Central Lakes

This post is for Our World Tuesday

Trip Part 5

We traveled past most of these lakes as we went south to Te Anau and Milford and again as we went north to Wanaka. Going south the weather was fine but dull but going north the early morning promised a fine and sunny day. We did rather think it was a bit chilly when we were packing the car to leave but it was after traveling a little while that we saw there was a fresh dusting of snow on the hills and mountains. It was beautiful! It looked just as if someone had taken a shaker of icing sugar and dusted all the tops of the hills. Only those who live - like us! - in the tropics will understand that this is a wonderful sight!
We traveled along beside Lake Wakatipu which is 80 kms or 50 miles long. It is also very deep - 420 Meters or 1380 feet at its deepest part. Lake Wakatipu is New Zealand's longest and third largest lake.
Queenstown is at the northern end of the lake. The Kawarau River drains the lake. The scenery all along this route is very beautiful but the road is very windy. You certainly can't speed but who would want to speed past scenes like this!
The area around Cromwell and Lake Dunstan is known for its stone fruit orchards and vineyards. Lake Dunstan was made in 1992 when the Clutha River was dammed. Today it provides irrigation water and hydro-electricity but the filling of the lake changed the landscape forever. Most of the vineyards and orchards are netted to protect them from birds. The large white patches across the lake are netting on vineyards.
From here we turned west to Lake Wanaka. This is New Zealand's fourth largest lake.