Day 10: Wanaka to Queenstown

Wanaka – Cardrona Valley - Crown Range - Arrowtown - Arthur’s Pt and into Queenstown.

So, this was going to be the Big Day!!  The wind had sprung up nastily the afternoon before and ‘they’ were predicting much the same, so I headed out of town at 8am hoping to get away before that wind started blowing up the valley.

YHA Wanaka - very comfy!

 It was a beautiful day for riding – so far no wind, partly cloudy and gentle road with not too much traffic.  Had a buster early on the piece because the camzilla mount fell off my handle bars (yeah probably hadn’t tightened it up enough) and when I tried to get my right foot out of the cleat it sorta jammed and I slowly toppled over, loosing a bit of skin off my knee – thankfully I had long pants on so it could have been more.

Morning tea stop - note ute near the shed!

But back on the road and after 20km passed I decided to pull over for a snack and to drink the coffee I had put in my drink bottle!  Not a bad drop!  I had stopped near a transformer station and had seen a ute down by it, but didn’t take much notice.  As I was about to leave a gentleman came up the path for a bit of yarn.  Asked me what I was doing, where I was going and when I said I was heading to Queenstown, he frowned a bit.  Then he said he could give me a lift if I was still going up when he went past.  I must admit it didn’t take me long to say – well, maybe we shall see how we are going.  So we said goodbye.

The road through the Cardrona Valley

Cardrona Church - with toilets nearby

Another 5km on was the township of Cardrona.  It looks like its full of fancy luxury B&B and resorts for the winter time – there must be a good ski field close by.  But I was looking for a loo and the old pub.  Found the loo first, in the grounds of the old church, so went in and also washed my scraped knee.  I checked my cleat as it had almost jammed again and saw that I was a screw-loose – in fact one was totally missing!  Drat!  So I tightened the remaining one as tight as possible and tightened up the others just in case and off along the road again.

Yeah, that's me - photo taken by a fan I keep bumping into

I quickly stopped at the old pub as it is a historic site and actually was cussing that I hadn’t pedalled that extra 5km so that I could have had my break there.  But a quick look in was good and maybe there was a good reason to have stopped earlier.

Inside the bar - there was even a fire going in the Lounge

Back on the road, I could now feel the climb starting, there were little pinches that didn’t go down so far and a few k’s on I was walking up a tight pinch when that gentleman and his ute pulled over and out he hopped. 

Starting to get serious - seen from the Ute

So we loaded Maggie into the back and away we went.  There were a few sections that I would have loved to have ridden, but it soon became really steep and the traffic was bunching up and yes, there was very little shoulder – I would have been walking quite a way…. 

Getting near the top now!

 Yes, I did feel like I was cheating a bit – especially as there was a group of roadies (support vehicle close by) also riding along and they – bar one – had made it to the top by the time we arrived at the lookout.  Kind gentleman wanted to take me to the bottom, but I was having none of that, so we shook hands as friends and away he went.

Kind gentleman and Ute - Maggie resting in background

I was pretty cold up there – and when I went over to the look out, I began to realise just how steep it was!

Looking over the edge - yep that's the valley floor where I was heading!

Yikes this is going to be challenging also!  But let’s not dwell on things, so onto the saddle and away we went.  Sudden brain freeze!!! I had to pull over at the first layby to get out my cardi!  I was so darn cold and the wind factor must have cut the temp back to about 5!!  But then away we went, abso flying down the hill.

Can you see the switchbacks?

 There were switchbacks so tight I almost had to stop to get around them, while other corners could be taken at a fair bit of speed.  I pulled over a couple of times to let cars past, but generally I had the road to myself, which was great.

At another lookout, half way down!

Top speed of 55 and that was being controlled by brakes.  Yep – it was a bit scary, but just exhilarating for sure and I really enjoyed it.

The Valley is getting closer!

Eventually you pop out onto flat land with some up and downs which are so slow and lame…

I decided I should make the detour to Arrowtown to make up the k’s lost in the ute and just as I changed down to take the right hand turn, that bloomin chain jammed again!  But I calmly unclicked and ground to a halt, walked Maggie across the intersection and un-jammed the chain… 

The ride into Arrowtown was through small farm lands, with sheep and dairy cows and vineyards which seem to be taking over the place – and an easy pedal in beautiful weather.

Heading towards to Arrowtown - gravel bikepath again

Arrowtown is now a total tourist town, but unlike Kuranda (in Nth Qld) they seem to have done a pretty good job at keeping the flavour of the town right.  It felt like the way one might imagine a small town might feel back in the gold rush days.  There were a wide variety of souvenir shops – some selling merino wool clothing, other selling jewellery – either cheap or expensive.  Those shops that were totally souvenir shops had a good range of merchandise mixed with imported stuff from Asia and locally made art and craft.  I managed to find some things there that I liked and I walked across to the Post Office there and shoved more things into a bag and sent it on its way.

Main Street, Arrowtown

I was guided out of town by a friendly woman from an art gallery on the fringe and was again pedalling along the country side.  Again a few hills to climb and a few more to come down – an occasional one saw me walking the last little bit, but I was just enjoying a nice pedal around, through an English inspired landscape of poplars, cypress and a wide variety of non-native flora.   I do wonder whether there is any natural environment left.

Bridge over Shotover River, Arthur's Point

 Arriving at Arthur’s Point, I wondered what he might be pointing at…  but around a corner I soon found out.   I sped and down a hill that swooped over a river on a narrow one-lane bridge – thankfully for me, there was no oncoming traffic and I had right of way, so I quickly dashed across this bridge catching a glimpse of a beautiful green river below.  I pulled over and gave Maggie a rest while I went back for a bit of a look.  I was walking on the inside of the barrier when I realised that what I thought was about 2m of cliff top had suddenly broke back to about a half a metre and I was looking straight down onto the river - way, way below.  So I paused a moment, hanging onto the guard rail, before nervously moving along a bit…

Shotover River - what a beautiful quiet river - sometimes!

The roar of a jet boat shattered the serenity and I realised that I must be close to Queenstown – the Extreme centre for everything….  I watched as 2 boats bounced and lurched up the Shotover River and wondered why anyone would bother doing that.  I mean, there is no way you could see anything and getting all shook up like that doesn’t appeal to this granny.

Soon I was riding into suburbia and unfortunately the kids had just been let out of school, so there were Toorak tractors everywhere and bunches of high-school kids loitering on the footpath, so I wasn’t that impressed with this entry.  I came to a main intersection and tried to get my bearings.  Yes I should continue down this way I think, but not sure for how long.  I rode through the city centre then found the lake at last.  YHA Lakefront must be along here somewhere and sure enough, there is was looking like a Swiss Chalet in an alpine setting – without any snow…

Soon, Maggie was locked up in a container and I had struggle way up 2 flights of stairs to room 14.  7 bed dorm with en suite.  Not as cosy as the room at Wanaka, but still good enough and a bed without a bunk on top.  Sweet – that one’s mine. 

So, I had arrived in Queenstown at last.  The rather worrisome ride up the Crown Range had been conquered, one way or the other, the swooping ride down the other side enjoyed and here I was to stay for another 3 nights.  I wonder what I will get up to here in Queenstown – tourist mecca of the South Island….

Stats for the day:  67.4km – 52.5kph max – 16.5kph avg.