NZ Vacation Day 5 - Queenstown

Today was the day we had all been waiting for - the long journey (330km) into Queenstown. Back in the days of the year 2001BC (Before Children), travelling 330km would have been a piece of cake to us. We toured New Zealand's north island then and could stop whenever we wanted to, or drive on for as long as we liked without stopping if we didn't need to. Now, with young children in the equation, making a long drive would be impossible without strategic planning. Packing enough snacks (and it has to be those that the kids love eating), being able to entertain the kids when they got bored, planning our pee breaks (basically no one is allowed to stop for a pee break unless one of the kids need to go!) and having the driver step on the gas and driving as fast as safely possible to cover as much distance as we can as soon as DD dozes off, are all part of the battle plan.

Here we are, at an unscheduled pit stop. DD was getting annoyed as she was tired but couldn't fall asleep, and couldn't get out of her car seat. When she wasn't interested in snacks or songs anymore, and nothing could distract her from crying, we knew that we had to stop. While I nursed DD, the males got out to enjoy the scenery and to empty their bladders.


Here's the little stream where I presume the boys had a pee. I certainly hope there were no guided tours somewhere downstream with the tour guide encouraging tourists to take a drink from the "pure" mountain spring water.


After coaxing DD back into her car seat, we drove on for about two more hours before finally getting our first view of the beautiful scenery that awaited us as we neared Queenstown. Behind us was probably Lake Hawea, and the next picture, Lake Wanaka. We weren't sure if we were identifying the correct lakes as we drove pass them.


Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka lie beside each other, with a small strip of land called The Neck (1000m wide) separating them both. These two lakes were supposed to have been excavated by huge glaciers more than 10,000 years ago!


It was past lunch time, so we decided to stop at the Puzzle Cafe in Puzzling World, Wanaka, for a quick lunch before heading into Queenstown. Puzzling World in Wanaka is a tourist attraction "specialising in puzzling eccentricity". It has a maze, rooms with optical illutions, "eccentric architecture" and other oddities. The cafe has several puzzles to keep diners occupied during a meal too.

The picture below shows the Leaning Tower of Wanaka, which appears to have been pulled out of the ground, balanced on one corner of the Tower and leaning at an angle of 53 degrees to the ground. Even the Leaning Tower of Pisa only leans at an angle of six degrees to the ground.


Here's a picture of the family using a Roman-style toilet, which were just holes on a "bench" with running water under the seats. Apparently, the Romans used to carry on them a brush as part of their personal toiletries, to be used in place of toilet paper! In the picture, DH was pretending to use his handphone while sitting on the toilet. Oh, and me pretending to have a stomachache.


DH again, this time pretending to be severely constipated!


After lunch, a quick 30-minute drive and we were at Villa Del Lago, where we stayed for 3 nights. This self-contained house, built slim and tall like many houses in Queenstown (it had 3 floors - top floor had one bedroom, middle floor was the main level with kitchen, living and dining area, and a "basement" with 2 bedrooms. As you can imagine, we had lots of exercise during the 4 days we were in Queenstown, especially with chasing the kids up and down the stairs!), had a magnificent view of Lake Wakatipu and The Remarkables mountain ranges. The view was so beautiful, and the house was so clean and tidy that we had a very pleasant stay at Villa Del Lago. It was great waking up to beautiful scenery, or coming home after a tiring day out to enjoy the view we had.


The beautiful scenery once again, taken from the balcony.