Day 13. 27th September 2010 Cardrona Ski Fields

 

Getting up half an hour earlier (4.30am EST) 7.30am NZT meant that today was less rushed and therefore a much more pleasant start to the day.  However we are finding that we are having strangest dreams and nights’ sleep that we have ever had, it could be something to do with the higher altitude of 1650 metres.  Never the less, our sleep is not as satisfying as we would like. Once we are back at sea level it will be interesting to see if anything changes. Dehydration is another item that must be taken into account at this altitude, so we constantly drink water, which helps.  Of course we all feel physically sore from our previous day’s exertions, which is to be expected.  Our apartment is very nicely appointed with all mod cons and excellent kitchen, so we ensure that we all get hearty day’s breakfast.  

Today we all started the day with lessons. Cos progressed to the top of the beginners’ area slope to learn turning, but had his 2 hour lesson cut short by 20 minutes when he hurt his upper left leg in fall. Nothing serious but put him out of skiing for the rest of the day as his leg needed to rest. He took up new duties as cameraman which he enjoyed. The girls both took to the slopes and skied down the mountain with ease as did Melissa. The afternoon saw Melissa and the girls doing runs down various Mountain runs with increasing skill and speed. Some breath-taking views of the surrounding countryside could be seen on their runs. Melissa took the camera off Cos to record some of the scenery at these higher altitudes later in the afternoon. Snow boarders seem to be both numerous and very daring (and out of control) on the mountain. Melissa had a close encounter of snow boarder kind on one of her runs.  While standing still after helping one of the girls had my legs basically knocked out from underneath me and fell on the edge of the board and now bare a long thin board bruise on my hip.  No major damage and the guy was very apologetic.  The sound of the board is like a jet liner behind you and you are constantly on the lookout for them.  Can’t really understand the logistics of being able to control them very unlike skies.  Generally people are quite polite and willing to have a chat especially when on a chair lift in a lesson.

Generally our experience here has been pleasant, although seems to be interesting communication skills between the different sections.  Instructors have been great and very helpful.   Over the ten lessons between the four of us we have encountered Kit, Charlie, Jae Sin, Andrea, Rob, Oliver, May and Gary (and one other who that girls had) all have been great.  Especially the girl’s instructors, they have always given us great feedback and the girls great support.  Definitely do recommend Cardrona as a family/children ski school.

Day 12 26th September 2010 Cardrona Ski fields

Today started with daylight saving pushing the clock forward one hour so 8am is now 9am. Less sleep again sadly, as we really haven’t moved to NZ time. 

The girls spent the day in lessons with other kids, they progressed rapidly as they can now ski one of the Cardrona’s mountain runs. Melissa is now in the more advanced group skiing down the mountain, and Cos is learning how to turn and more importantly stop.  We all feel very sore and tired but satisfied with our progress.

At 4pm the field closes, and the horde of skiers leave the mountain. For us it is quiet time to build a snowman (Christopher) and the girls to toboggan down the beginner slopes. There is one problem, finding a way to stop without crashing.

Day 11 25th September 2010 - Wanaka to Cardrona Ski Fields.

Typical street in Wanaka

Today we awoke to a perfect day. The sky was blue, the wind was low and the birds were singing. Today was the day we moved up to Cardrona Ski Fields accommodation, so it needed to perfect. We checked out of the top ten van park, and headed into Wanaka to purchase some food and some late minute additional clothing items. After loading our purchases, we headed to the Mountain. 

Road up the Cardrona Mt

The mountain road is narrow gravel road which needed either a 4 wheel drive or a chain equipped 2 wheel drive vehicle.  Breath-taking views can be seen as you ascend up the mountain (assuming you take your eyes off the road to look!) Guard rails, what guard rails, not looking forward to the descent in three days time, as the road is slippery and narrow and finally the want-to-be rally drivers just don’t get it that mere mortals use the road too.

View from the Cardrona road

At the top, cars park on the edge of oblivion, but plenty of parking controllers assist new folks into a park. Sadly there is just not enough room to maneuver; we nearly reversed into a vehicle parked in the drop off zone. This was painful, especially when people park where they are not supposed to.

