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Luxury plus

We found our way downtown (not nearly as busy this morning as last night), parked the car and headed to the ticket office to check in. We had a bit of time before boarding the boat, so picked up a couple of hot drinks and a pastry and sat enjoying the view.

Once on the boat, we had a chance to get some beautiful views of Lake Wakatipu.

We had a nice sunny start for our Steamship ride across the lake.
The boat was full!
Paul had to go check out the workings!
Cool but nice and sunny!

After 45 min we arrived at the Walter Peak High Country Sheep Farm where we had an awesome barbeque lunch buffet – more lamb – yum!

The Walter Peak Station (they call them station instead of ranch or farm) is about 64,000 acres and is home to about 20,000 sheep. Established in 1880, at one point it had a peak of 40,000 sheep and had bought the two neighbouring farms, more than doubling in size. However the three stations split back up in 1949 due to low wool prices. The homestead area is now operated by a commercial group with over 200,000 visitors yearly.

After our delicious lunch, where we met the other 3 couples joining our tour, we headed for an educational session on the sheep. We heard about the two types they raise which give two different qualities of wool, the finest being merino. We then had a demo of sheep sheering.

This was followed by an explanation of the sheep herding by dogs (short haired border collies) and a demo. The dogs don’t chase the sheep but rather get them to go based on staring at them. They would go and lay down and stare at the sheep until the moved away from them. The shepherd used either voice or whistle to control the dog.

After that was finished, we met our driver and van for our next 3 days. Andres has lived in New Zealand for 15 years but was raised in Chile. He was fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Check out the next post for our 90 km trip down the gravel road and into Te Anau.

The landscape changes

Tuesday’s drive took us through some different countryside. The sun was out but it was a cooler day.

We stopped in the little town of Lawrence for a washroom break and to get our lunch out. We had passed a fruit farm earlier and picked up some cherries and plums for dessert.

Unique metal art depicting the gold miners that came.
A living wall
Very green!

We followed along a river for quite a while.

The river was dammed forming a big lake.

This is an engineered solution for the Cairnmuir landslide in the Cromwell Gorge.

It was built as a preventative measure during the construction of the Clyde Dam and the filling of Lake Dunstan in the early 1990s. Engineers discovered that rainwater seeping into the hillside could cause the large slope to slide into the new lake, potentially compromising the dam. The solution involved a multi-million dollar effort to dewater the slip zone and reinforce the hillside, resulting in the unique, ziggurat-like landscape seen today. 

There was also an old gold mine where you could pan for gold.
Kararau Gorge just outside of Queenstown.

We got to Queenstown mid afternoon and couldn’t believe the people. We had been warned it would be busy but had no idea just how busy. After a check in and unloading at our Airbnb for the night, we headed downtown to check things out for tomorrow’s tour.

We found where to check in as well as where to park so we should be all set for tomorrow. The forecast is for low wind, cooler but no rain. We’re looking forward to some amazing scenery! Don’t forget to check back!