Clyde, New Zealand

We were getting the hang of packing up our stuff now that we’d been in NZ for a few days. Having a car gives us an expanded storage - for example our hiking shoes stay in the car, and our jackets get thrown in the trunk on top of our suitcases. Much easier than having to cram everything in the suitcase. Plus with all the random short walks along the drive, it makes it easy to switch into hiking shoes and don the appropriate jacket depending on the mood of the weather at the time.

We had another nice breakfast, although I was still full from dinner and so skipped the eggs this morning. Said our goodbyes to Pete (who totally reminded us of our friend Stéphane).

It was another scenic drive further south along Highway 6. There’s a couple viewpoints along Lake Wānaka. It got even better at The Neck, a narrow strip of land connecting the lakes. We were the only car stopped at the viewpoint of The Neck, which we found odd as it’s one of the better views!

Then we drove a bit further to Lake Hāwea which if this wasn’t the quintessential picture of NZ then I don’t know what is. We stopped at a pullover, not an official viewpoint, for pics. There was the glacial blue lake with rocky mountains rising behind. In the foreground, sheep ran around a field filled with spring flowers.

There was a viewpoint a few km down the road but it wasn’t as good. The parking lot was also temporarily overflowing, a bit dangerous as cars were backing out into a highway where the limit is 100 km/h. In busy season it would be crazy.

The highway was getting busier, likely due to proximity to Queenstown.

Our lunch destination was in the heritage precinct in Cromwell. In the 80s, the construction of the Clyde Dam flooded out some communities. They preserved some of the historic buildings from the main street and reconstructed them on higher ground in Cromwell. Some are museum-like and others now house boutique stores and galleries.

It was 22C and sunny in Cromwell, we had left the clouds behind on Lake Wānaka. We had lunch at the Grain and Seed Cafe, splitting a sandwich and salad. We finally figured out the portion sizes :) decided to have a coffee later when we arrived in Clyde.

Walked along the pedestrian area in the Heritage Precinct. There were some interesting galleries and I did find steak knives in another (bnbs tend to have very dull knives). Got back to the car and drove to Clyde.

Found our way to our bnb in Clyde, took all our stuff in and then headed out for a tour of Clyde. It was just about 3pm, and most places close down around 4pm.

Checked out a couple art galleries just around the corner from us. They had some cool stuff, but nothing that jumped out at us. Then we tried to get a coffee. The first couple places we tried were just closing up. It didn’t look good for us, until we came across The Post Office, a cafe in an old post office. Had a coffee and a couple chocolate treats.

While there I googled the winery just up the street from our bnb and saw that they did tastings on request. So gave them a call, and asked if we could come by around 4:30pm. Sure enough they could schedule one for us!

So finished our coffees, went back to the bnb to freshen up, and then a two minute walk to the winery. At first we weren’t sure if we were there, until one of the owners, Chris (I had spoken with her on the phone) waved to us from the 2nd floor balcony. She was just doing some wine stuff and was in the white overalls that wine people wear when doing wine stuff.

Her husband, John, welcomed us into the tasting room. We chatted while he sorted out the tasting. He said normally Chris did the tastings but she was doing wine stuff.

Anyways we tried their Chardonnay, Rose, and their 2016 and 2017 Pinots. Chris had finished her wine stuff and joined us. They were interested in our itinerary, and suggested fish mongers in Invercargill to get smoked salmon and blue cod for when we’re in our self-catering place in the Catlins. Their winery, Clyde Village Winery, is very small, only 2,000 vines, but still award-winking. It was fun chatting with Chris and John.

Had just enough time to shower and get to our dinner reservations at Oliver’s, about a five minute walk. (Everything is a five minute walk here).

Oliver’s is in a restored old building. It’s part of a hotel that was built from old stables. We had looked at staying there when we did our planning but it seemed overpriced. Better to stay at a cheaper bnb and then eat at the restaurant :)

Dinner was excellent. We had a drink afterwards in their bar area. The bartender was a big Raptors fan, of all teams. He said North American sports are big in NZ cause the games are at a convenient time for them to follow, around midday.

It was quite the turnaround for our time in Clyde. It wasn’t looking good at first in our desperate search for coffee, and then did a 180 with the winery tour and dinner and Oliver’s. A nice end to a full day (‘full day’ relatively speaking, from a vacation context).