Ahhhhhhh ….. Glenorchy

To get to Glenorchy you travel the same lake that Queenstown sits on, you follow the lake North up an arm and into Mt Aspiring National Park.  As you travel the highway you are given this amazing view of an aqua blue lake surrounded by glacial mountain peaks.  Amazing.  We wanted to have an extended stay here as there is fantastic access to trail heads from the camp grounds.  What have we learned? Trails in NZ vary dramatically.   Those which are of the Great Walk status are perfect, wide, well maintained, and then there are other trails which are really more of a suggested path of randomly posted orange arrows.  These trails have NO switch backs (no matter the elevation gain) and little maintenance.  We landed on this second type of trail which resulted in a 13.5 hour day of hiking in the rain.  I will not elaborate further on this hike as that would require much beer J  Pictured above are views from two of the more normal hikes and a perfect NZ view back a mountain valley literally filled with sheep.  We are off to Central Otago, some wine and then up the West Coast.   ..... Olli, I swear it is not digital enhancement :-) !!!