Twizel

After the cold and rain of Mount Cook, we headed not too far down south to Twizel. There’s not a ton going on in Twizel, but we’d originally put it as the destination for our night since we’d planned to be hiking most of the day.

The cute sign to welcome us to our airbnb

Disappointingly, the town name is said as “Twy-zuhl” not, Twizzle, which is a way cuter pronunciation, I think. But one of the interesting things about Twizel is that it was a town started as housing for the workers who built the hydroelectric canals that power a lot of the country. 

And so all around the town are these amazing canals that are full of the blue, blue, blue water, as well as some salmon farms.

We took a drive, intending to check out the canals and then go into the town. But we somehow ended up on some non-roads that wound around through the country amongst the canals and lakes. The road turned into a gravel road, and I think we were probably on it for an hour or so. Why the road was made and who else besides lost tourists and fisherman would use it, I have no idea. But we saw some beautiful areas, and felt like true adventurers!

Driving over the weir

I looked it up later on Google Maps, and I *think* our route shows up on there as “unnamed road.”

All in all, our stay in Twizel was short - but you don’t need a long time there - and fun! It was nice to be in the sun, and we had fun exploring.