NZ Day 4: Queenstown to Twizel

It was a day with ups and downs, and up and down… After a brief stop on the edge of Queenstown at one of the many fine coffee shops in NZ, we stopped at the Kawarau suspension bridge, made famous when AJ Hackett turned it into the first Bungy Jumping operation in 1988. I heard about it in the early 90s and wanted to do it but did not get the chance. I was not doing it this time but Samuel was booked and ready to go, though Momma was not ready to watch. The main reception area was built nicely into the rock, with a general theme of things hanging.

The centre of action on the bridge was a rudimentary shelter. It’s the piece of elastic that matters! After weigh-in (to set the length of elastic) Samuel was ready!

He jumped, or rather dived, while we watched. The bridge is 140 ft above the water. He dived head first with his arms in front of him, moving them back just before the top of his head touched the water.

After that excitement, it was time to hit the road. It was only a two-hour drive to Twizel but we stopped at a river viewpoint to get a better look, and then at a fruit stand to get yummy fresh raspberries.

We had to stop stopping or we wouldn’t make it! We arrived at about 1pm but our room wasn’t quite ready yet, so grabbed lunch at the Poppies cafe over the road, with its fine fish and chips. Then our room at the Distinction Hotel was ready, and we had a lot more room than our last place!

Twizel was our base for hiking the Hooker Valley track, nearly an hour away towards Mt Cook National Park. The drive along Lake Putaki was great though the mountain tops got cloudier as they got snowier. As we started the 3.5 mile hike to Hooker Lake, it was raining a bit, which ended up being continuous and quite hard at times. We saw the bottom of glaciers and crossed the raging river three times over wobbly swing bridges. There were many other walkers too, though the weather kept the large crowds away.

The rain meant we could not see Mt Cook at the end. It is Aoraki in Māori, meaning Cloud-Piercer, but we couldn’t tell if it was piercing anything today. Edmund Hillary, who completed the first ascent of Everest with Tensing Norgay in May 1953, trained on Mr Cook, his local mountain. However, we saw small icebergs in the lake after a fine walk between the mountains.

For our return, it rained harder and grew colder, but Samuel and I still enjoyed a few photographs. We were all happy to be back in our dry car.

As we drove back along Lake Putaki, the rain lessened, the sun came out, and we were treated to a rainbow.

8pm on Christmas Eve is not the best time to find dinner in a small tourist town, but the local Indian restaurant “Fishtails” gave us a fine feast.

After warm showers, we were ready to sleep. And that was Day 4.

This page is part of our New Zealand trip set of posts