Qu'town, Wanaka

Dad’s 60th birthday present of a hot air balloon ride with champagne breakfast was the main plan for Queenstown, but unfortunately the weather wasn’t suitable – too windy. We stayed for two mornings, hoping the weather would clear, but we couldn’t stay longer although it was definitely disappointing not to “fly”. We spent the day being true tourists instead and mum and I had a great time shopping. Meanwhile dad waited patiently for hours, browsing, politely commenting from time to time, and occasionally producing the credit card – probably just to get us out of the shop. We drove to Arrowtown, an old gold-mining area which is a small yet lovely town nearby, and I biked back from there later on.

The second day we drove up to Wanaka, but didn’t spend long because it was SO windy, and we’d all been there before. We went to Puzzling World on the way out, which was fascinating - I could have spent hours wasting time working out puzzles (or at least trying!). After that we headed up the West Coast with the sun shining the whole way, a beautiful drive and an area I’d like to explore much more of. Haast Pass, Lakes Hawea and Wanaka are all beautiful, and we reached Fox Glacier early evening.