Te Anau to Walter's Peak - Queenstown

So I woke up today and I was 40. I also woke with a crick in my neck. Was this some sign of what is to come??? We went out for some birthday pancakes and set out from Te Anau, heading southeast and then north for Mavora Lakes and then on to Water's Peak and Queenstown.

The ride began with some favorable winds but we knew that we would be turning north soon and facing straight into them once again. We left the pavement for a gravel road that slowly ascended. The gusts were fierce and almost stopped us in our tracks. We sought refuge under a hay shed for lunch and then pressed on to Mavora lakes. The turnoff to the lakes is flanked by 'Fangorn Forest' from the Lord of the Rings. The lakes themselves were featured in the film as the Silverlode River where Frodo and Sam left the other members of the Fellowship and continued on themselves to Mordor. With so much difficulty that day and the crick in my neck still throbbing, we decided to celebrate my birthday when the US would be seeing March 7th, March 8th in NZ.

We had a good night's rest at the Lakes and rose the next morning to calm winds and sunshine over the lake. I was again forty. I was considering riding without a helmet that day since I was already sporting perfect helmet hair. A short climb back on the main road put us over a small ridge and we descended into a huge glacial carved valley that was seemingly endless in both length and beauty. One peak after another sprang up and up, each with it's own majesty. We forded a couple of large creeks and snapped photos like insects chirping. The road meandered a bit through the valley and then we descended further, meeting a couple of other cyclist heading the other direction. Exhausted with only mountain views we suddenly crested a small rise to see Lake Wakatipi before us, gleeming in the sun with brushstrokes of white peppering its waters whipped up by the wind. The lake is an amazing color, glacial blue with areas darker where it is deeper or shaded by clouds. We continued along the lake another 10km (6.2mi) to reach the sheep station, Walter's Peak. Although it is a real, working sheep station, it has since the early 1900's also been a tourist attraction for visitors to Queenstown. They have a lovely lodge, surrounded by gardens and grounds, and a small arena for a shearing and dog hearding demostrations. We nuzzled up to the bar wanting to find a bite to eat and the woman there must have taken pitty on us b/c she served us an array of breads/cakes on the house. We were between visiting groups that are shuttled through the station. We enjoyed our meal while basking in the afternoon sun that drenched the sheltered inlet while awaiting the arrival of the TSS Earnslaw.

The Earnslaw is a vintage coal-fired steamship that has serviced the sheep station for over 100 years. She is an attractive ship and gives her passengers a window into yesteryear. You can view the steam engines in action, their cranks and conneting rods churning away, and the boys feeding the hungry boiler with shovels of black coal. Midship is the salloon and at the stern sits the bar and a piano where an elderly lady plucks out old tunes that the passegers answer in song read from the songbooks handed out. We sat out on the bow deck enjoying a beer and views as the black soot bellowed from the stack and spread downwind across the water and more mountains in the backdrop.

We docked at Queenstown, bustling and bursting with tourists. A group of women on a girl's only, wine-swilling vacation asked Marijo what they needed to do to look so good in a pair of cycling shorts. I agree she is looking great in her little shorts. She was enamored by the question and we chatted with them before picking our way through town to our campground up the hill. Later that evening we went out for my birthday and had a nice evening, just the two of us.