New Zealand #4 - Driving to the West Coast - Arrowtown and the Crown Range, South Island

The last day of March, 2016, and we leave Queenstown after a few interesting days to start our roadtrip through the South Island. There is just too much to see and do, and because the road network is channeled by mountains, large lakes and the sea, you can't always get there from here. So our itinerary unfortunately has to pass on some wonderful destinations like Fiordland and particularly Milford Sound. We are already starting to realize that 4 weeks won't be enough time to see everything, and that we will have to come back to New Zealand one day!

Queenstown seen from the top of the Crown Range in the Southern Alps.

Sunny with some cloud, going up to 19 Celsius in Queenstown, but according to the morning weather on TV 'coasters are not happy because it will be a bit roughish due to a system coming across the ditch'! Translated from New Zealand English - 'people on the west coast will see stormy weather off the Tasman Sea'. Now about our destination - it took us a day to drive through the Southern Alps to the west coast, but there was a lot to see so I'm going to break it into two posts, this one covering the first half of our day, and the next post taking us the rest of the way.

It is a short and pleasant drive to Arrowtown, a well-preserved Gold Rush town with a wonderful main street and many 'listed’ national heritage buildings.

A bit further on from Arrowtown we opt to take the scenic route over the Crown Range, with absolutely stunning views of the mountains. Going up there are lots of slow switchbacks, but unlike our experience in the interior of Portugal the previous winter the roads actually have guardrails! Since it is the scenic route there is lots of traffic, and occasionally we get caught in a convoy of caravans, but everyone is courteous and cautious. At one point a heavy goods lorry pulls over to let everyone behind through.

The scenic route...

... and the views!

There is a Lord of the Rings filming site a short hike outside Arrowtown which we passed on, but I'm sure this winding trail is in one of the films...

... what do you think?

We end our morning having our picture taken by another traveler, and do the same for her -

PS - if you've enjoyed this post please check out my first 3 New Zealand posts, the previous 19 posts in my Australia series, and the 3 before that as we started our 90 day roadtrip in Tahiti!

And please join us in my next post as we head across the Southern Alps to the west coast!

read me!

!steemitworldmap -44.944133 lat 168.836849 long Arrowtown South Island New Zealand d3scr