The Travelling Bumbleweeds: Ups and Downs...

Last time we spoke we were going to Arrowtown, so I'll start from there.

After a nice drive from Queenstown around Lake Hayes we arrived at Arrowtown and after dodging the throngs of Japanese tourist groups we got into the heart of the small town. The town retains much of its appearance from the late 19th century, the wooden buildings adorned with decorative awnings and shuttered windows. We wandered the high street going in souvenir and jewellery shops as Lauren looked for the perfect necklace, which she eventually found. After sampling the shopping and having a huge ice cream we went for a walk along the nearby river which used to be panned for gold, and is still done to a smaller extent.

After our trip to Arrowtown it was back to Cromwell and work in the Orchard for another five days. We must have impressed the family that own the orchard as they asked us to stay until the end of the stone fruit season towards the end of February, we agreed to do so as the extra money would allow us to experience so much more. In return however we asked for a long weekend off so we have had from the 4th to the 6th off work. On the Thursday after a particularly hot day at work the boss brought a few cases of Speights into the packing shed and all the staff, probably around 15 in all, gathered around and relaxed with some cold beers. It was well needed.

We planned a trip to Wanaka and to climb Roy's Peak. On the friday after work we drove 50km to Wanaka and stayed in a DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite right on the banks of the Clutha river. As nice as the orchard is it was nice to spend some time away from there. We had a bit of a lie in, waking up at 7:30, and after breakfast and bag packing and a short drive along the shore of Lake Wanaka came to the car park for the track leading up to Roy's Peak. The track was relentless and didn't ease up in any place, we pushed on and reached the 1578 metre summit after 8 km of walking and some 3 and a half hours. The one thing that kept us going was the view which kept getting better and better until we reached the summit and had a full 360 degree view which took in Lake Wanaka, the town, and spectacular views across Mt Aspiring national park including Mt Aspiring, the only 3000 metre peak south of those near Mt Cook. We were knackered, but very proud of the fact that this was the highest mountain we had ever climbed.

On the way back down, which took half the time it did on the way up, we were looking forward to going back to the campsite and watching a film on the laptop and having a glass of wine. Only to find that when we got to the van the lock on the drivers side door was hanging out and after a quick search of the van we found no Laptop and our Ipods were missing.
We had been Robbed!
We were gutted. How quickly happiness and pride can be turned into sadness and anger. In hindsight there were probably some things we could have done to prevent this but none of that matters now, lessons have been learnt and we realise that we are probably lucky that the thieves didn't completely wipe us out or worse yet take the van altogether. So instead of relaxing to a film and glass of wine we spent Saturday afternoon in the police station giving descriptions of our stolen property. We went back to the campsite and decided that on Sunday night we would stay in a hotel, so we booked one that night and made sure it had a spa. On Sunday we checked into the hotel as early as possible. We made full use of the jacuzzi and sauna, ate our fill in the restaurant and watched movies on Sky all night. Isn't it great how simple things can make your problems disappear.

So after a spot of shopping and a rather intense game of mini golf I am sat a few kilometres out of Queenstown on the shores of Lake Wakatipu under the shade of a pine tree typing on my brand new Acer Netbook while Lauren sunbathes in the heat.

Nothing is going to ruin this trip for us :)

Speak to you soon
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