Pedro's House of Lamb

Real-time

We have just finished the most delicious takeaway ever. Not only was it delicious, it also fed us for two nights, and if we hadn't been so greedy (and it hadn't tasted so nice), we'd have had lunch (sandwiches) out of the same serving too.

Friends, Amanda & Paul, (who also have a 5th-wheeler), told us about Pedros 'at the bottom of the hill' in Queenstown and how if we did nothing else while in town, we had to try Pedros lamb. The 'hill' is the gorge road that runs from Arthurs Point- where we staying at the moment- down to the shopping centre in Queenstown.

So after a day out shopping and doing errands I called into Pedros on the way home to pick up their famous baked lamb shoulder with scalloped potatoes.

Pedro, a Spanish restaurateur had a very popular and iconic restaurant in Christchurch before the 2011 earthquake. Sadly, not only did he loose his restaurant and home in the 'quake, he also lost his son. 

After the 'quake he opened a takeaway where he sold just one dish- his signature slow-cooked Spanish-influenced lamb shoulder and scalloped potatoes. And from there, he hasn't looked back, opening a Queenstown branch not long afterwards. I've heard that he sells out often and some nights can sell over 100 takeaways. Pedros can also deliver. What an awesome concept, especially for busy families or tourists in motorhomes; just add vegetables and you have a lovely roast dinner....or two!

Here's our 'takeaway'-  $45 for the tenderest baked shoulder of lamb, with 'melt in your mouth' meat that fell off the bone, surrounded by tasty juice and tender scalloped potatoes. Aside from the tender meat, the knuckle meat was pure heaven and the crispy skin divine! And with a shoulder or leg of lamb at the supermarket priced between $35 and $55 depending on the size I think it's pretty good value.

So, if you are visiting Christchurch or Queenstown,  I'd highly recommend Pedros. You won't be disappointed. Thanks for the recommendation Amanda, I'm paying it forward.

Special Visitors to Glendhu Bay

Real-time

Two short posts coming up before they become old news. We're now parked up at the Shotover Top10 Holiday Park (our second visit here) waiting to move to a farm down the road on Friday, the same farm we stayed at two years ago when attended the Clutha District Autumn Rally and had so much fun at Arrowtown's Autumn Festival. A bit like Wanaka's Warbirds, we were in the area and thought lets do this again! 

The day before we left Glendhu Bay at Lake Wanaka, we had surprise visitors. It was early evening and David was outside packing up the boat when I heard him talking to someone. This isn't unusual as people stop and talk often. A short time later he called for me to come outside to say hello and standing there were two people I hadn't met before. But it didn't take me long to realise who they were. 

This lovely lady, Yoo San, and her husband Lee, live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and are regular visitors to New Zealand. I think they are on their 5th or 6th visit to the South Island and they love touring in a motorhome. Yoo San, a dentist and Lee, a doctor, have their own practices and can only take short holidays because they have to shut the doors while they are away, but they certainly make the most of their trips exploring and staying well off the beaten track and away from the usual tourist hotspots. 

Which is where I come in. Yoo San (screen name Offstone) does a lot of research for their trips and loves to ask lots of questions on Trip Advisor. And I answer lots of questions on TA, or I used to a long time ago, now I'm too busy doing my blog. Somewhere along the way Yoo San found a link to my blog and is now one of my most ardent followers commenting regularly on my posts (and picking up lots of hints and tips too).

Yoo San is also an accomplished artist and after she read my post on the very rare Mohua/Yellowhead which we finally saw on Ulva Island, she did this lovely drawing of the Mohua for me.

...taken from this photo..

I knew that Offstone (she'll always be Offstone to me) was visiting New Zealand again soon but wasn't sure of the dates, I also knew that they would be calling into Wanaka to see friends. It just happened to be while we were at Glendhu Bay that they were in Wanaka and were driving out to Rob Roy Glacier when they spotted our 5th-wheeler parked on the lake front. They did a U turn and came in to say hello! 

And that was how a charming Malaysian couple ended up in our van having some refreshments with us! It was lovely to meet you both, until next time, safe travels.

Boat Trip to Mou Waho

Real-time

I thought I'd post about our trip to Mou Waho Island before it becomes a distant memory. You'll remember that Mou Waho is the 'famous' island in Lake Wanaka, I posted a quick blog on it the day we visited. 

Mou Waho is 15km up the Lake Wanaka from our camp at Glendhu Bay and we needed calm and settled weather before we attempted the trip in our faithful Takacat inflatable. We'd already seen how quickly the lake could cut up rough and especially when there was a nor'wester blowing. It funnels down the narrow lake straight off the Southern Alps making the waters very choppy. 

We headed out on a sunny, calm and beautiful blue sky morning, launching the boat straight off the beach in front of us- one of the reasons we've been parked up here at Glendhu for nearly three weeks.

There was a slight ripple on the surface and the air a little nippy once we were underway, we're heading for the point of Roys Peninsula on the left.

