Milford Sound To Queenstown (Sorry it's out of sequence)

Sunday 16.01.2011

We left Henry Creek and set off on highway 94 towards Mossburn and Five Rivers before turning north on Highway 6 towards Queenstown. Between Kingston and Queenstown the road hugs the shore of Lake Wakatipu, giving some fantastic views and equally fun driving, even in a Toyota Hiace.

It would be such a big grin on a bike! At Queenstown we were very domestic; we got our bedding and towels changed at the Maui Hire depot, we found a laundrette and did all our washing and then spent a couple of hours on line, followed by a wander round town and a bag of enormous cherries.

Queenstown is like a big party all the time; everyone is happy, happy, happy. There’s a wharf where trip boats sail from including a historic steamer, TSS Earnslaw

there are bars and cafés and funky shops open into the evening and the whole place has such a feel good atmosphere it’s almost like being in a theme park.

We were going to head away towards Wanaka for the night, but when we went to empty our waste water tank at a dump station, we found that sometime in the last couple of days, probably on a gravel road somewhere, the nozzle had broken off, meaning we couldn’t attach the drain hose. Oh dear. As it was after Maui’s closing time we had to find somewhere nearby to stay, then go and get it fixed in the morning. We drove along the lake shore road to 12 Mile Camping Ground, another basic but cheap Department of Conservation run site. Beautiful and quiet with a lovely warm breeze to dry our washing.

A very nice DOC warden came and collected our fees and told us about the work they’ve done, planting trees on the lake shore and grading the access road to the camp.

Another peaceful night.