23/12/23 Sat: Woke up
at 8am and I was looking forward to my breakfast at High Country Salmon Farm
nearby! They open at 9am but there were already customers when we arrived
there.It’s a pity they did
not have a breakfast menu and we could only pick from those off the shelves.
Potato ordered cold smoked spicy salmon sushi (NZD 16), salmon muffin (NZD 8),
salmon hash potato (NZD 8) and salmon kebab (NZD 10) for us. I enjoyed most of
them, except the salmon hash potato was only okay. The salmon kebab flaked off
quite easily and went well with the Teriyaki sauce. He also had a cup of Flat
White (NZD 5.5).
Saw a little boy catching
live salmon from their pond and it weighed 5.3kg wow! There were shoals of them
and also many ducks around. We finished our breakfast in an hour or so and
checked out their stores before leaving the place.
Chanced upon Twizel’s
Christmas flea market as we planned to buy chicken, lettuce and mayo sandwich
(NZD 6.4) from Twizel Bakery to prepare for our hike later at Hooker Valley.
There were many handmade stuff around but I did not get anything in the end.
Drove over to Peter’s
Lookout but it was a super cloudy day, so we did not see much. Then, we began
our trek at Hooker Valley Track at 11.45am. The 3+ hour trek had fairly flat
tracks with some steps and slopes but mostly rocky paths. Took some photos at
the first suspension bridge and it was shaky when many people are on it at the
same time.After crossing the
second bridge, I saw a sight that became the “signature photo” on many
influencer’s website when they post about Hooker Valley. *Tsk and they tell readers
the path on Hooker Valley trail is “well-manned” just with that one photo lol.*
Fyi, we only come to this long stretch after 70% into the walk okay~
Glad we saw Hooker Lake
after 1.5hours of trek which included three suspension bridges. There’s also
the view of the glacier at the end. We ate our sandwich there… "with a
view" somemore haha.
The valley was shrouded
in clouds because of rainy weather on and off. *He saw Mt Stephen haha!*
At about 4pm, we drove
back to the Mt Alpine salmon store to eat another 100g of salmon sashimi (NZD
13) because we felt peck-ish hehe.
I made a reservation at
Mackenzies Bar and Grill at 6.30pm because I wanted to try their stone grill. *We
got the window seat too.* It was my first time trying stone grill and I
ordered the set with Tiger prawns (NZD 35) that came with veggie and garlic
herb mash potatoes. Potato tried their Mackenzie Trio (NZD 45) which had 80g
venison and 80g of lamb and beef medallion with salad, roasted potatoes. Their
Tiger Prawns tasted good, but I don’t think the place is worth a re-visit.
Bought chicken pho and
shrimp cup noodles (NZD 4.8) at 4Square before Potato went to a convenience
store to get two beers (NZD 6). We then walked to the Church of the Good
Shepherd to take some photos at 8.15pm.
Saw a small field filled
with Lupin so I took some photos there too before getting back to our hotel at
9+pm.
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