Cardrona Base Camp

The girls' snowman

The accommodation is great, very comfortable, and right on the spot to the ski fields. After dropping off our luggage, we raced down to booking office to buy ski passes and lessons. Quite an experience getting kitted out to ski. We have our own gloves and goggles, but the rest had to be hired which is not cheap, though much cheaper than Australia apparently. It took an hour to finally make the fields, 10 minutes late to our lesson, where we were greeted by the sister of the security woman we met 19 months ago in Frankfort airport.(see 2008 Basel blog) She was neither helpful nor friendly; it wasn’t a great first impression. It seemed to be that there could not be any learners as we had to repeat at least 3 times that we were coming into beginner A & B.  Luckily another lady instructor stepped in, and arranged a male instructor to take us. He was great, and certainly a great teacher, thank you Kit! Even though Cos was a complete beginner  and I had skied many years ago as we were running late we ended up in the same lesson but this was fine as I was a little unsure.  We had a very nervous return skier and three second lesson attendees.  Towards the end of the lesson Kit said I might like to ride up the pommel and ski down and he would watch.  So that was great.  Tomorrow I will join a higher group.

Our Accommodation

Jacqs and hide and seek

The area the girls started in was on the way to the adult section so the girls were place very quickly and efficiently with May.  The girls had a great session and learnt heaps.  They were riding the basic Pommel about half way through their lesson. 

Fun getting off ski boots

So it seems that we have some very enthusiastic skiers so let’s hope the weather is as good tomorrow as it was today.  It is quite windy and snowy out there currently and quite disconcerting being on a mountain in a snow storm.  A family was here during the recent bad weather and although the lifts were not operating they were able to walk and ski around the learners’ area and there is plenty of snow close by for the mandatory snowman.  The girls have already made a little one on the seat outside out room on the blown in snow.  The accommodation is warm and very comfortable

Day 10 - 24th September 2010 - Wanaka - A Explore.

Sitting in a Piper

Tiger Moth

Unfortunately we woke this morning to a cold rainy, miserable day.  So after cooking ourselves a nice hearty bacon and egg breakfast we set out for an explore.  First stop was the Cardrona office in Wanaka.  We found out from the lady that once again the field had been closed due to strong winds.  Great … we can’t ski because of out the ordinary adverse conditions.  And add salt to the wound they have apparently actually had the best late season snow fall in years.  Cardrona currently has 105cm of snow.  Generally the road has been OK, big problem is the winds on the fields.  We are still able to access the accommodation but it is not looking good for skiing.  If the field is open we will head up relatively early and ski.  If not we will head up for check in time in the afternoon.  At least we have travel insurance, so if weather prevents us from getting there we should be able to claim.

Paradiso Theatre Wanaka

Size optical illusion room

Puzzling World

Theatre

After Cardrona Office, we headed out to Classic Flights to potentially arrange a joy flight, pending weather. We had heard from many that the cinema was worth a visit, so with rainy weather as a motivator, we went to the movies. Wow! It was wonderful. The cinema is quaint, it has total seating of about 85, very community driven affair. The seating is mainly a series of lounge chairs, rockers, and even a car! The advertising is locally made, and it shows, but in a quaint way is very effective.  Interval was run at half way point, with home-made and freshly baked on site hot various flavored biscuits. After the movies we went to “Puzzling World” theme park, which includes a 3D outdoor maze of 1.5kms, which takes the average visitor 3-5kms and 1 hour to get out. Inside a series of puzzles and optical illusions await the visitor. Overall “Puzzling World” theme park is certainly worth a visit. One amazing room featured cleverly generated household structures at opposing angles to the ‘normal’ so it appeared pool balls rolled uphill, water ran up hill and people were standing at an angle.  It was very hard to move around and we actually felt a little nauseous when we left. 

Angle Illusion room

Finally we explored Wanaka’s shops a little more this afternoon, and then enjoyed dinner at “The Cow”. The scenery that surrounds the town is very beautiful, with mirrored lakes and snow capped mountains. It would be difficult to decide which has the best scenery, Queenstown or Wanaka. I guess it comes down to personal taste, for us Wanaka has the edge.

Roman toilet with 'Romans'

The Van Park here at Wanaka is great. Again probably not best of sites we have visited but still very good with helpful and friendly staff.  This one is a little dated, certainly not as new and modern but warm and comfortable.

Clearly there is still more to see in this sleepy little town, with the lake, a rifle and archery centre and the Toy and Transport Museum at the airport to visit if Cardrona’s weather continues to disappoint tomorrow.  

Day 9. Queenstown - Arrowtown –Wanaka. From a built playground to a natural one.

