5th February Manapouri to Lake Hawea

No rain! A bit of a novelty to wake to dry roads and blue skies - it's been lovely. Today we've covered a good amount of mileage as we head north towards the glaciers. 

Our coffee stop included a homemade banana, chocolate, custard muffin - deeeeliciooous!

Overlooking Lake Wakatipu.

Enjoying the sunshine.

The Devil's Staircase on our way into Queenstown. 

We're obviously getting used to the quieter way of life with little or no traffic on the roads, as we didn't like Queenstown. We didn't even stop as it was too busy! It's a major ski resort and activity hub where everyone wants to jump off a bridge, drive madly in a 4WD or go at high speed on a jet boat. We were quite content to drive on to Arrowtown an old gold mining centre.

Lunch in the Fork and Tap, Arrowtown - one was a prawn and red chilli topping and the other a Carnivore's Delight. Served with Lemon and pepper fries and a fabulous salad - totally different to the lettuce, cucumber and tomato you're usually served at home. 

We sat outside to eat as it was lovely and sunny (about 26C today) but had to swap our table to one in the shade as my backside was getting burnt on the hot wooden bench! Freddie was being slathered in sun cream as he has started to take on a pink tinge and Ian has been sporting his Spanish market Panama hat.

The second oldest active Post Office in NZ which was running at the time of the gold mining. We didn't have time to pan for gold as the shops were very tempting and there was fudge to sample.

Back on the road we experienced NZ road works. To avoid huge detours, as many roads are often the only ones going to a town, you have to navigate over unlaid, potholed roads alongside the workers in steam rollers. Much more efficient than we get at home where there would be a 10 mile tail back.

Tonight we're near Lake Hawea in an Airbnb. A very well equipped and decorated chalet which is a separate annexe to where our host lives. We're going to be comfy tonight. Off to Haast tomorrow as we get nearer to glacier country.

Just sitting here enjoying a coffee and it sounds like a WW2 air raid siren in the distance!! We were contemplating whether we were on tsunami or earthquake warning when much to our relief we discovered it's for the volunteer fire brigade. Off to put out a fire, help at a car accident or rescue a cat!