It's not long before Mt Aspiring comes into view to our left.

We say goodbye to Glendhu Bay...

...as we pass Roys Peak to our right (Roy's a pretty popular guy around here). We can see part of the Te Araroa Trail/Millennium Walk tracking around the the bottom near the water. 

We pass Mou Tapu Island (a DOC scenic reserve) and can see Mou Waho ahead of us. The lake is a mill pond, we couldn't have picked a better day.

Mt Alta Conservation Area and West Wanaka Station are across the lake to our left.

While to our right I can see the isthmus that separates Stevensons Arm from Lake Wanaka proper. Stevensons Arm is a large very narrow waterway that is part of the lake and accessed from near the Clutha River outlet. When we stay at The Outlet Campground we look straight down the arm.

And finally we're approaching Mou Waho Island where we can see  a floating jetty beside the track entrance. 

We give the jetty a miss and head straight for the beach...

Where David checks his ViewRanger app to make sure we're in the right place! :)

The bird song is amazing, I could hear it over the outboard as we approached and once that was switched off it was deafening. Mainly Bellbirds and flocks of Brown Creepers with fantails, warblers, dunnocks and a few others flitting about. 

Bellbird/Korimako- Male 

There's a small DOC campground, with a gas BBQ, table and toilet nearby. And a another beautiful sandy beach with crystal clear water.

What a pity we can't get 'Out There' out here, but I'm sure boaties would stay here in tents over summer. And what a great spot far from the maddening crowd.

We decided to have lunch on our return from the hike up to the lake so set off up the well formed 1km track. This is looking back down the lake, Glendhu Bay is around that far point on the right.

The track climbs steadily upwards, winding back and forth so it's not too steep. And the views are to die for. Across the water are Mt Burke (1417m) to the left with Mt Gold (1286m) appearing to be taller on the right. Down in the clearing you can just see the top of the DOC toilets.

There are seats placed at regular intervals on the walk up- here's a pano looking north up Lake Wanaka towards the Southern Alps.

Thirty minutes after setting out we pass through a bush tunnel and step out onto a rocky platform to find a lake in front of us. This pool sits 150 metres above the surface of lake Wanaka and this is what we'd come to see. Arethusa Pool is a tiny, beautiful, deep blue pool surrounded by rock and gnarly old manuka and there's not a ripple to break the surface.

Maori named the pool Moutimu, then early European settlers named it Paradise Lake, then the lake was renamed Arethusa pool in the 1920s which comes from Greek Mythology. 

Arethusa was the nymph of a sacred spring on an island off the coast of Sicily. And I bet there would have been a few nymphs swimming in here over the years, with and without clothing.

There's another short steep 10 minute climb to the bluff lookout and through a gap in the bush on the way up, I can see the waters of Lake Wanaka behind and the rock islands in the pool that help make this unique place 'famous in New Zealand'.

There's a bit of scary clamber over a large rocky protrusion to reach the the edge of the bluff and look down over the top of the pool. But what a magnificent and spectacular view it is. Absolutely breath-taking and something very special. I've seen a lot of amazing New Zealand landscapes in the last three years but this has got to be up there with the best, in fact I'd put it in the top five.

So now we can see the rock islands- an island in a lake, on an island in a lake, on an island in an ocean! And across the water I can see Stevenson Arm and the isthmus that we passed at water level.

I waited for David to get back down to pool level so I could take a photo, can you see him on the rock platform? While I was waiting for him to get there, a NZ Falcon/Karearea flew in and landed in the overhanging bush beside me. I caught sight of movement as I turned to see if David had arrived and it flew out over the pool and swooped down and off to another bluff further down the island. The one time I didn't have my camera ready! 

This is looking down Lake Wanaka past Mou Tapu Island to Roys Peak behind. Glendhu Bay is around the island (to the left) and off to the far right.

And one last photo- the pano that I posted in the first blog. It was hard to pull myself away from but I reluctantly headed off to rejoin David at the pool. 

At various intervals along the track both on the way up and down we could here rustling and moving about deep in the undergrowth. I waited and watched and spotted the rear-ends of a few wekas scratching about but they always disappeared into the darkness. On the way back down I found this weka's rear end but he was more interested in catching whatever he had found. I decided he wasn't going to disappear too so I turned the flash on( I usually try to take bush birds in natural light) and got David to make a loud noise. It took a couple of loud noises before it decided to see who was making it. 

We got back to our little bay and found a large log to sit on to have lunch out of the hot sun. Once again we're eating lunch surrounded by the most amazing scenery.

The trees around us were busy with bellbirds; singing, jumping from branch to branch and chasing each other back and forward across the bay. This male sat still  long enough to broadcast his song to any who would listen and then fluffed himself up to scare his rivals off....

...or to impress the ladies, I'm not too sure. This little lady didn't look too interested in all the goings on.

