Day 3

4th April 2010

Because we lost a day on our planned itinery, today was spent catching up on all the lost hours. Which pretty much means endless driving. And we picked a good day to do so, as it was raining throughout. Our aim was to reach Queenstown by nightfall. Queenstown is 480km away. A lot of driving indeed.

Christchurch to Queenstown. Approx time 6:25

The first major town we shall pass through is Ashburton. The journey departing from Christchurch is unassuming and long. The views we passed by resembled much of Aussie pastures, except that it is a little greener and one particular characteristic stood out - the boundary lines between pastures are more often than not, lined with neat, tall hedges, several stories high.

Hedges created out of evergreen perhaps

The journey although relaxing, is just a little monotonous.

Cows

Passing Darfield, we reached a place called Mt. Hutt and something caught our eyes that perked us up immediately.
It was a huge patch of fluorescent blue that was almost pulsating. I do not know why it seemed to be pulsing to me. Maybe because it was a gloomy day and there was minimal sunlight. Don't know how to explain it. Photos doesn't do it justice. So, use your imagination.

The River Rakaia

It had looked unearthly. If it wasn't NZ, I would have assumed a chemical spill.

River looking naturally fake

We were informed that it was glacial waters that caused the colour, although I didn't think we were near any ice.

We have a long journey to complete, so we tore ourselves away & moved on. Had brunch in Ashburton and we were lucky to find a place that operates on Easter Sunday. Next stop - Geraldine for some ice-cream. Maybe it's just me, but NZ ice-cream seemed to double their dose of dairy, so one scoop is more than enough.

The next fluorescent thing that caught our eye is the beautiful Lake Tekapo.

One end

The other end (Photos would look better on a sunny day)

Stopped for some snaps. There is an astronomy centre cum cafe located atop a lookout point nearby the Lake. Worth having a look.

It would be another hour before we arrived & stopped at another big-ass lake - the admirable Lake Pukaki. The real reason for stopping there was because some insurance company decided to provide free coffee and sausage sizzles to drowsy drivers. Talk about being generous. Here we are in a foreign land, being handed warm food & travel tips from friendly Kiwis (who happened to look good too). One hand holding coffee & the other a sausage sandwich leaves no hand for photos.

We passed through little towns like Twizel, Omarama & Cromwell before arriving to our destination for the night - Frankton - just 20 minutes' drive away from Queenstown. Found ourselves a low budget caravan park ($18 per head per night).

Tea tonight was more rewarding. We had beautifully sauteed scallops with chickpeas for entree, pork roast & salmon for mains. It was dressy, satisfying and value for money.

http://www.hamills.co.nz/