It was a spectacular day of all off road riding. We started the day with some breaky, with a view of the lake we crossed yesterday.
We saw the shimmering lights of Queenstown before we crawled in our tent and again when we awoke this morning (and I actually saw them three times during the night when I got up to visit the “facilitrees” during the night.) 🙄
All. Day. Long. From the sheep stations in the high country to the open prairies in the middle of the day’s ride to the stream we followed 15 miles into Mossburn, all day we were awed by the southland’s beauty.
Just a couple pics here…
To view more, click on the image below to view today’s video.
Yep that’s right! Just a five mile ride today for us today. We haven’t taken a day off since Wellington and decided to check the box “Farm Bar B Q” as an add on to our ferry ride across Lake Wakatipu to Walter Peak Station.
Before we left Queenstown however we had one last resupply at a Four Square and enjoyed a couple of flat whites while watching boats come in and out of the harbor. Pictured below is TSS Earnslaw, a coal fired steamer built in 1912 and still in commission.
Once aboard the Spirit of Queenstown, we took in all the sites of our fifth and final water crossing of the trip. Dang our first ferry out of Pouto Point seems like forever ago.
Our destination today, Walter Peak Station, in its heyday spanned over 170,000 acres, grazed 40,000 sheep and employed over 50 people.
Today, however the station is split in half between two parts: a high country working farm with 20,000 sheep spread over more than 61,000 acres and a second area that includes the original homestead and focused on tourism. And that’s where the we enjoyed the most delicious all-you-can-eat bar b q and learned more about sheep shearing.
Just a half mile or so up a gravel road we were first to arrive to the Beach Point DOC where we snagged a prime lakefront site.
After we returned from our evening walk back down to the station we found almost a dozen cyclists camped nearby, all of them heading south to Bluff.
It was a good day to be a tourist but we’re ready to knock out the last three days. Let’s go!
Keep Calm and Pedal On 