Tekapo - Queenstown

We had a day off in Tekapo reading books and not much else - we had a long cycle ahead of us for the following day.

The track from Tekapo to Lake Ohau is all beside canals so Luke and I decided to cycle the full 90km in one day to get it done with and we were glad we did! It was pretty much all flat with a few down hills to it but the wind was so much that even going down hill we had to peddle hard or else we'd stop dead - I've never in my life known that possible!

When we got to the end, the guy who collected our bikes was so surprised that we'd managed to cycle the whole way in the wind that he gave us a whole pack of bacon and a beer each - heaven! (Although we had to ask him to come back and collect the bottles because we were too stubborn to carry them).

The day after, our bottoms were very sore and we were grateful not to have split the cycling between two days. We headed, on foot this time, towards Wanaka. It took us four days in total to get there. We had a crazy climb of 300m in only 2km on the penultimate day and Luke practically ran it he was so excited to feel his body work hard. From there we carried on up and over Breast Hill where we had some awesome views of Lake Huwae and Wanaka - it felt amazing to be so close to Queenstown having had that as our 'next destination' for so long.

We had a day off in Wanaka before making the four day journey to Queenstown. This section was soo good! It was full of ups and downs and views of mountains all around. On the second day to a hut called Roses Hut we had sunshine all day until the final few kms. We had just reached the top of the final hill and could see the hut in the distance when the wind picked up and the rain started coming down hard. We raced our way to the hut and one we were inside and full of hot tea, we turned around to look at where we'd come from and all the mountains we had just come along were covered in a layer of white snow. We spent the remainder of the evening with four Americans, Rosie, Dylan, Rowan and James and somehow found ourselves in a room full of people doing situps and pushups as if hiking the entire length of New Zealand wasn't enough!

We had a game of cards, in which I remained the 'ass hole' for the entirety of the numerous rounds (which means I was rubbish!) and then had a reasonably late night, all things considered!

From Roses hut, we walked through an old abandoned mining town called Macetown. There are lots of old cottages and things which was pretty cool but we spent most of the way wading through the river so didn't spend much time stopping to read the information boards for fear of numbing toes!

We followed a four wheel drive track all the way down to Arrowtown, another old mining town, that looked just like a quaint little village on the Cornish seaside. We stayed in the holiday park for a night before making the final walk along golf courses and cycle track to Queenstown.