Just as we were packing up we heard a boat approaching and around the corner came a Wanaka tour boat with two guests. You should have seen the skippers face when he spotted us packing our gear into the Takacat. He couldn't quite believe what he was seeing and was quick to tell us that it would have been highly unlikely that we'd have got to the island any other day this summer- the lake has been very rough. He told us about rescuing some kayakers a week or so ago when there were 3 metre waves (I think that was a slight exaggeration to push the point).

He left with his guests, heading for the track, carrying a huge pack on his back. In answering David's query he said they were off to have lunch and a swim at the pool. Going by the size I think he must have had table and chairs and a change tent on his back!

Just as we left another smaller boat passed by, fishing rods hanging off the back and then out of nowhere a jet ski with a very determined looking driver roared by.

We headed off towards home, back down the most amazingly calm lake, we couldn't have wished for a better day.

Wanaka town is way down there on the shoreline...

Roys Peak (1581m) reflected in the still water...

This morning's tiny ripples have gone from Glendhu Bay too, as we head back across it...

Within sight of home, a gentle breeze ruffles the surface. We're back, safe and sound after an awesome day visiting a very special island.....well actually, a very special island in a lake, on an island in a lake, on a... ok, you get the picture. 

Across Lindis Pass

Catch-up

It was time to break camp at Omarama and head off into the rat-race. Well, rat-race for the South Island anyway; that love it or hate it town, a town that is full of young people and adrenaline and runs on a high all year round, a town located in the most stunning and beautiful location. That town, Queenstown.

We had Christmas shopping to do and chores to complete before we headed to Mavora Lakes for a month and Queenstown is the only town on the way (I don't count Cromwell, you can't do any decent retail therapy there). Actually, Queenstown isn't that bad, it's just a full-on town overflowing with tourists and campervans and once one has visited it, the next visits are always done at high-speed so you can get out of there, or through there, as fast as possible (so don't ask why we're heading there again in a few days time!)

Anyway, we headed off over the Lindis Pass which, surprise, surprise, was lined with more lupins.

Approaching the summit and I think this is the first time we've come through when there's been no snow.

It would have been nice to have found a few places to stop to so I could take some more lupin photos (really?) but with 'Out There' on the back, a steady traffic flow of traffic (even though you can't see any vehicles in my photos- that's good timing) and a reluctant driver, I had to be content with shooting out the front window. 

We had trouble with a hire campervan in the Pass, the driver kept wanting to stop (in the middle of the road) to take photo of the flowers. There was nowhere to pull over, so he thought he'd just stop and click. He got the short shift from us at one stage but then did it again and again, hesitating whenever he spotted a small area he thought he might be able to pull into. In the end he got a big shift from a large truck that had to slam on it's brakes. For the rest of journey, and at a snails pace, he had a long line of vehicles trailing behind him and many frustrated motorists.

We even saw a small rental car parked (no people about) at the top of a slow-vehicle lane, actually in the lane itself with a truck fast approaching from behind, he had to take evasive action to avoid the rear end. We then spotted the people, back down the hill taking photos of a bridge and creek surrounded by lupins. It's no wonder there are so many accidents around tourist hot-spots.

I love the landscape through the Pass, it's not unlike the Crown Range, with scree slopes and rust coloured tussocks covering the mountains.

The lupins were spectacular alongside the road and tucked up the waterways or where there was any hint of moisture, probably more so than that back around Twizel and Tekapo. Although, that might have been because they had only just started flowering when we were back there. 

They were especially thick through the Lindis Valley beside the river.

Lindis Valley farmland, I'd love to see these willows during autumn.

Advertising from the paddock! It's great to see these Icebreaker signs on many of the sheep stations in the high country. It does make you think about where your thermals come from. Just wish they weren't so expensive though.

The Queenstown/Lakes Council is pretty strict with its freedom camping policy and readily enforces it with $200 fines and clamping of vehicles caught camping in non-designated areas. Which is good, even though it is a pain for us as most of the designated sites are too small for our rig. Plus we actually don't like parking in marked out carparks or areas that you have to vacate by 8am. We prefer to stay in a holiday park just for the convenience; to have our own site, be able to do our laundry, hooked up to the grid, and be handy to the shops; we can get our town chores done without too many worries.

Even if it does mean sharing the park with dozens of hire vans! Here we are at the Shotover Top10 Holiday Park at Arthurs Point.

My camera stayed in its bag most of the time we were in Queenstown, (I know, hard to believe) but I did take these two below with my smartphone-

Queenstown's 'Piano Man'- Mathias Lefenbvre, a Belgian who became world famous when a photo of him and a little girl won a National Geographic Travel Photo award.

And the world famous hamburger restaurant, Fergburger which serves gourmet 'as-big-as-your-head' burgers. It also has a queue of customers out through the doors and along the footpath at all hours of the day and night. So many people have approached the owner wanting to franchise Fergburger but he refuses to let go the reins (and the quality); he has a license to print money and he's quite happy with what he's got. He has also added a bakery and an icecream shop, but it's the burgers that attract the punters.