Our trip to New Zealand: Cromwell

Posted on October 14, 2014 | 2 comments

Our next stop was Cromwell from Wanaka. It was a lovely drive through wineries to Cromwell.

Cromwell is another historic town that has a history in the 19th century gold rush days. The town is located right on the banks of the Lake Dunstan, where you can enjoy boating, swimming or kayaking. There are plenty of contemporary restaurants, accommodation choices and shops in Cromwell, but the heart of the town is Old Cromwell Town, which is full of restored buildings and even 150-year old miner’s cottages.

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As we were driving, we knew we had reached Cromwell when we saw some giant fruits.

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We stopped there, had coffee and cake, took few photos in front of the giant fruits and drove on to Old Cromwell Town.

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The story is that when Lake Dunstan was being constructed (it is a dam) the locals knew that the original Cromwell was going to be drowned. The citizens of Old Cromwell, knowing the town was going to be drowned decided to move some of the buildings to higher ground.

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Initially, eight buildings were chosen from the old commercial area due to be submerged by the advent of the new hydro lake. These buildings were to be relocated further up the main street to a site above the new lake level – and so began ‘Old Cromwell Town’.

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Now Old Cromwell has a superb cafe called the Grain and Seed café, which serves excellent coffee and homemade food, as well as other shops and art gallery.

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As we walked around the area, we saw a small area of residential dwellings of the 1880’s period and the preserved ruins of some of Cromwell’s original buildings. It was really awesome to see all the old things and imagine how people used to live in those days.

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Some of the things are so old that I had almost forgotten that there existed such old ways of printing newspaper or the manual workings of blacksmith with coal fire and all.

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After enjoying the great place, we headed back to the hotel at Queenstown. We had another big day planned for the following day which involved a trip to Glenorchy. Will be writing about that in my next post.

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Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

P.S: Do not forget to nominate  your favorite blog .

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Posted in Holidays, New Zealand

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Our trip to New Zealand: Wanaka

Posted on October 9, 2014 | 6 comments

While we were in New Zealand, we rented a car and decided to go for a drive. Our first stop was Wanaka.

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Wanaka is a town in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is situated at the southern end of Lake Wanaka, adjacent to the outflow of the lake to the Clutha River. It is the gateway to Mount Aspiring National Park.

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Wanaka is just over an hour’s drive from Queenstown and it’s simply stunning. Driving over the hills on he winding mountain route – Crown Range Road – via Cardrona will take you on the steepest gradient on a highway in NZ. It was really scary as the road was zigzag and you could not see anything coming from the other side. I think I would not have gone that way if I had known that the road was so dangerous because to drive on that road , not only do you need to drive carefully but you pray that anyone coming from the other side is awake and careful as well.

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But the drive was worth the trouble as on the top of the hills, we saw snow. We parked the car and it was really windy but we still managed to walk for a while and enjoy the place before running back to the car.

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After that we drove by some beautiful small farms and ended up on the shores of Lake Wanaka at a lakeside cafe and just sat and enjoyed the view.

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Lake Wanaka is not as deep as Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown so it is possible to swim in it during summer without freezing your bits off. There are a number of ways to enjoy the lake with a host of kayaking and boating options available. We just decided to walk around and enjoy the place though before deciding to go for lunch.

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We were not sure what to eat and finally found a nice Korean place where we enjoyed noodle soup and stir-fried chicken.

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After lunch we drove to The Anzac Memorial Cenotaph which is a very short quick drive from town.

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From here we saw the marvellous view beyond the town and straight down the lake.

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We spent some time there and made our way to the Puzzling World.

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Stuart Landsborough’s Puzzling World is a tourist attraction near Wanaka, New Zealand. It started out as just a single level maze in 1973, but over the years expanded to add overbridges to the maze design (thus creating the world’s first 3-D maze), a large “puzzling café” where guests can try out several puzzles, five large rooms of optical illusions, the Leaning Tower of Wanaka (which has a backwards clock that was started on the eve of the new millennium) and other attractions (such as the Roman Bathrooms) that ascribe to their theme of “puzzling eccentricity”.

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We took some fun photos there. From there we drove to Cromwell, more on it in next post.

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Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

P.S: Do not forget to nominate  your favorite blog .

Nominations open for NEPALIAUSTRALIAN’s Blog Award 2014

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Posted in Holidays, New Zealand

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Update time

Posted on October 8, 2014 | 11 comments

I have been super busy lately because of Dashian and because AS’s Mama (Mum’s brother) and his family is in Sydney visiting from Nepal.

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AS usual, Dashain is already a crazy busy time for us but this time it was busier as we needed to go and visit his mama as well as invite them to our place.

