Distance travelled: 302 Kms. From here to home it was main highway driving. That still means stunning roads through beautiful scenery. But these were all roads we had been on before and we did have a sense that the holiday was drawing to a close. First stop was at Cromwell for a bit of a brunch. We had stayed here before and we knew that in the old preserved part of the town was an Italian restaurant that did excellent food. Known as Armando’s Kitchen, it is another hidden gem of a place. Armando, an expat Italian is a real hoot. Having suffered a nasty fire some 4 years ago he has rebuilt the place as it was and the place is just as welcoming. What3words location for his restaurant is location.muster.lightless From there we motored north for a brief stop at Lake Pukaki to see Aoraki Mount Cook before heading on to Lake Tekapo town. We did consider staying in the motor camp but as this was our last night we thought we would find a place out in the wilds to stop for the night. Just north of the town we came across Edwards Stream overnight camp site. It is basically a clearing where you can pull into and stop for the night. It even had a rudimentary and very clean long drop toilet. We were at the start of the Burkes Pass. This is wide open big sky country surrounded by soaring snow capped peaks. There we stayed and at night there was no light whatsoever. The stars were so bright in the pitch black. It was quiet and around us rabbits nibbled at the grass. This was a fitting place for our last night in the van.
Woodend Wanderer 