The third leg of our New Zealand journey had us drive from Queenstown, over the mountains to the area rich with Glaciers, national parks, adventure sports, rainforests, limestone cliffs, rivers and the wild ocean. Part I of our NZ travel was the beautiful turquoise Lakes and Mt Cook trail ( https://rohinarora.com/2024/02/08/new-zealand-south-island-twizel-mt-cook-and-the-lakes/ ) . Part II was the charming Queenstown and drives from there ( https://rohinarora.com/2024/02/14/queenstown-what-a-lovely-city/ ). I have already written about those in my earlier blogs, the links of which I have shared here. Drive to the Glacier Country As we drove towards Wanaka , I didn’t realise that soon the car would be driving on the highest main road in New Zealand. It is known as the Crown Range. We kept going up and up and it certainly wasn’t a straightforward drive. It was all about hairpin bends and breathtaking views. As a driver I couldn’t enjoy the views as I had to concentrate the maxim
The town was named Queenstown by Gold Prospectors in 1860’s who had invaded this region as Gold had been discovered in the nearby Arrow River. There is a story that Irish settlers named the town after a city in their country. Simply put it is a stunning lake town having a population of just around 30,000. While the main attraction remains Lake Wakatipu and its changing colours, the mountains of ‘The Remarkables’ , ‘Cecil Peak’ and ‘Walter Peak’ looms large over the town. The place has a lot to offer through the year as during the winter it is a very important base for skiing in nearby mountains. We arrived here in the afternoon of a bright and beautiful sunny day and fell in love with the place right away. It is kind of a dream city where you want to buy a house and settle down for life. Everything was perfect the day we arrived here. The Lake was glistening, the mountains were totally green and the city centre was humming with activity. As we were going to be here for 4 days – w