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Even thought it was busy we still had a great time and I am still tired from the celebration. We had Bhoj (feast) for 5 days straight , played cards and heaps of celebration. Here are some pics from this year Dashain.

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Last weekend was also a long weekend here, so we were able to spend some time with Mama and his family.

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One day we went to the temple and a picnic afterwards and another day we went to the city.

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We are hoping they will have great time here and return with beautiful memories.

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On another news, my in-laws will be here soon (in 10 days) so our Tihar is gonna be super busy as well. I am excited and scared at the same time. I have lived with my in-laws before but for only a short period but this time it will be three months.

I know me and AS have been so independent for so long that it will be nice to have them at home when we go home from work. However, at the same time, I am slightly scared thinking how they will feel in a new place with new people.

We have a long list of places to go and things to do while they are here. If you have any ideas about how to keep them entertained while we are at work that will be highly appreciated. We will be taking time off from work here and there but they will still have many days at home without us.

That is the reason, I am a bit scared as I want them to enjoy Sydney and have lots of good memories when they return. It is the first time for them here so I would love them to have a great time in very possible way so they will want to come back again in the future.

I have a million things going on in my head every time I think of their arrival but I am keeping an open mind and hoping for the best.

Hope everyone had good Dashain and weekend.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

P.S: Do not forget to nominate  your favorite blog .

Nominations open for NEPALIAUSTRALIAN’s Blog Award 2014

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Posted in Family, Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals

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Our Trip to New Zealand : Arrowtown

Posted on September 30, 2014 | 4 comments

One of the days while we were in New Zealand, we went to a small town near Queenstown called Arrowtown.

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From http://www.newzealand.com/au/arrowtown/:

“Arrowtown is a living historic settlement with many stories to tell. Wander the tree-lined streets of restored cottages and explore gold mining sites. One of the most picturesque settlements in New Zealand, Arrowtown sits alongside the gold-bearing Arrow River. The town was established in 1862, during the height of the Otago gold rush. People from all over the world, mainly Europe and China flocked to this town to claim their fortune. The settlement grew quickly as pioneers constructed cottages, shops, hotels and churches, more than 60 of which can still be seen today. “

It was a beautiful drive from Queenstown to Arrowtown, a lot quieter than Queenstown and I personally found it a lot more relaxing.arrowtown (16)

Once we got there, we parked and went for a walk along the river.

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Arrowtown has many easy hikes or walks you can do. We decided to hike the track called Tobin’s track. It is an easy uphill hike, which takes about 1 hour to get to the top. But once up there, you really get unsurpassed views of Arrowtown and the surrounding mountains. From here, we could also see Lake Wakatipu from a distance. We met a few people running or jogging there as well as few tourist who were there just to enjoy the town.

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There is also a fantastic path from Arrowtown to Kawarau Bridge (the home of the Bungy Jump) that follows the Arrow River.

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After the walk, we headed back down to the town. We went to the town centre where they had boutique style shops, an old sweet shop, a hotel that could pass as someone’s house and lots of historic character. It felt like we went back in town time.

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History has been preserved here in a way that you can actually reach out and touch. At the information centre, you can grab a pan and search for gold the exact same way people did it more than a hundred years ago, or walk amidst the restored original buildings and explore the Chinese part of the settlement.

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The town was really pretty and I could have sat there forever with the beautiful mountains in the background with snow on top, it was paradise.arrowtown (2)

On our way back to Queenstown from Arrowtown we drove through many beautiful green farms where sheep, cow and horse were roaming freely. That is the best part of New Zealand, beautiful landscape, greenery and easy drive everywhere.

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Overall, we had a great day and the weather was on our side with the sun shining in the blue-sky the whole day.

More from New Zealand soon.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

P.S: Do not forget to nominate  your favorite blog .

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Posted in Holidays, New Zealand, Travel

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Pepper story

Posted on September 29, 2014 | 9 comments

I have a sore throat for the last few days and it is really annoying me. I am drinking warm water with honey all the time it still is not getting any better.

Last night, it was so bad that I couldn’t even drink water properly so AS suggested putting some whole pepper in my mouth. He asked me to leave it until it got soft and it would break apart by itself and chewing on small pieces helps the sore throat (it really does). As I had a few peppers in my mouth, we had the following conversation.

Me: “Babe what happens if I swallow the whole peeper by mistake?”

AS: “It will go inside your tummy”

I was asking what really would happen if I ate the whole pepper but in the midst of doing his things, it was the best answer he came up with. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

P.S: Do not forget to nominate  your favorite blog .

Nominations open for NEPALIAUSTRALIAN’s Blog Award 2014

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Posted in He said

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