Glenorchy:

For the last few weeks we’ve stayed close to our home in Wanaka and put our exploring and adventures on hold slightly. We’ve spent a lot of time biking around the local trails (we both got new bikes over the Christmas holidays), and with some rainy weather and work schedules that didn’t quite align, we had a hard time accomplishing much sight-seeing on our days off.

For the few weeks after the Christmas holidays, Wanaka seems to explode with tourism and people flood into the town. Since we are both working in retail jobs (Hilary in a cafe/chocolate shop, and me in a bike shop) this meant that our work lives have been very busy. We’ve both been working extra hours and are usually exhausted because of it.

With a few days off again though, we decided to get out of town and explore some more of New Zealand. This time, we were off to a small town called Glenorchy and were really looking forward to a few days back in the van and getting out of town.

Driving to Glenorchy:

Even the simple process of driving from Wanaka to Glenorchy is a lot of fun. The town of Glenorchy sits at the end of Lake Wakatipu and is about 50 km’s past Queenstown. The entire drive is along the edge of the lake and you get spectacular views of the mountains as a backdrop for the varying colours of blue in the lake. The road is quite twisty and narrow, so it’s a bit tricky to take in the surrounding scenery while driving, but if you’re with someone else, you should nonchalantly do your best to let them drive so that you can soak up the sights.

Unfortunately for us, it was raining while we were driving both to and from Glenorchy so I wasn’t able to get any photos along the way, but I promise to do my darndest to get some photos next time we do the drive.

There are a couple of places to stop along the drive from Queenstown to Glenorchy, and the best two places are probably Bennetts Bluff and the Old Glenorchy Wharf. The first is only a small pull off along the road that you’ll miss if you blink, but it does show up on Google Maps and the view is worth a quick stop.

The second, the Old Glenorchy Wharf, is a little ways past the Bennetts Bluff and you’ll spot a few wooden pilings in the water from the old Wharf. It’s another spot that is easy to miss but is worth keeping an eye out for.

Moke Lake:

On our way out to Glenorchy, we stopped in at a place called Moke Lake. It’s a quick drive out from the main road and there aren’t many signs, but it was a nice place to make a quick stop. There is a campground on the edge of the lake and a walking or biking trail around the entire lake.

The road to Moke Lake turns into gravel quickly after leaving the main highway and it seems like you are heading to the middle of nowhere, but it is a really cool spot and is worth checking out if you have the time. My favorite part, however, was the section of road immediately leaving from the main highway. It does a series of steep switchbacks, which in itself is not very exciting, but I took some pictures of it with my quadcopter from above and it looked so cool from an aerial perspective!

Our Glenorchy Change of Plans:

So, our intention when heading to Glenorchy was to do some hiking. In particular, we had planned to hike the trail to the top of Mount Alfred. On the day that we arrived, however, it was raining and the wind was blowing very hard. We decided to head past Glenorchy a little ways and pulled over in the parking lot for the Glacier Burn Track near the small village called Kinloch.

It was evening already when we arrived so we planned to wait out the rain and wind, have some supper and hope that the weather cleared by the morning so that we could climb Mount Alfred.

When we arrived, we jumped into the back of the van and were doing some reading when another vehicle pulls beside us to tell us that we had left the headlights on. We were very thankful and quickly flipped the lights off and, as it didn’t seem like it had been that long since we had stopped, we didn’t think much of it. A little while later, however, the storm was getting worse and we planned to drive into Kinloch to hopefully find some shelter so that we could cook some supper. But…you guessed it…the battery was flat and Ernie (that’s the name of our van) wouldn’t start.
 

So, we spent the next 2 or 3 hours sitting in the front of the van, flagging down vehicles that went by. Because of the storm, and because we were in the middle of nowhere, there were only 3 or 4 vehicles that went by each hour…and none of them had jumper cables (and of course, neither did we).

Once it got dark, we decided to give up, and tried again in the morning. We ended up getting a ride into the nearby Kinloch lodge early the next day. Luckily they had a battery booster box that they were able to lend us, and we eventually got Ernie started and everything was sorted. While we were at the Kinloch Lodge, we also noticed that there was an old wharf sticking out into the water that made for some cool pictures, so there was some good that came from the adventure after all.

Finally we were back on the road, but on our drive out of Kinloch, we quickly realized that the road back to Glenorchy had flooded. We were luckily able to drive through the flooded sections but the water was very deep in places and over the wheels of our vehicle.

It all added to the adventure and, even though the weekend didn’t turn out as planned, it was definitely a memorable one. And, needless to say, after everything was settled, we bought cables from the Mitre 10 in Queenstown for a whole $8.00 and if we ever need to use them I can rest easy knowing that it’s the best $8.00 we’ve ever spent.

Unfortunately, the rain and wind carried on into the morning and with all of the events, we decided to call off our plans of hiking Mount Alfred until another time. We did, however, stop in the town of Glenorchy for a little while the next afternoon and hung around the Glenorchy Wharf for a few hours.

The Glenorchy Wharf:

The town of Glenorchy itself is quite small and one of the main attractions of the town (besides the abundant scenery, hiking, and other activities) is the Glenorchy Wharf. It’s history dates back to when the town was first settled and the only access to the town was by steamboat on Lake Wakatipu. During this time, the wharf became the centre of town as it was the only terminal for entering or leaving.

Once the road was built, however, its presence became less essential and it’s more of a tourist attraction than anything nowadays. The scenery from the edge of the lake is awesome, however, and we ended up hanging around that area for a few hours taking photos and taking cover when the sudden bouts of rain and wind kicked up.
 

So, even though our plans changed and our adventure wasn’t quite what we had in mind, we still had an awesome weekend in Glenorchy and plan to go back soon to explore more of the area.