Queenstown To Dunedin

Our travel plans for returning to the US got complicated when we divined that we would need Australian transit visas and that the latter were almost impossible for foreigners to get in New Zealand. (Details upon request). And so it came to pass that we turned in our rental campervan at the Jucy facility in Queenstown and then took the bus to Dunedin, on the east coast, for a flight the next day to Auckland, and another flight, the day after, to San Francisco. The territory between Queenstown and Dunedin is a part--one of the few parts--of New Zealand we had not seen before, and the bus ride turned out to be interesting and scenic. Below are a few pix as a memo to remind us not to skip this area should ever we return.

The route follows the Kawarau, aka the Anduin, the Great River,
to its confluence with the Clutha, then veers northwest to Dunedin,
on the Pacific coast; the first many miles are crammed with vineyards

And rocky craggy heights

And vineyards

And heights

Ditto

The Great River

Goldfields and ghost towns along the way

In Cromwell, fruit capital; perhaps not that Cromwell? Beyond
Cromwell but not pictured...many interesting little towns and
hamlets, very NZish

Just past Cromwell the Kawarau is dammed, creating a sizeable
reservoir

And then one enters a land of weird, flaky rocks

We love weird rocks

More canyons

As the mighty Clutha wends its way toward Balclutha and the Pacific