Wanaka and Doubtful Sound

We only really had one day in Wanaka. We stayed in the Motor Camp down by the lake. It’s a huge one – and cheap too. It’s license is up for review and one wonders if it will be renewed or if some big commercial development will come along and ruin the place. Sigh.

Anyway – headed up my favourite wee walk near Wanaka called Mt. Roy. It’s a bit of a slog so I was pretty happy that mum and dad decided to give it a go. They did very very well (you do climb about 1200m).. Dad managed to get to the top (though he cursed me for it ;) and mum about 2/3 of the way. Stunning views though.

That evening we went to Cinema Paradiso – the cinema in Wanaka. Well worth a look in. We saw the film Priceless. Excellent – really enjoyed it. Has the actress Audrey Tautou from Amélie (happy Liam!?) in it.

WE pretty much skipped Queenstown – had a short stroll around the gold mining town of Arrowtown and headed South to Te Anau. Stopped off at the Kingston Express – an old railway line which started operations about 120 years ago connecting Queenstown to the South. Two French Paragliders recently buzzed the train in their motorised paragliders. One of them skipped the country – the other was fined $1500…

After that it was down to Te Anau and Dad and I had our briefing for our Kayaking wilderness experience..

So the next day we were collected at 06:30 and taken to the Boat to bring us across Lake Manapouri to Doubtful Sound. It’s quite interesting.. NZ realises that it’s a bloody long way from anywhere – and that to get here you have to burn rather a lot of carbon. Thus the Tourism industry is trying to promote itself as a green industry (once you’re here!). This company – fiordland wilderness experience has been chosen as one of a few to try and be as green as they can – to be ambassadors for the industry.

Kayaking is a pretty low-carbon sport to begin with – but they have tried to improve all areas of their operation. The biggest eco-cost to them was the boat across Manapouri… so what they did was to team up with another operator that goes at that time of day and go on their boat. Win/Win… I’m sure we’ll see more and more of this!

Anyway.. had a great trip. There was an Irish bloke Martin on the trip who had a ridiculously sharp wit. It’d forgotten how much I enjoyed (and missed) the constant slagging / thrust and parry of Irish humour. But yes – it was a great trip. Not particularly exhausting but just good fun.

And yes, I am drinking a bottle of Monteiths Original in the above picture :) Part of any healthy kayaking diet. The campsite we stayed in for the night was pretty cool. They have a shelter set up in the bush.. it’s quite nice being inside and seeing half a bazillion sandflies outside. Makes the wine taste much better.

Mum elected not go to on the trip and instead went on a cruise on Doubtful Sound which I think she really enjoyed (even if she didn’t manage to get the boat to cruise by us.. I’m not sure that would have added to the ‘wilderness’ part of the experience.