Day-3 17 December (Wanaka to Glenorchy to Queenstown)

Assorted ride videos from Day 3

Barbara treats us to a wonderful homemade breakfast over which we exchange stories about India & NZ. Phil particularly loves cricket and my wife reminds him of the 1992 world cup when NZ missed it by a whisker, while I complimented NZ as probably the only cricket team that still plays the sport as ‘a true gentleman’s game’ away from major controversies or rogue behavior. Barbara also tells us that there have been 3 suicides in their community of 6000 residents in the past 6 months, very high by NZ standards. Well in my home city of Bangalore I think it roughly runs at 3 suicides per day!

After all the chit chat we start the day visiting 2 of the local attractions- The Puzzling World first where we do some crazy puzzling stuff and then head to the fascinating Toy & Transport Museum, which is basically a private collection of Mr. Gerald Rhodes (whom we were fortunate to meet and click a pic since he rarely obliges). Mr Rhodes has collected over a period of 50 years an assortment of every imaginable toy, Dolls houses, rocking horses, prams, bicycles, suitcases, construction & earth moving vehicles, military vehicles, automobiles, motorbikes, teddy bears, movie & TV memorabilia etc etc. (www.wanakatransportandtoymuseum.com) . BTW, about 70% of the automobiles are in running condition. It’s a huge place and you can easily spend the whole day there, but Mrs & Mrs Adventure had to be selective and made a whirlwind tour of the place. Definitely worth a visit.













































A special remembrance for the Lada Niva- Once upon a time I sold Lada cars for a living. Oh boy, they were hard to sell...













That’s one serious gunner!!



Mr Adventure doing some serious rectal examination..!!





The collector himself, Mr.Gerald Rhodes...Respect.



From here we tightened our belts and headed towards Queenstown passing the scenic Alpine Route which is an absolute fun filled ride with steep descends & lots of hairpin bends requiring tight & technical riding to hone your motorcycling skills especially with a relatively heavy sport touring bike fully loaded. A few miles later entering thru Frankton we are dumped into the wonderful, scenic & touristy city of Queenstown which lies in the Otago region of the South Island.



Remember, its summer here in the Southern Hemisphere...hence the caution









































Suddenly there are dark clouds in the sky & it starts to drizzle. Anyways after a quick bite at McDonalds in Queenstown, we have to ride to Glenorchy, one of the most scenic rides in NZ. But Mr Rain somehow wants to accompany us on this spectacular ride and we don’t have a choice but to take him along but I don’t care as I am riding one of the finest sport touring bikes on the planet.













This jaw dropping 45km ride is all along the Wakatipu Lake (a ride that’s rated among the top 10 roads in the world), little wonder it’s a bikers absolute playground so I ride to my fullest potential and what a pleasure it was...soul satisfying. At Glenorchy we stop for some coffee and curios purchases. Like going to the cinema, I am looking forward to the return trip along the same road. At the end of the day I think it was too much for my senses to take in an overload of biking Nirvana! No words to describe the experience...heavenly































Video of our wet ride to Glenorchy


We arrive back in Queenstown and our GPS promptly takes us to the Mercure Resort where my wife had found a wonderful online bargain deal for 2 nights since we will be staying 2 days here. To our pleasant surprise we get a room with a fabulous view of the serene Lake Wakatipu…we could spend endless time simply admiring the lake and its surrounding mountains from our room.





Room with a view (well fabulous view!)





We ordered dinner from room service (Chicken Parmigiana & steamed vegetables with herb butter) and finish this momentous riding day hitting the sack early.