We arrived in Queenstown after 24 hours of traveling from Santiago Chile. We touched down and had a beautiful view of the Remarkables mountain range. We were exhausted from the travel but after checked into our hostel, we forced ourselves to walk around Queenstown and stay awake until 9 p.m. to avoid jet lag. Queenstown is a cute mountain town catering to the "extreme sports" junkies in the summer and skiing in the winter. While there are a myriad of things to do in Queenstown, we barely made it to 9 p.m before fatigue overtook us.
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The next morning we picked up the campervan that we would be living in for the next five weeks! The van is our home while we are in New Zealand and the van we got is hilarious (as you can see from our earlier posts of the van). We heard about Wicked vans from our friends Kendall and Mike who had one of the vans in Australia. They are cheap and they all have slightly obnoxious paintings on the outside. We are lucky because we personally believe we have the best decorated of the vans we have seen. You can not get much funkier than a Sly and the Family Stone van (we have not seen a P-Funk van). Here are a few shots of the setup in the van (a few people have asked us about the setup)
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After picking up the van we headed to a Wanaka, a small town next to aptly named Lake Wanaka. However, as we were heading out of Queenstown we stopped at the first of many wineries that we visited in New Zealand We saw the sign for Chard Farm across from the famous "bungy bridge" and stopped in. Chard Farm is in a stunning location with the Kawarau River on one side and the mountain on the other. It is a small winery and the owners are at the cellar door for an intimate and unpretentious tasting.
We started off with their bubbly "CO2" - 50% Pinot noir and 50% Chardonnay. It was nice and refreshing. Next we had their Swiftburn Sauvignon Blanc, then finally their famous Pinot Noirs. First the Finla Mor Pinot Noir that was rounded, fruity but not as earthy as their other two Pinots we tried (the Viper and the Tiger).
Jim was a big fan of the The Viper Pinot as it was dark and had deep earthy tones. We loved the winery and the owners and bought a bottle of the Sauvignon Blanc for later! We then continued to Wanaka.
Wanaka is where we really started to grasp the parking/camping situation. We had heard about the amazing camping facilities in New Zealand and knew there would be a cost to them but we had severe sticker shock! $30-$50 a night to park and use the showers! (some have kitchens and TV rooms, etc as well) Maybe we were a little naive to this but it was unanticipated and a blow to the budget! (especially when gas is 2-3 times as much as it is in the US). We started to look for DOC (Department of Conservation) campsites that are usually just toilets and at the most $5-$10 a person. We found a great spot near Wanaka in a small town called Luggate that is a private cricket pitch with really nice bathrooms, shower and a washing machine!
We have decided that simplicity (and low cost) is best and have been staying at simple campsites and making our own meals as we do have a traveling simple kitchen! It has been fun to try and come up with healthy and cost effective meals in one pot! And the campsites we have found have been in generally more spectacular settings than the "holiday parks" anyway. And this is how we have been living in New Zealand, and it has worked out great!
So...about that second photo: has leslie shrunk or are there HUGE bottles of pop in NZ?
ReplyDeleteso glad to get a new update!
Ha! No it is Founder's Brewery's organic beer. Just don't call it a "growler!"
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