Today we began the day at 7am in the town of Wanaka, about an hour north of Queenstown on the South Island of New Zealand. We will ring in 2015 from accommodation 5 minutes’ drive from the town centre in Rotorua on the North Island, New Zealand. It’s been a hectic day.
In Transit
We initially woke up with time to spare, but then fell asleep again, and did not actually rise until about 7:45am. Luckily we’d put most of our bags into the hire car the night before so even with less time than planned, we still managed to get everyone fed and/or bathed and into the car and out the door just a fraction after 8am – around 8:10am to be more exact.
As predicted the previous day, we met the day with scattered showers and a storm (including thunder and lightning). This is really NOT what you want in addition to trying to get south of Wanaka in a hurry. The Crown Pass, mercifully, was not busy – we only encountered a tiny handful of other cars going in either direction – so we made excellent time across the range. It was a few minutes after 9am and we snuck into a petrol station just shy of the Queenstown airport.
Friends Toni and Matt met us at the car hire return place and we handed off some food supplies to them and had a brief chat about how their holiday was progressing. They kindly minded the boys while we attended to checking in and applying baggage labels to bags. Once the bags were dropped, we bid them adieu and continued on through security to the waiting gate.
The connecting flight from Queenstown to Christchurch was for the most part uneventful, although it felt like the plane was caught up in the middle of this storm front which was slowly rolling over the South Island. The landing in Christchurch was a bit bumpy, but we all survived and the boys were almost perfect little angels during the whole thing. Poor (sick) D was stymied from an attempt at a well deserved morning nap though.
The wait in Christchurch was minimal owing to the fact we had to get from one side of the airport to the other. We spent a little bit of time waiting but then the gates opened and we headed off to a smaller plane for the return flight to Rotorua. This flight started off fine, but just outside Christchurch we hit some serious turbulence which sent the contents of my cup of tea flying into the bulkhead above and then onto the headrest of the chair in front of me. Aside from that, the rest of the trip passed without incident.
Rotorua
We landed in good time and were met at the gate by our host from the Best Western. Our luggage literally came off the carousel first, so we didn’t have to wait long before we were on our way once again, this time to accommodation on the western side of town. We had a decent chat as we made our way, and starting making some plans for the rest of the day. By the time we arrived we were all set to do some exploration, so once we had the room key, we changed nappies on both boys and then set about exploring.
We investigated the grounds of the motel first, Jake spent some time climbing on the playground equipment first, before we all headed out, and up – to the Rotorua Skyline. The Skyline predates the one in Queenstown by more than a decade. It is conveniently located just across from where we’re staying, so it was a logical choice as a destination. Taking advantage of weather which had been forecast to be raining (which it was not!) we decided to go up and do some more luge.
The view from the top was actually quite impressive, taking in most of Lake Rotorua. You could even see where our previous accommodation was, across the water.
We paid for 7 luge rides, and we exercised them in the following order: Myself + Jake (Scenic/Luge #1), Toni + Jake (Scenic/Luge #1), Myself (intermediate/Luge #2), Myself (Advanced/Luge #2), Toni (Scenic/Luge #1), Myself + Jake (Intermediate/Luge #1)), Myself + Jake (Intermediate/Luge #1).
As you might have noticed, there were two separate luge stations, the second one closed a bit early so I was unable to do the advanced track there a second time (it was awesome). You weren’t allowed to do tandems down the advanced, so I did not do the advanced route at Luge #1. The slowest part was the chairlift back to the top, but it did allow an opportunity for a few photos here and there. Jake was utterly thrilled by the luge, and we decided to buy him a T-shirt to remember the day from.
After an enjoyable afternoon up the hill, we started our return gondola ride just after 5:00pm with a group of tired, but happy campers.
Back at the motel (across the road), everyone including a very tired Damian, were still a little restless. So we explored the motel grounds and, in particular, rounded the trout stream which runs across the property boundary. Jake insisted on a return to the playground, where he met another little boy and they had fun on the sea saw.
We chatted to his mother for a while as the kids played and then Toni turned up with Damian. We were there until about 6:20pm when we needed to go back to the room. Dinner was booked for 6:30pm at the on site restaurant, which was excellent. Our host kept Jake occupied whilst Toni and I managed to eat our mains. We had an entree (each) of asparagus with fried haloumi, Toni had the lamb rack and I had salmon glazed miso.
Once dinner had finished, we returned to the room where the boys were washed and eventually put to bed. I went with them, and Toni not long after. I stirred around 10:20pm and decided to write this entry. We’re about 50 minutes away from midnight and the dawning of 2015. Tomorrow we are in transit, yet again, back to Sydney – however we have more adventure planned.