Starting in Picton, south to Te Anau, back via Queenstown to Christchurch
Nelson
After a ferry across the Cook Strait from Wellington to Picton via Queen Charlotte Sound, I got another hire car and we were underway along the very scenic Queen Charlotte Drive, but the twists and turns weren't so good for Jean! It was very pretty, however.
Later,we met with Els and Dave, long-time friends from Yatton Keynell days, to catch up and enjoy a fine meal overlooking the sea and with a very decent sunset. Having lost contact for a few years, it was good to see them again and hear their news.
The sun continues!
Westport
After a prompt start went drove the Nelson seafront and the road to Murchison, where we stopped for a coffee and then discovered a rather twee little museum with lots of history about earthquakes and other local happenings. Staffed by voluntary, and aged, enthusiasts, I wondered how long it will survive as they fall off the mortal coil. The big quake was nearby in 1929 but there have been lots of shakes before and after. NZ is the shaky islands!
Went out to Cape Foulwind, but I got the road signs wrong and found the wrong car park. Jean walked over the cliff tops to see the seals, but I stopped part way and returned from the gravelly slopes. She found the seal colony and we were able to return to it the next day, using the correct car park!
Cape Foulwind - over there!
The seals are down there, really!
Buller Bridge Motel was good, and we walked to the quirky Deniston Dog Bar & Restaurant for a decent meal and wine.
Franz Joseph
Our prompt start wasn't quite enough as the 4 hour drive seemed to go on forever. But, the scenery was great. We happened upon an old gold mine - the great great grandson in the chair now and he showed us the mining process to extract the gold from sand, plus some history and family photos. He also recommended we stop at Charleston, hub of the gold rush but just a shadow now, and take a look at Constance Bay, and it was pretty.
Crouching in the old mine
Cuttings for the rail track
Great great grandson now in charge
Further down, we stopped at Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks and blow holes. Worth it - limestone deposits, pressured into layers, being heavily eroded and pounded by the waves, thundering into the caverns and blow holes below.
Pancake Rocks
Plenty of turbulent water and blow holes
Winding around the contours, again not so good for Jean, the road straightened a bit beyond Greymouth and got us to Franz Joseph after lots of forestation, climbs and drops, a very pretty road indeed, with views of the sea from time to time. Less than 1% of New Zealand's population live on the West Coast, so it's not over populated by any means!
The raw West Coast
Into Franz Joseph and found Aspen Court with its nice apartment motel accommodation. Booked the helicopter for tomorrow, on recommendation. We didn't get the full monty due to winds over the ridge, but we did have a fantastic ride with a landing at 6,400'. Our pilot sneaked under or around the few clouds, and took us up to 9,000' to give us great views of both Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers, plus Mts Tasman and Cook. The pictures say it all!
Ascending Franz Joseph Glacier
Mount Cook in the background
Fox Glacier
And some video too:
Afterwards, we trekked to the base of Franz Joseph to look up at the glacier and appreciate how much it had eroded, even since 2008 a lot. The extent of change since Michael was here in '04 must be even greater, probably well down the valley shown below.
Rock & ice mixture gradually melting
Metallic, but not gold!
We were told Franz Joseph and Fox are two of the only temperate glaciers in the World, the other being in Argentina. They move much more quickly into the higher temperatures below, advancing as much as 7m/day, and contain more water. Seeing them from above, as the ice starts to fracture as they start their downhill journey, and then below with the large crevasses, gave us the complete picture.
On the way over Haast Pass near Mount Aspiring, we came across Fantail Falls, a relatively small waterfall below which visitors had assembled their columns of rocks:
Wanaka
Oh so pretty it was. The sun continued, lightning behind us in Wellington now and rain in Nelson and Westport, as we motored south along the coast to Haast before turning inland to cross the pass of the same name. Then, we overlooked the calm waters of Lake Wanaka on one side of the mountains before crossing to Lake Hawea on the other before reaching Wanaka itself. The cloud reflections on the lakes show the calmness.
Lake Wanaka
Lake Hawea
Not enhanced, just as seen!
It's a surprisingly arid area given it is so close to the mountains that catch the moisture off the Tasman Sea. Snow was visible on some and the clouds gathered round their tops, but it certainly was dry and the grass and plants showed it.
Wanaka with cloud and a bit of a breeze the next day
Here, it was more about relaxation and wandering to take in the scenery after the previous 1 night stops.
Queenstown
The drive from Wanaka was very reminiscent of Scotland with craggy mountains rising either side with a course grass covering. It was blowing a bit of gale and someone had turned off the sunshine for the moment, so it was 'cold' - probably 10deg on the hilltops, quite outrageous, but we looked down on a pretty rainbow over Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu.