We awoke today to find a thin carpet of snow covering our car and the camp grounds. The girls got excited and played in the slushy snow with another girl staying at Van Park from Toowoomba! We met the Toowoomba family last night just after finishing our daily blog. A nice family doing much the same trip around NZ as us, certainly proves that it is a very small world. As Melissa has said regularly, given the Aussies we have met, there can’t be many left in Australia.  

Shotover River Bridge

The Queenstown Shot- Over Van Park was probably the least favourite of the parks we have visited. It wasn’t bad, just overly environmentally friendly.  They seem to have timers on everything, which go off at the most inconvenient times. Small inconvenient things spoiled the experience, like the cabin heaters turning off after an hour or the lights in the toilets and showers switching off part way through a visit.  Everything was timed even the stoves, and cook tops which seemed a little bit over the top.  Of course you could reset the timer, but that was painful having do it all the time, particularly when you are trying to heat a room.  We have noticed the Top Tens are very environmentally friendly Van Parks, with multiple recycling bins and other energy saving features. Certainly can’t complain about the service and the staff were friendly and helpful.  There is a second Top Ten in Queenstown would be interesting to know what it is like.

Today we visited Queenstown to ride the Skyline’s Gondola up the mountain and ride the luge. Certainly the best part of our Queenstown.  The gondola was a short ride upto magnificent views of the town, mountains, lake and surrounds.  Near by was AJ Hackett bungee jumping and sky chairs I believe and a helicopter joy flight service.  There was no bungee jumping unfortunately as we would have loved to watch and photograph.  We did partake in the luge however which was great fun.  Sitting in little luges  or alpine go carts, basically driven by gavity.  You had a steering wheel like a bike handle to steer which was also pulled back to break.  They were really great fun.  We all enjoyed the rides immensely.  After a fun couple of hours we rode the gondola back to the bottom.

Lake at Queenstown

At the base of the gondola there was also a Kiwi and Bird Park that we would have loved to visit but the full tour was a little expensive and would have taken us an hour as we were keen to have a look at Arrowtown on our way to Wanaka we didn’t have time to do the park justice.  The fact that the gondola was quite busy and hardly anyone in the bird park, which you walked past to get to most of the parking, told us it was probably not necessarily good value for money.  After returning to our car we drove out of town and stopped briefly at a river crossing on the edge of town.  It turned out to be the base for Shot Over Jets.  We watched the jets speed up and down the river at great knots.  The participants having a great time.  Even though they were well covered it would have been a cold experience.  One we may have participated in, in warmer weather but not when there was snow on the ground around.  The car bridge over the river was magnificent.

View back towards Arrowtown/QT

Arrowtown

After looking around and taking some photographs we headed off to Arrowtown.  What a beautiful place.  It would be absolutely breath taking in autumn as most of the trees seemed to be deciduous and would have been glorious full of red and gold leaves.  The town itself is very quaint and pretty.  Also with a gold mining history.  While here we made enquires on our route to Wanaka and found there were two.  One was longer but faster driving and took us basically back to Cromwell.  The other shorter but slower through the Crown Range.  We opted for the range road and did not regret it.  The trip up and over the range was glorious.  With a amazing views back down into the valley back toward Arrowtown and Queenstown on some very tight hairpin turns.  Once over the range coming down we drove into probably the driest part of NZ we had seen.  But the valleys and paddocks still did not disappoint.  

We arrived into Wanaka late afternoon to a very different feel town to metropolitan Queenstown.  Wanaka is definitely more laid back but equally beautiful.  The lake in the late afternoon was very pretty.  We checked into our Wanaka Top Ten and are very happy.  It appears to be older but vey comfortable with great heating.  We intend having a good explore tomorrow.

Day 8 Queenstown 22nd September 2010 'A bus trip to no where and back again.'

