Day Five, Wanaka, Lake Hawea, and WIne!

Well today we didn’t quite know how it was all going to work.   Pete and I are checking out of the Kingsgate as we are moving to the Mercure Hotel on the other side of town to attend the AROC (Alfa Romeo Owners Club) AGM.     Also we were picking up friends Fiona and Bruce (who also belong to AROC) at the airport, getting them to their loan car (they have friends who have a bach/crib at Wanaka, who leave a car at the airport) and then??   All we knew was they wanted to go to Wanaka. 

So all that done, the big discussion was had!   Fiona was keen to wine taste but we could only do a minimal amount or we couldn’t do Wanaka and back!

First stop at 10am was Amisfield Winery at the foothills the Crown Range and only a few minutes drive from the airport.    Only Fiona and Bruce did tastings as it was too early for the rest of us!

Going up the Crown Range - looking back

The drive over the Crown Range was completely different than I had imagined.  There is a steep climb up then it plateaus out and is quite flat.   We drove through Cardrona which again was not what I expected.  A small settlement with the famous Cardrona pub and that was it!   It was some distance to the Cardrona Ski Field which is actually off the main road.

Famous Cardrona Hotel

Another long windy drive down into Wanaka where decided to have lunch.   Found a nice pub on the waterfront.     While there we saw a lot of familiar Alfa’s being driven around.  All obviously together on their way down to Queenstown.

Lake Wanaka

Next mission was to find Fiona and Bruce friends crib which turned out to actually be at Lake Hawea not Wanaka as I thought, about 20 minutes from Wanaka.   We played follow the leader and eventually we found the crib – right on the lake front no less!!!!   Section was a good quarter acre and the crib appeared to be one of the original cribs in the area.   Must be worth a bomb!   What a fantastic spot.

View from the front of the Crib!

Pete had the return trip all sorted – yeah right!   We eventually arrived back at the main highway to go south back Queenstown via Luggate and Cromwell (again!) Only problem was we encountered road works which slowed us down.  

So you know where we are going here is a map: http://goo.gl/maps/i0qSu

On the way we detoured and called into Pisa Moorings which we had seen from the other side of Lake Dunstan a couple of days before.   It was not a resort but new subdivision and some properties had moorings.   Again in the middle of no where!

Back in Cromwell Fiona and Bruce wanted to go to the Wooing Tree Winery which has come highly recommended.   The Winery has a little café as well, which meant we could have afternoon tea once we had done some tasting of course!  We tasted and bought the Blondie, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris and were able to shared case with Fiona & Bruce, which meant we could get a discount and free freight back to Auckland.

As it was getting late we headed back to Queenstown

As we need to collect our luggage from the hotel and drop Julie & Dave off.   We are keeping the rental car as they fly back to Auckland on the Saturday while we are staying on until the Sunday.

At check in at Mercure we were treated like royalty!!!  Fussed over and I was called Mrs. Kelly etc!   Hmmm they knew exactly who I was as I was the only one from the club arriving that used a wheelchair and I had complained when originally booking at being charged for the hotel portion three months out!  I don’t mind paying a deposit but not the full amount in advance!    Anyway it was worth being fussed over as check in was chaos!    Total Registration for AROC AGM was 94 and the car park full of Alfas and the odd rental car!

I had booked as accessible room with a standard shower (which had a small lip and would provide a shower stool) with a Lakeview.   Well Room 107 was a joke.  Yes accessible as it was large and on the Reception level, but a Shower stool in 700 x 900 stall was ridiculous.    We had a think about it and asked if we could change to a properly accessible room but alas no as hotel full to bursting.    So we were going to have to make do!   Wish I had taken photos.

Anyway we had a more pressing engagement – Registration and Pre-dinner drinks and socializing to do!    The reception rooms were full to bursting as not only was there all of the AROC there was about 4 busloads of tourists!

 

Dinner wasn’t part of the package so we decided to book Waterfront where we had been on the first night. Pete booked for 6, and on the way in we realized he had made a mistake so I had to call ahead and increase the number to 8.     We collected Julie and Dave and headed for the restaurant.   While waiting for the others to arrive, another AROC couple turned up, so we had to hastily arrange for them to join us!   The restaurant was very accommodating and we had a really nice night.

One very annoying thing was I decided I need to use the toilets.   We were told they were accessible.    OMG Toilets definitely not accessible friendly – goodness knows why anyone thought they were.