The drive to Coronet Peak was lovely and relaxing, so much more enjoyable than the intrepid drive to The Remarkables.
When we got to Coronet Peak we went up the chair lift to the Big Easy green run. The snow was… well Andrew put it best, asking "is this even snow?" I think the answer was no, no it was corrugated ice. I guess we understood why some people call it Concrete Peak. One thing Concrete Peak had going for it was the sweeping views of Queenstown and The Remarkables. We decided it was going to be a good day regardless of the ice; the sun was up and the view was amazing.
The first couple of runs were so painful that by the end of the run my feet were completely asleep and my knees were shaking. However, after the day warmed up the ice melted into "snow" and the green run was actually really fun! We stayed from 9 until 12, and it was a great way to end the skiing part of our trip.
Next we headed to the Onsen Hot Pools, which is my favourite thing we've done so far. Honestly, how good are hot baths after a long day of skiing. We enjoyed the view of the Shotover Canyon, got to see the jet boat running, all while relaxing in our private hot pool over a beer, some Proper Crisps and chocolate. This was the most relaxed I've been all holiday.
After returning our ski gear in Queenstown and getting a cookie at Cookie Time we started our drive to Wanaka through the Crown Ranges, which was a beautiful 1 hour mountain drive. We checked into the Lakeview Motel at Wanaka then decided to walk through town and try and find the famous Wanaka tree.
It was starting to look like another repeat of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo (which we never managed to find and are convinced doesn't really exist), but in the end we finally found it sitting quietly a few meters out into the lake. It's an OK, semi dead tree in the water, but we were a bit confused about why it was so famous given the surroundings.
Dinner was take away Thai with lake views from our motel. I could get used to this! But I won't since we're only staying here one night.
No comments:
Post a Comment