On to Criffel Station, Lake Wanaka, and Lake Tekapo

Friday, April 12, 2019  On the road to Tekapo

Another beautiful day, including here at Lake Wanaka where we stopped briefly. We started the day close to Queenstown, visiting Arrowtown. Then a long drive up to Criffel Station for lunch. Then, on past Lake Pukaki for views of Mt Cook, and finally reaching the town at the base of Lake Tekapo.

Arrowtown is only a few miles outside of Queenstown, and it sprang up in 1860 because of the gold rush on the Arrow River. Now it's a quaint "heritage village", but still fully functional as a town. We were given about an hour to wander and do what we liked.

Janet and I spent almost all our time at the Lakes District Museum, and got to learn about the history of the area. I took this photo of an 1882 Pritchard building as we were departing.

We then drove back down the Kawarau Gorge to Cornwall, but this time turned north along Lake Dunstan. When we were almost to Wanaka, next to the airport, we turned west for a mile or so and arrived at Criffel Station.

It was originally farmed as a sheep station since the mid 1800’s, but in 1993 it was converted to a red deer breeding and finishing farm.

 Since 2000, they have expanded it into a "B&B" and wedding venue. We had a nice buffet lunch. Janet and I are in the back left. (Photos above and below: from Keith)

Cute deer to see up close, although the herds of bred deer were off in their 5000 acres of hillsides.

 For tourists, they also had alpacas.

I'm in the photo, so it must be another of Keith's.

We departed Criffel Station and drove the few more miles up to Lake Wanaka, which is 1350 feet deep (deepest in NZ)! We all are out on the short pier, including Janet and me, to look at these:

Slithering, creepy eels! They are actually bony fish, not lampreys. They are catadromous, meaning they spawn in the ocean and mature in freshwater. They live in freshwater for nearly 150 years, and are a popular food fish. They were swarming because someone tossed some food into the water.

We continued northeast into the Lindis Valley and farther to here, the Lindis Pass. Just beyond here, in the MacKenzie Basin, Greg told us about how it's a popular glider area. In 2004, Steve Faucett (USA) and Terry Delore (NZ) set a record there for gliding 1360 miles.

This was a marker at Lindis Pass that celebrated the release of the Red Deer in 1871 (the first seven of them), even though it was considered an ecological disaster. They had no predators and spread wildly, decimating natural fauna of the country. They had to be hunted back to a controllable number.

 We continued NE to Lake Pukaki, where we could see spectacular Aoraki / Mt Cook (12,218 ft) to the north of us. Greg and Peter were amazed that the view of the mountain was this clear. They said those clouds usually obscure the view, and sure enough, the next morning we could not see it from this same spot. Aoraki is the Māori name, and was officially added to the mountain's name in 1998. 

This is the same view as in the previous photo, but without the telephoto lens, you can barely distinguish the Aoraki/Mt. Cook peak from the clouds directly above the cute chick's head. 

 We reached our destination, the hotel in Takapo, at the base of Lake Takapo. Here's the view from our hotel. 

We had time before dinner, so I walked across the road and down to the Church of Good Shepard, right on the lake. Just beyond it was this Sheep Dog Memorial. In the 19th century, Scottish shepherds came to work on the pastoral runs here. "The high country could not have been farmed successfully without the border collies they brought with them."

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Our hotel room had an upstairs bedroom, with full kitchen and living room downstairs. Pretty fancy.