Cromwell — RachiePie

We left Mount Cook Sunday morning and drove to Cromwell. On the 2 1/2 hour drive, we passed through Lindis Pass, a scenic reserve with grass-covered mountains and valleys. It is a winding road and the views were just beautiful. There were several lookout points where we stopped to take pictures and enjoy the scenery.

The town of Cromwell was first established by gold miners in the 1800's, but is now known for its orchards and vineyards. We started our morning at Lake Dunstan where we hiked around a portion of the lake. The lake came as a result of the 1990's construction of the Clyde Dam power station. When the dam was completed, the valley behind it was flooded to create Lake Dunstan.

After our walk, we stopped briefly at one of the fruit stands where we each ordered a fresh fruit smoothie and also picked up some produce including pears and a fruit I've never heard of before, feijoas. Feijoas are about the size of a lime with dark green skin. It has a similar texture to a pear, but the taste is not something either Alex or I liked! It tasted medicinal and after a quick google search, I found the medicinal taste comes from ester methyl benzoate and related compounds existing in the fruit. I have a strong feeling we won't be purchasing these in the future!

We spent the better part of the afternoon at a couple of wineries, Mt. Difficulty and Desert Heart Estate, to do some wine tasting. The area is known for its pinot noir and at Desert Heart, we each ordered a glass of wine and some freshly baked bread. We then proceeded to spend the next hour relaxing on their patio as the sun finally came out. Doesn't get much better than that!

Our final stop for the afternoon before checking into our hotel was to Bannockburn Sluicings. This hike loops around the former Bannockburn gold field where the area was mined from 1862 to the early 1930's. You can see remnants of dams, tunnels and stone walls. It was a short hike, but offered really pretty views of the surrounding area. Unfortunately, we did not find any gold!

Today, we headed out to do a bit more wine tasting and visited three wineries including: Peregrine, Akarua and Chard Farm.

The last winery we visited, Chard Farm, had an adorable cat named Henry. He wasn't the best assistant (Henry almost knocked over a couple of wine glasses), but he sure was cute!

Alex was not impressed - even after 16 years together, I'm still convinced one day he will be a cat person!

For lunch we stopped in the adorable village of Arrowtown, a historic former gold mining town. Arrowtown is built on the banks of the Arrow River, once a rich source of gold, which attracted miners from around the world in pursuit of their fortune. At the height of the gold rush, the population reached 7,000. Today, it is known for its restaurants and boutique shopping. It is surrounded by trees and greenery and the perfect place to see the change of colors as we are entering fall here in New Zealand.

On the drive back to Cromwell, we passed a farm where they had alpacas and I'm a sucker for anything llama or alpaca, so I had Alex pull over so I could take some pictures! I think they thought I had food, because as soon I approached the fence, the alpaca and sheep started heading toward me! They are so stinking cute!

We leave Cromwell tomorrow morning and make our way to Queensland where we will stay for three days.