Sorry for the delay in posting … such a whirlwind trip! Already home but catching up on blog entries. Today is on the way to Paradise. We left Te Anau and made our way to Queenstown–the adventure capitol of NZ. We didn’t stay there … haha. Speed boating, hang gliding, bungy jumping … all things we’ve left behind for the thrill of riding. Now there is Downhill MTBing in Queenstown … that’s not our style either. However, we were in Queenstown to pick up our bikes. We had rented some hardtails from a company called Natural High in Christchurch. They sent them to a place in Queenstown (called Bikeaholics) for us to pick up. As you may recall from the previous post I had a very nice (and new) rental car. We took a little time figuring out how to fit the bike rack on the car (with the bikes) to make sure I didn’t owe any money at the end. Success! We loaded up the bikes and headed up to Glenorchy for the next phase of the adventure. The scenery in that area is stunning! I guess that’s why the “town” of Paradise is up there. Here’s a couple of photos to show off the locale … you couldn’t have made this horse pose like this if you tried. haha.
Yeah, pretty incredible … and those pictures were taken from our Bed and Breakfast locale. There was a “nice” road near our place and we spent some time riding for the next couple of days. Again the views were just amazing …
Around every corner was something new … to include some stream crossings … only a little wet here and there.
After a couple of days of riding we decided to hike one of the famous “tracks” — the Routeburn track. An out and back hike — about 11.5 miles. This was an alpine hike … so up up up and then a nice jaunt back down. I know it sounds monotonous … but quite lovely …
You can imagine a few hobbits hiding under here.
Fern after fern … the ferns were incredible in New Zealand. They had actual Fern Trees.
You can see Deb bending down by the stream to see how cold the water was.
This nifty little dragonfly decided to hitch a ride on Deb’s pack.
There were several of these suspension bridges … all over new Zealand.
Standing at the edge of the trail looking down …
Of course, all of the trails were groomed. It was so easy “tramping” in NZ.
The water was crystal clear … or some hue due to mineral content. 
We enjoyed this track.
Ah, the pleasure of the hike. Where’s my bike?! lol
A little panorama action for you …
We tried to drive to Paradise to see what all the fuss was about. It was out in this area and there were plenty of tour buses going back and forth. We drove out the gravel road for about seven miles and saw a family on the side of the road … they had lost control on the washboard gravel and ran off the road. They already had help on the way so we continued onward. We eventually came to a large stream crossing (ironically named “Jordan”). Since we were in the rental car we decided not to cross, and like Moses, we were only able to look over Jordan toward Paradise. We still don’t know what the excitement was all about but we don’t feel like we missed anything.
We went back to our B&B, spent our last night here and departed in the morning for the next phase of this awesome adventure!
Stumblingpiper
Leave a Reply