Author: Joyce and Paul's retirement travels

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed out to drive to Glenorchy. The weather was cloudy but it wasn’t raining.

Glenorchy is about 45 minutes from Queenstown and nestled amongst the Southern Alps. The area around it has been used in filming many movies including The Hobbit Trilogy, The Chronicles of Narnia, Willow, Tracker, and Mission Impossible: Fallout.

Just past Glenorchy is a little village of Paradise. The road is gravel but passes through some filming areas and nice scenery.

Of course, a day wouldn’t be complete without sheep…

As we headed back along Lake Wakatipu, the clouds had lifted a bit and we had a different view from the morning.

We were soon back to our accommodation and a nice view of the lake from our balcony.

Tomorrow we’ll tackle a different route and drive up some mountain roads.

Our trip back followed the same route as the way there. Back 90 km of gravel road with a couple of different stops along the way. The group was in a good mood as was our tour guide. Lots of joking around and everyone was pleasant. It was a good group to be with.

We found out we had been fortunate to have the same tour guide all 3 days. He told us it was only the second time this season he had been assigned the same group for all three days. It appears the company prioritized their guide’s schedule for days off and with the different length trips they do, they often don’t always manage to have the same guide the whole time.

We had a couple of bridges and two water crossings.

All too soon we said goodbye to our guide and we’re back at Walter’s Peak Sheep Farm.

Our boat arrived and we had an uneventful ride back to Queenstown where we picked up our car from the parking garage and headed to find a few groceries and then our next Airbnb.

And what a find! The view itself was worth it.

Tomorrow we’ll head out for some exploring nearby.