As we left Queenstown we passed the Shotover Canyon and its jet boats. It's something that I wanted to do, so I paid my money and waited for the 11.00 ride. It was fun, but I didn't find it scary. Bit hard on the bum when the boat moves around so much on the 360 degree spins. Got fairly wet - but that's part of the fun. I was in good company- Prince William and Kate did the ride last year - their photo was on the wall in the 'Hall of Fame' along with lots of other celebrities. Even Hugh Jackson has had a go.
We had coffee then took a long windy road to Arrowtown - an old gold mining settlement which has kept its main street pretty much as it was in the 1800s. Now they're full of shops and restaurants though. It was a very hot day. We chose what turned out to be a 'nouvelle cuisine' type place for lunch - unbeknownst to us at the time. We had crispy pork belly on endive salad with a dash of hummus. Ok, but not filling. I went to the local pie shop on the way back to the car and bought a pie for that evening.
We drove on to Lake Wanaka, passing some amazing views as we did so. It took a while, because we kept stopping, but when we arrived we were surprised to find that there was a big show going on. I later found out that the show had about 30,000 visitors over the three days that it was on. The setting at Wanaka is lovely. The lake is stunning.
Google Navigate let us down (again) on locating the camp site that we wanted. We had a look at the closest one to town, but that smacked of a 1950s camp. The one that we chose was really nice, with a sauna, hot tubs, and good free wifi. It was a little way from the centre, but that was fine. We cooked and ate, then retired under a sky brimming with stars.
Next day was Mothering Sunday, so we stayed put on our nice camp and sunbathed, except when we went into Wanaka for lunch and a bit of an explore.
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