine to Lake Tekapo was another hours drive when we pulled over to catch sight of our first lake.Tourquoise blue which reminded us of Lake Louise near Banff in Canada.the special colour of the lake is caused by the suspension of finely ground rock material brought down from the glacier at the head of the lake.The Church of the Good Shepherd is a tourist photo opportunity.We got out felt the chill and went and found a hearty breakfast on a bap which at $30 was a bit steep but very welcoming before we set off again this time to skirt the bottom of Lake Pukaki driving along the Highway 8 towards the Lindis Pass.This took us up through rocky gorges with hills covered with native tussock grasses following the flow of the Lindis River towards the small but pretty Lake Dunstan where we took the turn for Cromwell.

Cromwell was an area where gold was discovered in 1862, following the earlier finds west of Dunedin the year before.Tens of thousands of people made there way to these places but by the late 1860’s the place was virtually worked out and the people had moved onto the west coast areas.Hot dry summers followed by hard harsh winters and starvation were some of the costs of a quick fortune quest.Cromwell survived this and has become one of New Zealand’s main fresh fruit growing centres.

Taking the turn towards Queenstown and we were on our way to catch up with Victoria who was due in from Sydney at about 2.15 pm and we were wondering if we would get there before her but an additional snooze stop along the Lindis pass by a fast flowing stream had put us behind schedule When we awoke the sun had broken through and the temperature had risen to 23 compared with the 13 we had experienced back in Geraldine.As we drove on we came across the two sets of Rapids one called Roaring Meg and a quieter one known as something Annie , sorry but the name escapes me she must have been too quiet.Apparently they were named after two ladies from a nearby saloon that we making their way back with with two gold prospectors one night   and the one had a more boisterous attitude and they named the noisier of the rapids after her whilst Annie got the quieter one.

Our first glimpse of Lake Wakatipu( or as we call it Whakky tpoo) came as we crested the road at Frankton where the airport that serves Queenstown is situated.We had just seen a jet flying down the valley between the two sets of mountain ranges which looked very dramatic from the ground so what it was like from the plane we could only wait and find out from Vicky.We thought that she must have landed by now so we went straight to our base on the Frankton arm of Lake Wakatipu.The place we were staying at was the last ‘unit’ in a block of 10 overlooking the lake with views back left to the Mount Remarkables ski range and Frankton and to the right across over to Kelvin Heights situated on Peninsula Hill.We were surprised that Vicky was not already there and after a quick phone call we discovered that she had in fact just landed and  we had won the race to get to Queenstown!We doubled back to Frankton about 4km away and picked her up from a cute little airport and were back in the house in just a few minutes with Vicky taking over the bunk room as hers for the rest of the stay.Windows on the front and side of the unit gave us jaw dropping views….New Zealand was starting to live up to its expectations!!