Day 8 Haast to Queenstown Spectacular to Majestic

This was one our shortest rides but it was also the most Scenic. We left Haast and headed into the Southern Alps. We started on a broad plain that soon narrowed into a valley, then narrower still as we began to climb, following the Haast River up the mountain toward Haast Pass. We were in bigger mountains now. We had been riding a mountainous coastline, but now we were going to the top. On the way up we stopped at the Blue Pools. These are pretty blue pools in a river flat, the color the result of glacial melt. We had to cross this swing bridge to get there.

We had followed Hasst River to the top , we then followed another river down the other side, to Makarora. Here starts for me the best part of our ride so far. Riding above beautiful Lake Wanaka, through bends and curves with each view new. This and the subsequent ride along Lake Hawea was the best of the best. It is pristine beauty of the highest degree. It was exciting as I rode over "the neck" that seperates the two lakes, suddenly going from a beautiful lake on my right side to another beautiful lake on my left.

When we rode into Wanaka it was lunch time and we headed for this cool looking health food store, then we noticed right next door was a place called "Uncle Mike's BBQ. Turns out Mike Oxley is a transplant from Kansas City that has recently started this new place. The barbecued ribs were great, as were the beans and slaw.

Lunch finished, we gassed up and headed for SR 89 the scenic shortcut to Queenstown. The scenic part started when we reached the top and worked our way down enjoying many views of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. When we got into Queenstown we easily found our accommodation Chalet Queenstown B&B. We were greeted by our host John Oaten, who I immediatly liked when he helped me push my bike back on the loose gravel. We got settled in a newly refurbished, nicely furnished room. I asked John if he knew where we could do our laundry. He insisted on taking it (2 big loads). Not only did he launder it all but he folded it as well, (what a guy). We went out to explore down town Queenstown and find a place for dinner. We wanted to jump off a cliff so we made reservations to paraglide the next day. We booked with Elevation Paragliding for a noon fllight.

We ended up having a spicy and delicious Thai dinner at Tham Nak Thai with a pretty Jin waiting on us.