Gold, River, and glaciers

Tonight our hotel is in Franz Josef Glacier

We had a lovely morning to start out. Our view from our window was so beautiful.

Our first stop was in Arrowtown

It is a small town about half an hour from Queenstown 

It was one of the 1860 gold rush town

They have kept there Main Street with the facade of when it was established 

Even though it was a bit chilly we took a walk along it short Main Street

We even checked out a few of the open stores

If you took the cars away and put horses in there place it would look much as it did in the 1860s

After our stop in Arrowtown we headed towards Cornwall which is know for sure it’s vineyards and fruit groves

I found how they grew their fruit trees quite interesting as they have trained them in this V shape instead of as we grow them just as the tree grows

They also had a lot of grapes growing. This section of the country is known for their red wines

Then we stopped for photos at Lake Wanaka

I have been amazed by the sheer number of lakes in this part of the country

It seems as if you barely leave one and you are at the next

We took our lunch break and the place had cattle 

And deer herds right across the street. It is a bit strange for me to realize they farm deer and Elk as we raise cows and buffalo

This is the place we stopped for lunch 

The inside was a treasure trove of antiques 

Dale claims those ice skates are just like he had as a kid

I have family who would have lived the many antiques abounding around as we ate lunch

The size of the ferns astound me. These are each about 4 to 6 feet long

The amazing turquoise color of many of the rivers are stunning

We took a jet boat tour up the Haus River

It was very fun as when at cruising speed the boat only drafts 4 inches of water, so we could go right around even shallow areas

These two plain looking rock are actual the jade stone that is carved in this area

Our guide poured water over one and this is what it looked like

I wish I knew how to put video in as our driver would spin us in circles. It was like being on a Disney water rapids ride 

We also saw many waterfalls. The boat driver said when it rains waterfalls appear all down the cliff sides

This is the longes bridge in the South Island of New Zealand 

It is 737 meters long

Cloud cover came in as we were driving to where we were supposed to have a helicopter ride over a couple of the glaciers and turned the area almost into a black and white photo

Even though the flights were cancelled, from our coach we were able to drive up to see the lower end of the Franz Josef Glacier. Dale opted into a hike with some of the other group

This is a small church at the bridge that leads into town. I went ahead with those of us who chose not to take the hike and checked into our hotel. Tomorrow we head back to Christchurch