Day 1: Twizel to Ranfurly

Note: the service I'm using, Travel Diaries, seems pretty good--except that I can't find a way of changing the date format. So I guess we all have to get used to 'the American way'.

We left Twizel in the morning, aiming for Dunedin via Danseys Pass. En route we decided to go to St Bathans and stay in the famous Vulcan Hotel, but were thwarted in this by virtue of its being booked out for the night—so we had to content ourselves with a look around the town and a walk alongside Blue Lake, the site of a once-deep gold

mine. Having already talked ourselves into staying in the region, we went back to Ranfurly and stayed at the excellent motor camp there, in a dinky little cabin that even (and unexpectedly) sported a TV! How times change.

Pictures: iconic hotel; mineshaft (now a lake); Blue Lake again; abandoned winch from gold mining days

Map points: Twizel, Omarama, Otemetata, Kurow, Duntroon, Danseys Pass, Naseby, Saint Bathans, Ranfurly