Morning Marvels, Afternoon Tea

Up early again this morning and into Land Rovers for our adventure into Skippers Canyon. Within minutes of leaving our hotel on the Queenstown lakefront, we were in the back country on a dirt road that clings to the edges of the mountains. This narrow road overlooks steep canyons that drop below so far you can’t see the bottom.

As we wound around and through rock formations with names like “the Castle” and “Hell’s Gate” (followed quickly by “Heaven’s Gate), we’re grateful not to meet vehicles going the other way. It is a two-way road with occasional areas to pull aside, but it’s not what you want to experience in many places. Our destination is the gold mining area deep in the canyons of the Shotover River.

It’s a bit of a rough ride, but worth every bump and shudder endured. Each turn, every rise and fall of the road reveals yet another breath-taking view. This is an isolated area, entered daily, of course, by these tours, but it’s neither crowded nor developed, but protected for its historical and ecological significance.

Crossing a high one-lane bridge, we saw the river flowing swiftly below. Despite the isolation, we saw sheep and cattle grazing in the sharply vertical pasturage. The animals are, we’re told, gathered only twice a year by dogs and shepherds on foot. It is too steep for horses, too dangerous for helicopters.
We stopped for morning tea (brought here in coolers on top of our Rovers) at a restored settlement where miners and their families once lived. The gold is mostly gone now, but we got a demonstration of panning at river’s edge. All along the banks of the river are beautiful stones, including both white and gold quartz and greenschist.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped for an expansive view across a valley scooped out long ago by retreating glaciers. Surely photographed thousands, if not millions, of times, this is an iconic landscape that seems virtually ideal. There are glimpses of lakes in the distance between mountains rising on all sides, green fields and small lakes in the valley itself, a few farms and homesteads.

Back at the hotel we had just enough time to grab a quick lunch across the street before our afternoon cruise across Lake Wakatipu. We found a pub for seafood chowder and BLT sandwiches, which we’ve seen referred to as BLATs elsewhere in New Zealand.

Our cruise was up the lake on TSS Earnslaw. TSS stands for Twin Screw Steamship so it was both a cruise and a trip in history. The ship, driven by coal-fired steam, was built the same year as the Titanic, our guide says. The good news is that it still works and didn’t follow the Titanic to the bottom. They say the lake is so cold that you’d have hypothermia within 30 minutes. It’s also very deep, maybe as much as 1000 feet.

Our trip by water took us to the Walter Peak High Country Farm, a 9-mile water trip that would be about 136 miles if we took the roads around the lake to get there. The farm manager, Lindsey, led us through the grounds, using his Scots burr to describe farm life, the animals, and the homestead where we had delicious tea with scones and cakes. He gave a dog-herding demonstration at the end and sheared a sheep. Throughout his tour, he kept everyone laughing all the way to the dock where he personally said goodbye to us with charm and grace. We were made to feel welcome from the moment we arrived, encouraged to pet the sheep and deer and Scottish Highland cattle, then to “come into the house” for tea. The farm is set directly on the lakeside with a view unrivaled anywhere in the world. For a little while this afternoon, we were honored guests there and the view from the terrace belonged to us. It was heavenly with sunshine providing some warmth and an occasional raindrop falling to remind us how fickle South Island weather can be.
This day will end with our finding our way out for supper, then doing some laundry before we move on tomorrow. Mike is spending a few minutes with a glass of NZ wine on our little balcony with its lake view as I write this. Once again, we have oohed and ahhed our way through a glorious day of new experiences in this amazing place and we’ll sleep as grateful travelers who’ve found an extraordinary corner of the world and fallen in love with it.