Left the hotel at 8:15 this morning in a 4WD vehicle. We went to the backcountry with our final destination Skipper’s Canyon. It is the most dangerous road in New Zealand. Lots of wind, fog and rain today so the views were not as spectacular as they might have been on a clean day but still impressive when the fog lifted. Lots of hair pin turns and steep drop offs on the side of the road. It is an area where there was a gold rush in the late1800’s.
We had the chance to pan for gold but I stayed in the vehicle as it was very windy and was raining hard at the time. There were a few brave souls in the group that tried their hand but no one found any. The river is about twice the size it normally is right now due to the rain they have gotten the last several days.
We stopped for morning tea at a one-room schoolhouse and stopped so we could take pictures at another spot. We all blew the fog away and it lifted a bit.
It was nice to get out into the country side and away from the city. The outback here is very rugged. There was a river flowing at the bottom of the canyon that we could hear all the time and had glimpses of it occasionally. The waterfalls were really flowing again today. At one point on the road th slate rock was tumbling down onto the road. It is a place that gets rock slides frequently and the road gets blocked from the rock slides. It was a relief to make it out before another rock slide happened today.
Beautiful countryside! Homes were few and far between. The driver expected it might even snow on us for a bit in the high country but it didn’t. We did have rain all day though – sometimes a light drizzle and sometimes much heavier.
It was nice to get back to the hotel and find some solid ground underneath my feet. We had three hours before our next adventure to get some lunch and take a short nap. Since it was raining we ordered room service and stayed in where it was warm and dry.
At 3:45 we left the hotel for our lake cruise aboard a steam-powered boat built in the 1920’s. I sat at the front of that boat and listened to a guy play the piano. He was good and it was relaxing. We got off after about a 30 minute ride at a farm on an island. We had a nice buffet dinner and then watched a guy demonstrate how they shear sheep. The weather was too cold for him to actually shear the sheep though. He had his dog bring down some sheep from the pasture behind him.
On the way back on the boat our whole tour group sat by the piano guy. They had a sing along. There was a big group from China there that started taking our pictures. We held up the song list in front of our faces. One of the guys in our group started taking their pictures. We all laughed until we were crying and snorting. Our tour guide said he had never had that happen before. Maybe we are famous and we don’t know it! Never could figure out why they were so interested in taking our pictures. One of the ladies even asked them but didn’t get an answer. I told her some questions don’t have answers. It was a quick trip back. My stomach hurts from laughing so much.
Tomorrow we have to have our bags outside our door by 7:30 and be down ready to board the bus by 8:30. We are headed to Dunedin via bus to spend the next two or three nights and then will drive to Christchurch and then fly to Australia.
Grateful for a safe 4WD experience today, grateful for the laughter we shared this evening, and grateful for all the memories Nicole and I are making!