On The Road Again

March 1

We were sad to leave the beautiful Otago Peninsula this morning. We headed towards Queenstown and stopped first for a late lunch at Mt Difficulty winery.

It was a beautiful setting, a good flight of a variety of five wines, but the roasted lamb was much too rich for both of us. Mint tea was our dinner. We should’ve taken some more of those horopito leaves from the Ecosanctuary to aid our digestion.

Queenstown was another hour’s drive from the winery and the views as we approached were beautiful. We stopped for a quick rest break at The Roaring Meg Lookout.

The Māori name for Queenstown is Tahuna, meaning shallow bay. When we arrived, we immediately went out for a walk to stretch our legs, explore the city and help digest our lunch.

The downtown is fairly small and it was definitely the busiest place we’ve been since we arrived in NZ. Situated on Lake Wakatipu, surrounded by mountains, this city is exceptionally beautiful.

Back at the hotel we started to pack for our 7 day hike, which starts on Sunday. We have a meeting tomorrow where they’ll give us the backpacks we’ll be using for our trip. We’ll have to carry what we need for the entirety of our hike. We are not sleeping in tents, so we don’t need to carry camping gear (those days are over!).

We are hiking from one lodge to the next with 48 new friends. They suggest a maximum of 15 pounds in our packs. That includes our lunch and water for each day as well. This trip can’t be a “just in case I need it” one. The more crap we bring, the heavier our bags will be, and we are hiking several miles and hours each day with some steep climbs and tough descents.

Here’s our current location and a larger map of NZ.