NZ2020

I’m not entirely sure which time zone my body is in - we left NZ 13 hours ahead of UK, flew 11 hours overnight and are now 3 hours behind the UK in Chile - weird! The flight out of Queenstown was rather spectacular. We then had a few hours to hang around in Auckland Airport which was sadly like a UK airport rather than Singapore. We flew with LATAM to Santiago on a Dreamliner, continuing our plane spotting tour of the world. Dinner was fairly revolting but it had all the latest films - I watched Judy and can see why Bridget Jones won the Oscar! I was relieved that immigration etc was as easy as I remembered/ had hoped into Chile and we got to the hotel quickly. We are staying at the Santa Rita vineyard and were given a glass of white wine each at check in and more wine with a fabulous picnic lunch, staying awake is definitely going to be a challenge.. The hotel is set in beautiful gardens and fortunately far enough away from the city to be less smoggy.

Another fabulous day on a mountain bike - I do love touring on a road bike but there is something utterly addictive about being in the middle of nowhere in such a stunning place. The bike hire man told me that is was easy to find the trails but I still managed to get totally confused around a very posh golf estate - golf cart tracks look far too similar to bike tracks... oops I eventually found my way to Lake Hayes where a duck posed beautifully for a great photo. The rest of the 30 mile route was easy to find but the recent floods are still evident. It was a hot, hilly ride so obviously the bike needed a breather at various beautiful views. I had a coffee and cookie stop at the birthplace of bungy jumping at Kawarau Bridge - taking a photo of this was more than enough of an adrenaline rush for me.. Fortunately we had decided not to get an e-bike for hubbykins - even I struggled to cross this swing bridge.. I pootled along the Gibbston Valley wine trail and then back via the Arrow Rive...

Time for the last NZ location even though I really don’t want this trip to end. Today was a tour of Tash and Joe recommendations, starting with the National Transport and Toy Museum, a completely eclectic, eccentric collection of more than 60,000 items. My favourite was the Inspector Morse Jag! We drove on to Cardrona, once a gold rush town and now described as ‘a ski field balanced atop a pub’. That pub is a gold-rush relic with a decorative mine shaft and is apparently NZ’s most photographed pub. The next part of the short but spectacular drive was across the Crown Range - another teensy issue for the acrophobic one. We are staying for two nights at Arrowtown Lodge in a pretty little cottage room with beautiful gardens. Arrowtown is another gold rush ‘town’ with lots of places to stroll and eat for the numerous day trippers from Queenstown.  We had delicious craft beers and burgers at Fork & Tap which was built as a bank in the 1870’s, it seemed appropriate! The NZ sized port...

Today was up there on my best days on the bike list, peaceful, friendly, a great workout and utterly stunning scenery. It took me 4 hours to cycle 38 miles - I had forgotten how much slower and harder it is than road cycling. (I’m also totally rubbish at navigating without my garmin routes!) I pedalled down the Clutha river to Luggate, via a much needed enormous slice of carrot cake, then back along the other side of the river. It was mostly single track but allegedly ‘easy’ - I hate to think what an ‘advanced’ track looks like in NZ! Two cyclists in front of me pedalled across this swing bridge - I definitely didn’t.. It’s a Sunday afternoon here but still not crowded -  happy families picnicking, doggies swimming and just an overwhelming feeling of the good life. I feel like we have unfinished business all over New Zealand but we both want to return to Wanaka.

Next weekend in Wanaka is a big triathlon festival which inspired me to do a pre-breakfast 4 mile run/plod along part of the route - my head loved it but the Achilles’ tendons weren’t quite as keen, they would definitely prefer to be on the bike. A rainbow appeared at my halfway point so I had to stop and take a photo (and catch my breath). Pete the previous lodge owner had recommended a hike which avoided the Instagram crowd at Roy’s Peak. It was a 20 minute drive so I braved the automatic hire car driving for the first time. It went fine once I remembered not to do anything with my left foot! The hike started at Diamond Lake and then climbed, a lot. The climb was up Rocky Mountain, an entirely appropriate name as it became rather goat like.  I huffed, scrambled and puffed my way up for an hour with these incredible views when I reached the top. There were a few people up there and we took each other’s photos, as you do. As always, I found the descent much harder than the ascent w...