Wanaka & Mt Aspiring
Trip Start
Apr 02, 2011
1
53
96
Trip End
Ongoing
Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
We left about 11.15am & went over the Crown Range heading to Wanaka, stopping at the Cadrona pub on the way. The pub was established in 1863 when the township was growing as a result of all the settlers who arrived to stake their claim. In addition to the hotel there were many other buildings in the township of Cadrona by 1869, including 3 European stores, 4 Chinese ones, a blacksmith, 4 butcheries, a baker & 3 other hotels but now the only buildings left are the hotel & the store. The pub has loads of character & there are many items of interest both inside the pub & outside in the back garden. In the bar there was the gold mine shaft from 1863, covered over with glass.
We had a coffee & muffin in front of a real log fire whilst looking through a book that had been compiled from newspaper cuttings, photos, receipts pertaining to the pub & township that was.
From there we went through Wanaka towards the Mt Aspiring National Park.
It was a fabulous drive through the reserve to the end of the public road near Mt Aspiring. I call it road but it was a gravel road all the way. The mountains were stunning & there were some fantastic reflections of them in one of the lakes. There were dozens of relatively small waterfalls cascading down the hills; there must have been quite a bit of rain recently. We’d had to drive through several fords, some of which were pretty deep for an ordinary car.
We stopped at the end of the road, Raspberry Creek, & intended going for a half hour walk along the track but were stopped dead in our tracks when we were confronted with a river that we judged was too deep to cross safely. As it was we were pushed for time anyway as the movie was due to start 5pm & Tanya said we needed to be there by 4.30pm. It was after 2.30pm & it took more than 1 & half hours to come from Wanaka.
We got back to Wanaka about 4.15pm, got something to eat & then went to Cinema Paradiso – a tiny cinema in Wanaka – to see Water for Elephants. The cinema seats were sofas, easy chairs & a Morris Minor, Tanya had told me to choose where I wanted to sit so I chose the Morris Minor, we were in fits of laughter at sitting in the car watching the movie. Hot chocolates were brought to us during the film & at intermission we got a glass of wine each to have in the 'car’.
We left Wanaka about 7.30pm & went home across the Crown Range but it was pitch black so couldn’t see anything of the countryside. When we got in I packed all my stuff for tomorrow & sorted the room out as I intended going down country for a couple of days.
