Quaint Kinloch
(10th - 11th December)
Not quite content with Arrowtown, but not quite ready for the hustle & bustle of Queenstown, Chris noticed an intriguing name on the DOC campsite list... Kinloch. His Uncle Rick lives in Kinloch Rannoch, Scotland. So we decided we had to take a trip here to compare their merits. Given that the name was the main reason for going, we were delighted to discover that the area was also pretty nice. Similar to Rannoch in Scotland, it too was quite isolated. However, what with there being a big lake, many people choose to kayak or charter a boat to this destination.
Us having a car to camp in decided to take the longer, more bumpy, gravel track. I could quite see why you'd want to take a boat rather than the car! We only stayed the one night but arrived reasonably early in the day. It is a great spot for walking, if you like that sort of thing. Unfortunately I no longer do, but I was quite grateful for this as it soon started pouring with rain. Not to worry though, whilst our sight was VERY basic, there was a hostel and cafe/restaurant opposite which we were able to find shelter in, Kinloch Lodge. It wasn't until we had paid our nominal campsite fee that we discovered they were doing a deal on rooms - stay 2 nights & get the 3rd free. In that rain, it would've been hugely tempting.
Whilst the setting was lovely, there wasn't much to do if you didn't have wet weather gear (which I don't, and Chris' leaks). We resorted to a game of Lord of the Rings (LOTR) Trivial Pursuit in the restaurant. The winner was a close call between Chris and I. Those who know me will know that I am no LOTR fan, let alone geek, and I know very little about the films (I watched them once under protest as apparently you can't diss them unless you've seen them). Evidently, knowing a few names (Mordor, Orlando Bloom, Bilbo Baggins etc) and having a generous opponent, such as Chris, does you a lot of favours when it comes to winning this game (Nooooo, absolutely no cheating, what are you suggesting!?)...
It was at Kinloch that we discovered the truely awful design of the side-awning on our vehicle. Whilst it may be ok if there's no wind, rain and gravel, it is appalling when the opposite of that is true. We had lots of wind, lots of rain, and lots of gravel. This meant we were unable to peg the thing into the ground, so Chris found a big broken off piece of wood to try and weigh it down with. The whole awning soon collapsed. Thus meaning a soggy awning to try and find a home for. We chose outside - it couldn't get much wetter after all.
The next morning when we woke we were pleased to see the wind had calmed and the sun was shining. So we decided to go for a guided kayak along the lake. Chris had never been before, and I've only had bad experiences, so we chose only to go for an hour initially. It was just the two of us and our guide, Ian, from Canada. He showed us how to paddle and it started off great. We took a gentle paddle up the stream that feeds into the lake, and then when it got too shallow we turned round ready to head to the other side of the lake. Although I'd already obtained blisters, I had to admit it was a nice way to start the day. I was getting my confidence up, when suddenly Chris & Ian pointed out a slightly faster flowing part of the lake. I had flashbacks to my last awful experience (I fell out a rafting kayak and promptly sailed down the river without my paddle or kayak) but was happy to discover this particular river wasn't anywhere near as fast-flowing.
Our next instructions were to head to a hut on the otherside of the river, and then at that point we would turn round and come back up the shoreline to our starting point. The closer to the hut we got, the more the wind started to blow until there were waves lapping my kayak. Sounds romantic huh? Nah, I was petrified! Lapping waves? They could've been mini tsunami's as far as I was concerned! As I said previously, I'm not keen on deep water (sea or river-esq) so this was not a pleasant experience. We had to paddle back against the wind. Suddenly this gentle paddle we'd been enjoying turned into some hard & slightly nerve-racking work for me. That said, the surrounding scenery was amazing. The mountains and everything just looked so much more vivid from our in-lake viewing spot. I'll stick with the gentle rivers in future I think...
Not quite content with Arrowtown, but not quite ready for the hustle & bustle of Queenstown, Chris noticed an intriguing name on the DOC campsite list... Kinloch. His Uncle Rick lives in Kinloch Rannoch, Scotland. So we decided we had to take a trip here to compare their merits. Given that the name was the main reason for going, we were delighted to discover that the area was also pretty nice. Similar to Rannoch in Scotland, it too was quite isolated. However, what with there being a big lake, many people choose to kayak or charter a boat to this destination.
Us having a car to camp in decided to take the longer, more bumpy, gravel track. I could quite see why you'd want to take a boat rather than the car! We only stayed the one night but arrived reasonably early in the day. It is a great spot for walking, if you like that sort of thing. Unfortunately I no longer do, but I was quite grateful for this as it soon started pouring with rain. Not to worry though, whilst our sight was VERY basic, there was a hostel and cafe/restaurant opposite which we were able to find shelter in, Kinloch Lodge. It wasn't until we had paid our nominal campsite fee that we discovered they were doing a deal on rooms - stay 2 nights & get the 3rd free. In that rain, it would've been hugely tempting.
Whilst the setting was lovely, there wasn't much to do if you didn't have wet weather gear (which I don't, and Chris' leaks). We resorted to a game of Lord of the Rings (LOTR) Trivial Pursuit in the restaurant. The winner was a close call between Chris and I. Those who know me will know that I am no LOTR fan, let alone geek, and I know very little about the films (I watched them once under protest as apparently you can't diss them unless you've seen them). Evidently, knowing a few names (Mordor, Orlando Bloom, Bilbo Baggins etc) and having a generous opponent, such as Chris, does you a lot of favours when it comes to winning this game (Nooooo, absolutely no cheating, what are you suggesting!?)...
It was at Kinloch that we discovered the truely awful design of the side-awning on our vehicle. Whilst it may be ok if there's no wind, rain and gravel, it is appalling when the opposite of that is true. We had lots of wind, lots of rain, and lots of gravel. This meant we were unable to peg the thing into the ground, so Chris found a big broken off piece of wood to try and weigh it down with. The whole awning soon collapsed. Thus meaning a soggy awning to try and find a home for. We chose outside - it couldn't get much wetter after all.
The next morning when we woke we were pleased to see the wind had calmed and the sun was shining. So we decided to go for a guided kayak along the lake. Chris had never been before, and I've only had bad experiences, so we chose only to go for an hour initially. It was just the two of us and our guide, Ian, from Canada. He showed us how to paddle and it started off great. We took a gentle paddle up the stream that feeds into the lake, and then when it got too shallow we turned round ready to head to the other side of the lake. Although I'd already obtained blisters, I had to admit it was a nice way to start the day. I was getting my confidence up, when suddenly Chris & Ian pointed out a slightly faster flowing part of the lake. I had flashbacks to my last awful experience (I fell out a rafting kayak and promptly sailed down the river without my paddle or kayak) but was happy to discover this particular river wasn't anywhere near as fast-flowing.
Our next instructions were to head to a hut on the otherside of the river, and then at that point we would turn round and come back up the shoreline to our starting point. The closer to the hut we got, the more the wind started to blow until there were waves lapping my kayak. Sounds romantic huh? Nah, I was petrified! Lapping waves? They could've been mini tsunami's as far as I was concerned! As I said previously, I'm not keen on deep water (sea or river-esq) so this was not a pleasant experience. We had to paddle back against the wind. Suddenly this gentle paddle we'd been enjoying turned into some hard & slightly nerve-racking work for me. That said, the surrounding scenery was amazing. The mountains and everything just looked so much more vivid from our in-lake viewing spot. I'll stick with the gentle rivers in future I think...
posted by wobblepop at 4:49 am
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