We bid a fond farewell to Oamaru, although we couldn’t actually see it thanks to a thick coastal fog. We almost didn’t leave after the Great Car Key Crisis, which involved diving through our discarded rubbish and completely unpacking the rear of the car, in a desperate search for the one thing that stood between us and the open road.

Crisis averted (they were sitting in the driver’s door shelf), our destination was Queenstown, via Naseby. Naseby is an iconic orienteering map with a similar status to Kooyoora, Rowdy Flat, or Cascades – you have to do it at least once, just to say you had. The blow was softened today by provision of a 1:5000 scale map,  not using the hardest sections.

I was a bit disappointed not to be getting the full Naseby experience by doing the Easy course, but we got a good feel for it. Ilze and I tackled the course together as it was informal. We started out following pleasantly meandering trails strewn with pine needles, which made their way past glorious foliage, bright berries, and vibrant toadstools. An enchanted forest.

All went well until no 6, when we missed a small turnoff and found ourselves almost out on the road.  Not too big a problem, we just had to backtrack a bit, but we soon found ourselves on a series of much smaller mountain bike tracks, which wound tightly back on themselves and up and down.  We started to have trouble making sense of them, as did other people, and it took us a while to figure out where no 7 was.  The tracks were so complex here that the map just couldn’t depict them accurately.

The rest of the course continued to follow these narrow paths, which dropped steeply down into gullies and hugged small cliff faces. Every so often, other competitors popped out in front of or behind us, looking bewildered. We pointed a couple in the right direction, glad to be confident of our own whereabouts.  Finally we emerged next to the last control and into the finish.  The forest was so pretty, I grabbed the camera and went back in for some photos.

Once we’d all finished and recovered, we headed to nearby Ranfurly for some excellent pork belly pies – if you are ever passing the bakery there, do yourself a favour – they even baked a piece of crackling into the pastry top!  Yummmmm.

Then it was a drive through wonderful scenery, hugging the shore of Lake Dunstan, overlooking the beautiful vineyards of Cromwell, through a gorge, and into Queenstown (where Simon was finally reunited with his passport, meaning he can leave the country as planned).

The traffic here is horrendous, and our apartment overlooks the main road – but we have wonderful views over the lake to the mountain range beyond.  It’s much smaller than our previous abode, but comfortable and cosy, and will do nicely for 4 nights. It’s also fun watching the planes take off from the nearby airport, as they climb steeply to gain altitude, then bank and turn.

Three days of orienteering and sightseeing in and around Queenstown await.