Day 5
There was no way we knew that as we slept the temperature had easily dropped below zero during the night. The ground was frozen and there was the heaviest frost on the camper. But we had slept like babies. The day was shaping up to be amazing. The lake was very still and there was one other camper parked further over. We got up and got ready, had breakfast, took in the sights and made our way out of the valley. We decided to take it easy on the driving and planned to have a more relaxed day.
Instead of heading back to Queenstown I had to show Monita Glenorchy. Although there isn’t really much in Glenorchy, it is gateway to Paradise (there’s literally a place called Paradise), the Dart River and Middle-earth. But, the road to Glenorchy is out of this world, so naturally there were a few stops. We got coffees and chilled in the sun at the Glenorchy café, a quirky little place. We headed down to the lake and jumped around like idiots while the camera and tripod caught our antics.
We picked up a couple of hitchhikers on the way back to Queenstown. The first stop was Madam Woos, a Josh Emmet restaurant that brings a new take on Chinese and Malaysian street food. It opened in Auckland recently and has been so busy that it was just easier to go to Queenstown.
Monita's review: It wasn't overly busy - the service was exceptional, and the prawn dumplings and chicken hawker roll was delish, the chicken curry was ok but not as good as my mums!
We had a look in a few shops and Monita got some food from the Ferg Bakery and Gelato. Once she had her Boston Donut and Coconut Gelato it was time to bid farewell to our short stay in Queenstown. We took the Crown Range road to get to Wanaka and did the usual stops along the way, the light was beautiful. We re-stocked our food supplies in Wanaka and headed to a camp site on the banks of Lake Hawea.
I had to do my boy duties and empty our waste water before pulling up at our powered site for the night.
