Following Joyce & Paul's Travels in Retirement

Monday was relatively relaxing. With our bags all packed and an afternoon flight, we had some available time. We headed to the waterfront near the airport and ate our lunch by the water. All too soon it was time to drop the rental car and get checked in at the airport. We had less than a pound of space in each of our bags!

We arrived at Sydney as scheduled about 5 pm.

After clearing customs and picking up our bags, we headed to the car rental counter. Although we were the only customers, it took a long time since we had to work with a partner agent who had problems working out the details. We then spent some time signing up for an eSIM in Paul’s phone since there wasn’t a booth at the airport for the company I wanted

Finally we were on our way to a motel about 20 minutes away. Navigating there was challenging as it was still in a busy area on the outskirts of Sydney. We managed to get to our room and then immediately left for a few groceries. We had a pasta meal on the plane so we made do with a salad and crusty bread for supper.

Tomorrow we head south down the coast.

On Sunday, with clear skies, we embarked on a road trip to see another couple of nearby sites. We started in a little town called Arrowtown. Following the discovery of gold in 1862, a town of tents sprung up beside the river. However, the next year, heavy snow and a big flood came and washed many of the miners and their supplies away.

In 1870, all was rebuilt. Today, many remain and have become shops or food establishments.

We walked through part of town – it was a weekend and lots of people were visiting.

We headed out from Arrowtown to drive to Ayrburn, a local winery.

The homestead was built in the late 1800’s and remained a successful and productive wheat, sheep and dairy farm up until the early 21^st century. In 2021, they started to reconstruct the woolshed, stables, cart shed and dairy to be enjoyed as food establishments on the property.

After a nice walk around the grounds, we headed out for our final destination, the Crown Range Road.

This road provided some nice views back to Queenstown. We climbed about 1500 feet in elevation from the city level to the village of Cardrona at which time we decided to turn around and head back to our accommodation.