Day 3 – Barricades & Brick Walls

11,715 steps

This morning started with a room cleanup and repack, then a quick breakfast in our usual spot on the beach with our bakery snacks to say goodbye to this spectacular view. 

Once the car was packed and keys were dropped off, we headed towards the gondola that we’ve had in view since we arrived. We got to the base of operations, headed inside to purchase our tickets for the gondola and some luge rides, made our way up to the peak. As we got higher and higher and all obstructions disappeared from view, we were able to see basically all of Queenstown – absolutely stunning! It was a fairly quick ride to the top, where we jumped out and headed to another viewpoint. There’s not much more I can say about how I feel about the view of The Remarkables that I haven’t gushed about already, so here are just some more pictures instead.

I haven’t done anything like luging before, and I was so nervous! We headed down to the luge take off point through a maze of scaffold they currently have erected for works, found a helmet that fit from a big chest full of random sizes, then made our way to the chairlift which would take us to the queue to learn how this all works. We went to class with a lovely instructor, got our graduate stamps, then started down the first course. I felt like I was going so fast, but was probably going hilariously slow down the curves that took me down the mountain, all with an unobstructed view of the huge blue lake below. We got 3 turns on the luge as part of our tickets, so we raced up to do it all again with the second track, and then the first again, getting more confident and faster each time. I’d love to do it again now that I’m not terrified! 

Once we made our way back down on shakey legs, we hopped back in the car to make our way out of Queenstown and towards our next accommodation. The route was so much fun! Long stretches of bends and dips traveling along the side of a mountain and the shores of a glacial lake. After what felt like only a few minutes, our first pit stop was Devil’s Staircase Viewpoint, which is another lovely sight seeing location and a perfect place to stretch your legs.

Moving on we drove for a while longer through many changes in scenery, from blue waters and snow capped mountains to open plains, green hills, paddocks full of sheep, lambs, cows and even deer! We were getting a little peckish by this point so stopped at the next town we came across which happened to be a tiny little town called Garston. Garston pretty much had 3 buildings and a coffee cart to its name, so we stopped in at the reflective coffee van called Coffee Bomb for a pie and English muffin. Next door was a small oddities shop which also sold honey that we decided to pop our heads into. We were greeted by a very eager shopkeeper and got to taste some of the honey they sell, one of which was their locally produced honey, which was actually my favourite! We grabbed a pot and headed off. 

While on our journey, we unfortunately got the news that what we had planned for tomorrow has had to be cancelled due to avalanche risk along the only road in and out of the area, so the last part of the drive our spirits were pretty low. But it wasn’t long until we were pulling up to our home for the next 2 days in Te Anau. The reception staff were very helpful with ideas of how we will fill our day tomorrow, which was helpful in boosting the mood! We dropped our stuff off and rugged up wanting to explore the area surrounding us, walking passed the local stores and cafes and bakeries and restaurants, all leading to the lake at the centre of town.

We tried our skills in stone skipping for a while before starting the walk back towards home, making a quick stop to duck into a supermarket for some snacks and coffee, then to pick up some dinner from an Asian fusion restaurant called ditto. 

Tomorrow will be a pretty random day, but with how many beautiful spots this country has, I’m sure it’ll be memorable all the same.