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We woke up at 6:45 a.m. When we had gone to bed, there had been a couple other camper vans and a couple cars. Now the lot was almost full of people hoping to catch sunrise over Lake Matheson. By 7:05 we were out of the camper, looking at views of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. We retraced our steps from last night. There were a bunch of people standing at our vantage point from last night, so we moved on. We continued around the lake and stopped just prior to Reflection Island. We could see the peaks of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman peeking through the clouds. Ducks were swimming and diving, and cattle were mooing up a storm in the distance. We stood in that spot for at least half an hour admiring the view and watching the clouds burn off. We spoke to a Kiwi originally from France who was leading a group of French tourists. After a while we decided to continue the loop track rather than doubling back the way we had come. We made a brief stop at Reflection Island (where some people had congregated) and then continued on.
At one point we reached a glen that was full of small trees. Each had many small, intricate spider webs that were glistening with dew in the morning sun. I have never seen anything like it. It was like we were in another world. When we got back to the van we ate some banana bread from Hokitika and hit the road. We reached Wanaka at around 1:30. In this part of the country the autumn foliage was very pronounced. Lots of yellows, and some oranges and reds. Lake Wanaka was a gorgeous blue in the sunlight, and there were many families relaxing on its shores. It was a quaint town and we wandered around. We got all the digital photos that we had taken so far downloaded onto CD in 20 minutes. While waiting, we ate "large" pizzas (Hawaiian and Meat Lovers, that would be considered small or medium-sized at home) on the sidewalk at daVinci's. Then we went to collect our photos. They let us check each and every photo on their computer to verify that they were all there before we erased our memory card. We headed back to the van and stopped in the visitors' center. We were looking at brochures and Craig asked if I wanted to try bungy jumping. I had been toying with the idea ever since we decided to go to New Zealand. The brochure was for A.J. Hackett Bungy in Queenstown. We had seen their bungy company on television, and knew that they established the world's first commercial bungy site. We decided that we would just book a reservation, and then we would be locked in, no turning back. I called and we made a reservation for a jump at the Kawarau Bridge, the original bungy bridge and home of bungy since 1988. It was a 43-meter drop with splashdown option in the river. To celebrate our bravery in booking it we got ice cream in waffle cones. I had orange chocolate chip and Craig had creamy cookie. Then we hit the road again. We passed the bungy bridge and continued on to Arrowtown. It was a very small, quaint, picturesque. We parked near the town common and wandered down the little road of shops and restaurants. We had read in our Lord of the Rings location guidebook that Arrowtown had been used as a location for the Ford of Bruinen in The Fellowship of the Ring, so we decided to take a little walk and try to find the spot. We passed a nice skate park teeming with kids and continued to the river. We walked about 200 m upstream (as directed by the book) and saw the spot where Arwen and Frodo stood against the Black Riders. The site isn't really far from the road at all, but it looks incredibly remote in the movie. In our geeky way, we took a bunch of pictures and were very excited by the find. The foliage was beautiful, very yellow. We just missed sunset, and decided to look for a motor park in Arrowtown. We found one, but it appeared to have no showers. There were a few restaurants in Arrowtown, but it seemed like the whole town would shut down really early. So we decided to take our chances and head into Queenstown in the dark. We drove through town and checked into the Queenstown Lakeview Holiday Park. There we did some laundry and took glorious showers. This was the only campground that charged for hot water so far, but 12 minutes of hot water was worth the NZ$2 that we were charged. After freshening up, we walked into town. The location of this park was great; it was a short, pleasant, well-lit walk. It was around 9 p.m., and we were looking for a place that was still serving dinner. We stumbled into the Lone Star Steakhouse and Rattlesnake Bar, a supposed favorite watering hole of the Lord of the Rings cast. The staff was super friendly, and we loved Basil, our waiter. Craig had a Canterbury draught and I had a "Ruski's" vodka and lemonade while we waited for our table. It was ready almost immediately. Craig got lamb shanks, garlic mashed potatoes, and a salad. I had beef-filled burritos ranchero with potato wedges. It was all very good, and there was a lot of it. We enjoyed the ambiance and our table was next to the fireplace. Around 10:45 we walked back to the camper park. We collected our laundry and checked our email. We went to bed by midnight, a little nervous about our big day at the bungy bridge tomorrow. |
 Inside the camper van  View from Reflection Island, Lake Matheson  Spider web, Lake Matheson  Arrowtown 
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