Omarama to Queenstown via Wanaka

Our last full day in New Zealand. We turned south from Omarama on Highway 8, heading for Queenstown. We drove over the Lindis Pass and downhill through the long, long and beautiful Lindis Valley to Tarras.

Clay cliffs

Lindis Pass

Tussock-covered hills at the pass.

Success. We followed these two bike riders up the pass.

Green beetles covering a shrub.

Growing at the top of the pass.
Could be a weed. NZ has lots of weeds.

Lindis Valley

Sigrid investigating road kill, Lindis Valley.
We kept hoping to see a falcon feeding on kill on the road.
It was a stoat or a weasel - both are introduced pests in NZ.

Tarras

 At Tarras we turned turned west to Wanaka. The December weather in New Zealand has not been kind to places like Wanaka and we saw a lot of storm damage on the foreshore. There are roads closed and paths closed and a lot of repair work required to the infrastructure. (There also seems to be a lot of stray canoes everywhere waiting to be claimed.)

View from the waterfront at Wanaka.

Storm damage at Wanaka waterfront.

Australasian Crested Grebes, Wanaka.
There is a breeding group at the Wanaka Marina (with their own Facebook page!).

Storm damage at Wanaka.

Back to Queenstown via Cromwell, in a valley filled with orchards and vineyards, where we bought sweet luscious cherries and real-fruit icecreams. Yum.