NZ South Island – Wanaka, Queenstown (Day 6)
Day 6
When we woke up the next morning, we saw how beautiful our surroundings were. As usual, Samuel was the first to wake up.
He went to feed the ducks with Daddy.
Samuel also helped Daddy to put out the picnic table, which we never did use.
But it drew a little girl to our campsite. Samuel quickly became friends with her, and her mother came over to chat with us.
They had a cool little caravan, and they were there only for the night. They had to go back to work/school as it was a Monday! Aww…
We had booked a horse trek (10 – 11:30am) with Ben Lomond Horsetrek (We found it in the tourist guide when we were at the Wanaka Puzzling World). We signed up for this because Samuel was looking forward so much to the horse trekking at Kaikoura which we missed. We were glad we did it.
The meeting point was just next to where our campervan was! So after breakfast, we literally walked “over”.
Here were our horses!
Let’s get ready!
We had to put on our helmets, and sign indemnity forms.
“Err.. how do you get up on this thing??”
(Elkan’s horse was called George)
Look at Samuel – my brave little one!
Samuel had to ride with a guide and I say this again – Samuel was very brave. The horse was quite tall – twice his height! I, on the other hand, was quite nervous. I was terrified of falling off the horse.
Now that we are ready, let’s go!
Samuel chatted with his guide the whole way. She was quite taken by him.
Samuel : “Do you have a home?”… Guide: “Yes, my home is in France”…
S: “Do you have a car?”… G: “Yes, I have”…
S: “Do you drive your car? Do you drive your car when you go home?”… G: “Yes, I do”…
S: “My house is a van”… “A van?”… “A moving house, a bus, a van”…
G: “Oh, a campervan”… S: “Yes, my house is a van”
G: “Do you enjoy the ride?”… S: “Yes”…
G: “Do you want to do the ride again?”… S: “No”…
G: “Why?”… S: “Because it is expensive” (she laughs)…
S: “Do you feed the horse?”.. G: “Yes”…
S: “They eat grass?”… G: “Yes, and fruits…”
S: “Do you feed them wood?”… G: “Food? Yes we feed them food”…
S: “No, wood, wood on trees”… G: “No, we don’t feed them wood”
S: “Do you have baby horses here?”… G: “Yes”…
S: “You allow baby horses?”… G: “Yes”… “But they don’t come out… because they are naughty”…
S: “Yes”… “My horse is not naughty”
The horses were all very well trained and well behaved. They knew exactly where to go and they always trotted in a straight line. Elias complained about his horse – Billy – though. He said that Billy would not obey him and simply followed the rest. I think he had wanted Billy to either over-take everyone else, or stay further away from the tree branches.
This was one of my favourite part of the trip. The weather, the scenery, and the ride was lovely.
Soon we had to say good-bye!
Elias found them grooming the horses, and he asked to do the same.
Lunch was a takeaway from Macs.
We visited Arrowtown and saw the Chinese Settlement. I enjoyed it.
The children enjoyed reading the information panels. I especially liked the house built into the stone wall.
We visited the Toy and Transport Museum! We paid $35 for the family. (Adult – $14, School age children – $5, Children under 5 – Free). We spent more than an hour there.
The variety and extensiveness of the toys on display was astounding. I particularly enjoyed the little towns, dolls and houses.
We all had our own favourite things. Elias spotted the Singapore Airline die-cast plane! The kids bought some toys back as well.
Cromwell was kind of forgettable… but we managed to take a photo of the iconic fruits display.
Go back to Day 4-5 : Franz Josef, Wanaka and Queenstown
Read about Day 7-8 : Dunedin
Return to New Zealand, South Island : Overview