Today saw us waking a little before 6am (or was it a little before 4am) to hopefully do a boat trip on Milford Sound. But unfortunately it was not to be. The manager was spot on when he doubted that we would get there. We did have a lovely relaxing bus trip with Milford Select to just past Knobs Flat. We left the van park about 6.30am and arrived back about 3.30pm. It was a long day but stress free as we could all take in the scenery. It is hard to believe even now looking at the photos how the weather could change so drastically from clear and cold to snowing quite heavily, not once but a few times in the one way part of the trip of roughly four and a half hours. Our bus driver was actually quite amazed that they even gave the go ahead for the trip in the first place. Our understanding is they closed the road just before Homer’s Tunnel yesterday afternoon to reopen this morning only for our driver to find just after Knobs Flat that they were closing it again at three. Our boat trip would have finished about 2.45 so we would have been stuck there overnight with not much food and little accommodation. This perturbed us less than the Swedish tourists who were flying back in next 24hrs. Our bus company was very considerate in this respects another we found out with several buses operating today pushed one through we presume on a greatly shortened cruise to return before road closure. We hope the travelers got a choice as the cruises would have not got a refund where as those who were turned around may have. It appears we got a full refund on our card time will tell. We booked through ‘I site, which incidentally is a great information service throughout NZ, so we are relatively confident. The lady dealing with the refund had to contact Milford Select for some details and was amused that the person on the other end was surprised we wanted a refund. Booked to see Milford Sound only got three quarters of the way, gee why would we want a refund. We figured a partial refund certainly not all.

We did a brief stop at a place called Mirror Lakes. On a clear day they apparently mirror the surround montains perfectly. They were certainly mirroring the bushes etc around the lakes but 'visibility' was not as good.

We returned to a very wet and cold Queenstown. We checked back into our new abode which is a one room cottage but still in the same van park. It is a bargain at $60 aus for all of us. We then drove back into the township. The surrounding scenery is beautiful as it is on the banks of a lake surrounded by snow capped mountain. However the town is like an alpine version of Noosa or Arlie Beach. Potentially beautiful but very commercialized to cater for the tourist dollars. Shops down the street alternate snow ski shops, booking agents and food outlets with the odd nice souvenir shop dotted in between. That for some is wonderful but did not thrill us.

Tomorrow if the is conducive we are hoping to do the Gondola and luge and drive to Arrowtown on our way to Wanaka which again is roughly an hour away.

Day 7. September 21, 2010 Cromwell to old Queenstown

Today we swapped our trusty camper van for people mover. Our day started with “operation clean and repack” our van ready for a swap. Given the girls’ capacity for orderly storing of valuables, we spent some time checking all the hiding spots for clothes, personal items and assorted valuables. The girls helped at first, then found some New Zealand girls to play with, which suited us fine. Would we campervan again, yes, going in with the knowledge we have.

The cooking, laundry, shower and toilet facilities were fantastic, as we have found in all the top ten van parks. The managers were very helpful, ringing ahead to book our accommodation at Queenstown. At noon we met Lynda’s parents (of affordable motor-homes) in Cromwell’s town square to swap vehicles. Very friendly folks and the exchange went well with no apparent issues. Thoroughly recommend Top 10, we have had a great experience with them and intend to keep using the cabins/motel rooms when we can.

With the exchange completed, we visited Cromwell’s small but excellent museum that focused on the town’s gold mining history. After the museum we explored historic Old Cromwell Town, which was a series of mid 19^th Century stores and cottages laid out in period streets. We could imagine people of the time walking the streets and laneways. The town also has two of the largest trees we have ever seen inside a town near one of three churches in an area that would have been the outskirts of the original township .

The drive today was relatively short between Cromwell and Queenstown, roughly an hour. We made a few quick photo stops to take photos of the River that the road followed most of the trip. One stop was at Roaring Meg that is a hydroelectric power station. As per usual the scenery was breath taking with the snow capped mountains constantly in view. This landscape was a particularly rugged in this part of the trip with a few natural waterfalls falling down the nearby hills and valleys. The road as Per usual was wonderful and as per usual plenty of overtaking lanes. We noticed with the van that they do accommodate vans and slow vehicles well with very regular extra lanes.

When we arrived at Queenstown we were greeted with a completely different feel of town. Every town, including the larger Christchurch and Dunedin, had a laid back low key feel, Queenstown was much busier. We were greeted by plenty of multicultural eateries, snow hire and sale shops and travel/booking agents selling tickets to fun things like bungee jumping, jet boating and jumping off bridges strapped to plastic patio chairs. We can assure all we will be photographing and watching most of these and not participating. One thing that is both exciting to us and disappointing at the same time is the snowy weather. We are booked to do a Milford Sound bus and boat tour from Queenstown tomorrow but as the road has been blocked on and off over the last few days we are unsure if it will still go ahead. We find out bright and early in the morning around 6.30am. The Van Park manager thought we would have a less than 50% going on the fact that is was currently snowing lightly and they were predicting more during the night. So we will see. We have seen this as a great fact finding trip and will get a full refund, move on and do other things if we miss out.