As we left Queenstown and headed for Wanaka, we had a few stops in Arrowtown, a bungy jump, and another vineyard along the way. Arrowtown was originally a gold rush town, so it’s not exactly the busiest place in the world anymore. But we had brunch at this amazing creperie run by a French family that had moved there about a year ago. Fantastic! Nutella and bananas make the perfect pair. We didn’t do the bungy jump, but got to see some jumpers. At this bridge, you can tell them exactly how much to dunk you in the river below. It would be quite the rush to get your head dunked in when it was so chilly and with the wind. The vineyard was beautiful with a fog just lifting out of the valley and frost on the leaves.
We travelled the Crown Range road that is a shortcut between Q-town and Wanaka and saw some amazing scenery. It sometimes closes when the weather is bad, but luckily the weather had cleared up from the constant rain of the week before. I was especially thankful for the clear skies because of the hairpin turns and the odd aspect of driving on the left side of the road. Wanaka is a beautiful town right on the lake and quite a bit quieter than Q-town.
There is this great place called Puzzling World in Wanaka that shows some of the tricks used in filming Lord of the Rings.
It was quite fun to look around this place and try out their maze. We did fine at finding all the towers but getting back to the beginning took longer than we would like to admit! There are also some Roman-style restrooms that we thought we should try out.
On our way back we decided to take the scenic route that goes the north way back to Dunedin through Ranfurly and out to Palmerston. It was absolutely amazing and we even stopped to play in the snow for a bit. I think Andrea was a bit confused on what that white stuff could be.
On our drive back, there was a motorcycle rally that I was told is called Brass Monkey and occurs over the Queen’s Birthday holiday weekend every year. We saw hundreds of motorcycles everywhere we went going all directions. Andrea kept saying that maybe Saturday was a big day for motorcycles, but I think every motorcycle owner on the south island turned out for this thing. Ray, you would have loved it! It would have been a bit on the chilly side, but the views totally make up for it. All in all, this was an amazing little getaway!
We travelled the Crown Range road that is a shortcut between Q-town and Wanaka and saw some amazing scenery. It sometimes closes when the weather is bad, but luckily the weather had cleared up from the constant rain of the week before. I was especially thankful for the clear skies because of the hairpin turns and the odd aspect of driving on the left side of the road. Wanaka is a beautiful town right on the lake and quite a bit quieter than Q-town. 
There is this great place called Puzzling World in Wanaka that shows some of the tricks used in filming Lord of the Rings.
It was quite fun to look around this place and try out their maze. We did fine at finding all the towers but getting back to the beginning took longer than we would like to admit! There are also some Roman-style restrooms that we thought we should try out. 
On our way back we decided to take the scenic route that goes the north way back to Dunedin through Ranfurly and out to Palmerston. It was absolutely amazing and we even stopped to play in the snow for a bit. I think Andrea was a bit confused on what that white stuff could be. 
On our drive back, there was a motorcycle rally that I was told is called Brass Monkey and occurs over the Queen’s Birthday holiday weekend every year. We saw hundreds of motorcycles everywhere we went going all directions. Andrea kept saying that maybe Saturday was a big day for motorcycles, but I think every motorcycle owner on the south island turned out for this thing. Ray, you would have loved it! It would have been a bit on the chilly side, but the views totally make up for it. All in all, this was an amazing little getaway!
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