NZ History, Puzzles and Chilly Water

I got up and was on the road before 10am this morning and headed to a little town called Arrowtown. It was a gold mining town back in the 1800’s and they still have some of it set up the way it would have been back in those days. One of the things I went and saw was the old area where the Chinese had come to the area to mine and pan for gold. Because we don’t learn about the history of NZ in school, it was nice to learn a bit about their history. The Chinese came here with hopes of being able to save enough money in a few years to move back to China and live out of poverty and have everything they would need for the rest of their lives (most never made it home). There were still some remnants of the buildings they had made, and I was astonished at how small they were. There was only enough room for a bed and to store a few things and they were VERY short. I could barely stand up in them at 5’8. After a bit of walking around I headed on my way to Wanaka. I encountered a really old pub along the way called Cardrona. It is one of the oldest pubs in NZ and is over 152 years old. Inside on the ceiling money pinned up from all different parts of the world which was cool, most of it was paper but they started to collect coins as well. There were 2 really old original cars from the 1920’s that were on display as well to check out. They even had a hole in the floor that was covered with glass, you could see down into one of the original mine shafts. After poking around I got back on the road. In Wanaka I visited the Lavender farm that they have which is a family run business and I ended up buying 2 containers of honey which is made locally with different flowers from NZ. I am not sure how in the heck I am going to get all of my souvenirs home, but I don’t regret buying any of them. I enjoy spending money to help local businesses, I know how much the city of Salem Ma, tries to get people to buy locally and when I have the chance, I try to as well.

New Chair Horizontal in Lavendar Fields

Lavendar Fields With Mountains

Old Chair in Lavendar Fields

Pinecones and Lavendar

House via circle

Cardona Hotel

Gas pump

After spending some time there I ended up checking out a local attraction called The Puzzling World. This place was really cool. They had 2 attractions that you paid for, one was an outdoor 3D maze and the other was rooms with illusions that were pretty mind bending. From faces on the walls that followed you around to a room that was on a huge slant and you could stand up straight but it was at an angle, it was so bizarre that it made me feel a bit nauseous lol. After spending a few hours here, I decided to get on the road and head to north into the Mount Aspiring National Park, which I had not originally intended on. As I drove up to the national park, on my right hand side was this MASSIVE lake. It was incredibly huge with mountains on the far side and water as far as the eye could see from north to south. The color of the lake ranged from a clear white near the shore to dark sky blue in the middle where it was obviously much deeper. By looking at a map it was Lake Hawea that I was passing, and of course I stopped as much as I could to take breathtaking pictures. It would be amazing to live on this lake if you could. I believe it is protected by the NZ government as there was not a soul on it.

How many legs?

How many animals?

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Leaning or straight?

You and Me

Endless Floor

On my trip into Mount Aspiring National Park, I had 4 places that I wanted to stop at. My first stop was at a place called the blue pools. Talk about crystal clear blue water! There was a swing bridge that connected one side to another that then went onto a hike for much farther than I was willing to do. So I just stood on the bridge and admired the beauty that I don’t get the chance to see at home. On my decision to leave a couple showed up and the guy wanted to jump into the pools from the bridge, I told him he was nuts as it was so bone chillingly cold. Him and his wife asked where I was from and of course I just said Boston because no one has heard of lovely ole Newburyport. They said, us too, just north. Huh….interesting, so I asked where and they said Nahant. Hahah what a small world, I told them I had just sold my house in Salem Mass which is super close. I tell you, I meet people that are so close to me always a world away. Anyhoo, so the guy ended up jumping from the bridge into the icy water and couldn’t wait to get out hahaha. He loved the jump but agreed the water was way too cold.

Blue Water

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Blue Pools

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After returning to my car glad I didn’t have the desire to jump in that cold water, I headed off to Fantail Falls. This was a beautiful waterfall that does exactly what it sounds like. Unlike most waterfalls, this on fans out in many different directions as it comes down from the top spout. Each of the ends then also fanned out creating more tails to the already larger ones. This one here had a bunch of stones that people were stacking one on top of the other. I get it but I don’t. So many of them make it hard to walk around and most of them are just a small tower. The ones that get really high, are multiple towers and so forth are the ones worth looking at. Anyhoo, I caught a guy who was just sitting on the shore admiring the waterfalls and was able to get a picture of him and these stacked rocks, and it seemed to me like he was contemplating things, so that is what I call it…..Contemplation. When I finally have enough broadband to upload pictures you can check it out. I actually stayed here for quite some time looking at the falls and thinking about things. Nothing interesting enough to tell anyone haha but the peace and quiet of the falls was definitely welcome. I was also able to find a bunch of items in nature for a project I am working on and get some pictures of them, so it was of course a win-win for me.

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After this I headed to the 2nd to last location on my stops called Thunder creek falls. As the name really does imply, they were very loud, so much so you could hear them from the start of the path. I didn’t spend much time here as you couldn’t really get close to them but they were amazing anyway. New Zealand reminds me a lot of Switzerland in the fact of the huge mountains and hill sides and waterfalls everywhere you look so of course I am in love lol. It was getting rather late and I didn’t want to try and find a place to park for the night in the dark so I found a rest area with a bunch of other people and called it a night.