The flat-bottomed pastoral Waitaki Valley is a little-travelled route but includes some unique sights and scenery between the turn-off at SH1 and Omarama. Predominantly farmland, bordered by increasingly impressive hills as you near the Alps, the valley is also a blokes’ paradise, known to all red-blooded Kiwi males as a place to shoot ducks, catch trout and salmon, water ski on the strikingly blue hydrolakes, and marvel at their associated hydroelectric engineering wonders. All that and some great Pinot Noirs too. Woof! This is a possible route to Wanaka/Queenstown if you’re heading south, or to Twizel and Mt Cook if you’re heading north.
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