Arrow Town
Initially, our plan was to spend the morning exploring Queenstown before driving onward to Te Anau. However after walking through the town last night, both Gimpy and I felt that if you’re not in it for the adventure activities there isn’t much for us to see. So we started looking at areas near Queenstown to check out and one that came up was Arrow Town. Its a small town that is 15 minutes drive from Queenstown. Its a historic gold mining town which still has a lot of heritage buildings. There is also a small area dedicated to a Chinese camp that commemorates Chinese immigrants that moved to Arrow Town to also mine for gold.
Gimpy and I picked up a coffee at Provisions and spent the morning walking around the town taking in the cool heritage buildings and history of the town.
Lake Hayes
After Arrow Town, Gimpy and I headed back to Queenstown to pickup some lunch before driving to Te Anau. On the way we pulled off to catch a glimpse of Lake Hayes. It must have been the way the clouds added a bit of mood to the landscape but we thought it was really pretty and made sure to take a few pictures!
Captains Restaurant
While deciding what to eat for lunch, Gimpy and I remembered walking around the other night and seeing this massive seafood platter on the table of some patrons outside Captain’s Restaurant. Given that we’be been good at cooking for ourselves a bit, we decided to splurge a bit and split the platter. There’s a little bit of everything in there and while everything is super tasty, I don’t think its anything that will knock your socks off. So for the price is probably not worth it, but the heart wants what it wants and Gimpy and I wanted this for lunch so….. here it is!
Mackenzie Coffee
After lunch, Gimpy and I sought one more coffee before hitting the road. One of Gimpy’s friends recommended a shop called Mackenzie Coffee. Its a cool little shop with amazing coffee! We picked up some coffee and then hit the road!
Drive to Te Anau
Leaving Queenstown, the drive to Te Anau runs along some beautiful scenery which we made a few stops to admire. The drive to Te Anau takes around 2 hours, but with the few stops that we made, we didn’t arrive at our accommodations until maybe the later afternoon, but it was worth it!
Trouble in Milford
After checking into our accommodations, we learned that the road from Te Anau to Milford sound was closed. Due to a mudslide halfway up, it destroyed the road. The only way to get to Milford sound now, is by tour bus. The problem is, Gimpy and I were planning to drive up on our own and then board a cruise. So we started scrambling to cancel our original cruise and call around until we found one with space for tomorrow. We quickly booked it as Milford wound is something of a “must do” in New Zealand and we didn’t want to miss out.
Barnyard Backpackers
With disaster averted, Gimpy and I’s thoughts turned to food. Originally we wanted to head into town and grab a bite to eat. But with the stress of almost missing out on Milford sound, we instead decided to eat in since Barnyard Backpackers has cooking facilities. We ended up cooking a simple macaroni in soup dinner. We weren’t expecting much from Barnyard Backpackers given we just needed a place to sleep in this area. Gimpy and I booked a private room that turned out to be its own cabin. We were pleasantly surprised, and especially enamored with the view right at our front door.
Though we did find the bathroom in the main building (where we did the cooking) a bit odd. Maybe privacy is a bit different in NZ.
With everything set for tomorrow, Gimpy and I settled in for an early start tomorrow and Milford Sound.