2017-12-01 Travel to Mt. Cook

We left Queenstown and stopped about twenty minutes northeast of there in Arrowtown. We stopped here for a "splash & dash" when we were on the safari tour the other day, but didn't get to do any exploring. It was on the Arrow River where I panned for gold a few days ago. Arrowtown is an old gold mining town whose miners' cabins have been restored and enhanced, making the town a popular tourist stop and, because of its proximity to Queenstown, a growing little community.

I took a picture of a gold nugget that weighs 159 grams (see below) and is for sale for $25,500 (New Zealand dollars). I checked the price of gold today and it's $58.17 NZD per gram. So, that would be $9,249.03 NZD for the nugget. So how do they figure they can get $25,500 NZD for it? That's why it's still sitting in the shop! 

After we left Arrowtown, we took a short 15 minute ride to the Gibbston Valley Winery where we had a tour and tasted some of their wines.

Down the road a ways, we passed the Wooing Tree Winery and I took a picture of the Wooing Tree. This is from their website: "The Wooing Tree is a local landmark that sits prominently in the middle of our family vineyard. It has long been a place for locals to woo their lovers, and if it could talk, would have many a story to tell! These days it is not quite the private spot it once was…but we still have plenty of visitors proposing marriage and even getting married under our beautiful iconic tree, amidst the vines."

I took some pictures at an overlook on the Ahuriri River. The lupins were thick there. They are not native to New Zealand and are considered a weed. Efforts have been made to eradicate them, but they grow all over the place. We heard this story while on the tour - From the web: "The story goes that the wife of a local farmer decided the drab center of New Zealand's South Island could use some color. So for years she secretly spread lupin seeds along the roadways and riverbeds each spring — some more embellished versions of the story have her doing so while riding naked on the back of a white stallion."

We arrived at the Hermitage Hotel at Mt. Cook around 3:00. We explored the hotel grounds and shot some pictures. A glass of wine in the lounge before dinner was a nice relaxer after a long day on the road.