Saturday Dec 10
We left Mt Cook and the Heritage Hotel around 9:30am to drive to Queenstown some 3+ hours away. We stopped at the PYO (Pick Your Own) cherry farm - we decided to just buy the already picked ones - 2 Kg’s of plump juicy red cherries (the white ones weren’t ready yet) - we have our work cut out eating these in the next 5 days.
We checked-in to our 2 bedroom apartment, at Peppers just outside the center of town, at about 2pm. The hallways of the place were in pretty shocking condition so we were relieved to find our apartment to be pretty nice - huge with a large terrace overlooking the lake. Since it was already pretty late we headed into town looking for a quick bite to eat which we found in one of the many waterfront pubs and restaurants.
Back at our apartment we settled in - unpacking and setting up - we left grocery shopping for the following day as we had breakfast included and had booked for dinner at 1789, the restaurant at the Sofitel.
After showers etc we walked to the Sofitel for dinner - about 10 minutes away - the weather had been cool and a bit changeable all day - but it remained fine in the evening. We had an excellent dinner at 1789 - we both had sea salmon - all good particularly with the Accor Advantage half-pricing dining (food only).
Sunday Dec 11
We had a Nespresso before heading to Pepper breakfast room for our free breakfast - we brought along a large bowl of our cherries which I had pitted. With the addition of these cherries - breakfast was OK.
Back in the room - Dieter watched the quarter-final World Cup match between England and France - with France winning 2-1. We then drove a huge shopping center to do some grocery shopping.
After lunch at home, we went to Bob’s picnic point for a walk of about 1.5 hour up to a great vantage point.
We had dinner at home - pasta and salad.
Monday Dec 12
It was a wonderful sunny and warm day - high of 21C. We drove to Hayes Lake recreation area and did the 8.2km walk around the lake with some ups and downs - Dieter stopped to take many photos of the wonderful reflections in the lake and the many ducks and duckling families. All in all it took of 2h15m.
As it was now nearly 1pm we drove on towards Arrowfield stopping at Mona Winery, the only one open on a Monday - unfortunately they were fully booked. So we continued on into the town of Arrowfield and stopped at a wine store for a drink and a couple of tapas. Afterwards we walked around the very picturesque town which is quite touristy but is the center for a number of well known vineyards, including Amisfield.
Back at home we found out from both Judy and Mary that after a very violent storm in Sydney our unit had “flooded” AGAIN !!! - in my office - Mary cleaned it up and we exchanged e-mails with Nathan (at ManageMeant) and phone calls with Judy and Mary - not much we can do from here.
We had sandwiches for lunch.
Tuesday Dec 13
Another glorious day - not a cloud in the sky and a high of 22C. We had a bit of a lazy day - after seeing the lineup for the gondola (cost $45pp) we decided it wasn’t really necessary to do so we walked around the local parkland then had lunch at a small bistro in town. Many venues (even the pubs) were closed - presumably due to lack of staff. We stayed home for dinner.
Wednesday Dec 14
Another sunny and warm day (23C) we drove to Moke Lake which was at the end of 6k’s of dirt road where Dieter got some amazing photos of reflections in the lake. We did a walk part way around the lake and back then went home for lunch and packing up.
