The long and winding road that leads to.. Fun! Fun! Fun since.....

Tuesday part 1! The long and winding road is the same one we used to cross the mountain pass to go to Arrowtown yesterday – only today we’re actually seeing it properly as the rain and very low cloud aren’t spoiling the view. We’re going off into Queenstown for the next part of the adventure. This road is apparently the highest sealed road in New Zealand (1076m), and we can quite believe that as it winds uphill through a very high and wild mountain pass, before descending through a series of 9 very sharp hairpin bends into Queenstown. Car buffs (also the Petrol heads of course!) will understand when I say it was great fun to drive – Ron drove it yesterday, I got my turn today!
Ron’s comment as we drove up really made me giggle..”Well, Slug might have got up here..in reverse!” . Yesterday we saw cyclists peddling up from both sides of the pass.M says “not my idea of fun although the going down would be very interesting with rubber composite brake blocks. We had a rear tyre blow on a less severe road on Arran just from the friction heat from the brakes going down to Glen Rosa!
Our Scooby Legacy had no trouble (apart from the driver getting the wrong gear occasionally!)...”take it easy, take easy; don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy”.
On the way up we passed the Cardrona Hotel – another of the Gold Rush remains – built in the 1863’s and still going strong. An invitation to “Stop if you had a shilling otherwise step on it” made me laugh, along with Craven “A” cigarettes advert stating “good for the throat”!
The road has a few rather interesting features...wooden pole crash barriers for one... with a drop of up to 150’ feet behind them! The bends we’ve already talked about... then there was the interesting road signage – one for you, Jen! Finally, we have the evidence of why the road “seal” or lack of it is so poor – the photo is of the “finishing touches” – note the comb type brushes behind the vehicle! Oh, by the way its a great hill to paraglide off apparently, according to one we saw as we were driving down!
This is also ski country in winter as you might suspect.