Road Trip. Day Three.

Day Three:

We woke after our exceptionally long night in need of some good breakfast. We gobbled down a banana and a nut bar and were raring to go back 10am (I say raring to go. What I really mean is groggy and marginally enthusiastic). I aimed to drive for the hour to Queenstown, but having dealt with Kiwi drivers driving dangerously close behind me all the way up a steep, very winding hillside, I asked Mr Bear to take over for the rest of the way. Far too stressful! I don't think he minded much since the downwards journey was steep and curvy and for some reason, men like these driving conditions. We even took a picture of the road curving down below us when we stopped to admire the view, thinking my Papa would have very much enjoyed that drive!

Upon arrival, we strolled around for a while trying to find a nice place to eat that wouldn't add the surcharge most places do on bank holidays. We plumped for the Wharf Pub and sat outside in the slight drizzle to enjoy our generously-sized steak sandwiches. I managed to find a good old fashioned sweet shop after lunch and we spent nearly $20 on a box of handmade chocolates; you've got to treat yourself sometimes!

Martin wanted to drive around the Lake a bit, so we opted to follow the signs to Glenochy, 'The Gateway to Paradise'. We stopped half way there to take some pictures of the awesome view and got talking to a father and son from Australia who told us some of the scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed in Glenochy and the mountains we were looking at were actually the Misty Mountains (subsequent research must be done on this point I feel!).

We made it to Glenochy and decided to park up with the car-bed facing the lake and scoff the rest of our choccies whilst watching a kite-surfer awe the onlookers on the peer, with an accompanying chorous of 'oohs' and 'aahs'. 

On our drive back into Queenstown, Martin slowed right down after spotting two strange silhouettes on the road ahead of us. As we drew closer, those strange silhouettes turned out to be two sparring wild cats with their backs arched, their fur on end and their fangs bared. They took no notice of us until we were right up to them, then sprung to life and dived into the bushes. They were quite small so we reckon they must only have been young. I felt like I'd seen my cat Ziggy and have become even more convinced he is half wild cat, due to his distinctive markings. A little further down, we came across a mountain goat chewing tufts of bracken by the road-side, giving us a stare that said 'no pictures, thank you'.


We had hoped to arrive back at the campsite before it went dark, but as we were cooking the light started to vanish rapidly and our candles were battling against the breeze to stay lit. But eating in the dark is quite nice really, especially with the moon and stars shinging above you. Before heading to the kitchen to wash our plates, we lay on our bench, looking up at the twinkling sky, picking out the odd satellite masquerading as a star and making up our own constellations.