We detoured to the old gold rush town of Arrowtown which gave mixed impressions. The old shops were mostly themed for tourists and too many parked cars spoiled the main street, diluting the wild west look of the covered timber walkways and hoardings, when ample parking was available behind it. The museum was very good, a bit of a tardis looking small from the outside but with a lot inside. Kung Hei Fat Choi featured in many shop windows to welcome the Year of the Sheep, targetted at the high percentage of Chinese tourists. Their numbers have been evident everywhere and they rather like driving the biggest 4x4s, although not very well or with confidence, and especially the wrong way round one-way car parks! But, in fairness, here, there was a large Chinese immigrant population during the gold rush, as elsewhere in New Zealand & Australia, so they too have history.
Arrowtown
Found a place to park (hitch)!
My first impressions on a recce in Queenstown itself were of traffic, parking congestion, rather overrun with tourists and abound with outdoor activity shops of one kind or another, making me happy that we had a very nice apartment just outside the town itself with a fine view over the lake, plus the chill didn't help. I also felt about 40 years too old! The wind tempered some as the afternoon went on, the white tops and waves on the lake diminished some, and the sun began to break through - we'd missed you!
We had been disappointed to learn our white water rafting was cancelled due to lack of numbers but then fate took a turn and Queenstown was already redeeming itself the next day. It also seemed that the older folk had been indoors when I did my recce first time, as there were more of us about!
After a fine breakfast by the waterfront, we took the gondola to the hill above. There, not only were there breathtaking views over the lake and The Remarkables mountains beyond, we met an English couple from Nottingham and chatted. Long story short, they looked after our 'bits' while we ran off the edge of the mountain and went paragliding! Howz about that for a couple of oldies? It was fantastic as we soared over the town for a while and then did a few quick tight turns before landing on a school rugby field. Wow, what a bonus for missing the rafting and how fortuitous we met this couple. All credit to our pilots for the perfect landing with legs straight and no steps, and making the video and picture record of us doing it!
Kindly taken by our 'minders'
And to finish, a little video:
Breakfast was so good by the waterfront, we went back again before heading for the Kiwi Park to hear their story and watch them feeding, in the near darkness. Another glorious day too.
Some moments from our apartment and around Queenstown:
The Remarkables in the background
The Kiwi House (nocturnal)
Giant Sequoia in the Kiwi Park
Then we headed onto Skipper's Road, a dirt road from the gold mining days that been carved out of the rock with sheer unprotected drops to peer down! It looked a bit worn in places, but our driver seemed to know it well. Reminded me of some of the World's Most Dangerous Highways at times! Past 'Bus Scratch Corner', rocking down the 'Roller Coaster', and that was just getting there!
There being the jet boat trip in Skipper's Canyon on the Shotover River, which was fantastic - 50mph in 6ins of water for most of the time, sometimes skidding over rocks just below the surface, twisting close to the canyon corners through narrow channels between the gravel banks, with 360deg turns here and there thrown in for good measure! It was just great, a real thrill, and then we had the precipitous road to enjoy once more on the way back.
The professional shot of course to start!
Best in a bit of video:
So, Queenstown's start was a slight disappointment on arrival, but it came back to thrill and overflow with enjoyment in spades. The clouds reappeared as the day closed - is it time to move on?
Te Anau/Doubtful Sound
On the way, it was mixed rain and cloud, but it finished with warm sunshine in this small town that mainly serves Fiord tourism.
Our start to Doubtful Sound was in sunshine with showers, but this changed to persistent rain on the Sound, typical of a rain forest area and as it is a lot of the time, so it was an experience. Access required a short coach ride to Manapouri, then a cruise across Lake Manapouri to a coach ride over the gravel road pass to the Sound itself. A 'benefit' of the rain was that the waterfalls were many and magnificent and were the centrepiece of the cruise. We motored to the Tasman Sea, where it became a bit more choppy, and into some side channels to see some of the most spectacular waterfalls ever, the side benefit of the heavy rain. One was more like a wall of water, amazing. We had a really good guide who insisted on delivering a lot of his informative chat from the wind and rain-swept foredeck! It is like this for a third of the year, and taking photos was a bit tricky at times. The water extends nearly 500m below and the mountains rise straight up from the Sound in dramatic fashion. Doubtful comes from Capt Cook having concerns about there being (an easterly) wind to get out of the Sound if it were entered in a square rig sailing ship. He was very perceptive we were informed. Jean relished getting herself soaked outside in a true 'experience'! It was a great combination of cruises each way to this southernmost accessible point of Fiordland and we arrived back in Te Anau in warm sunshine.
Our intrepid guide commentating from the deluge!
Not just wet, but windy too!
Incredible noise from the waterfalls
A brief break in the rain to appreciate the Sound
The sun over Lake Manapouri as we head back
Had a good day? Oh yes!
The drive saw a radical change from the greener rainforest conditions of Fiordland to the arid rolling hills and crags as we passed through the wine growing area of Gibbston Valley, Otago. It was onto high plains rather reminiscent of the mid-west USA with vast valleys bounded by mountains and punctuated by more large lakes. En route we had stopped to muse over the original AJ Hackett Bungee from a bridge over the Kawarau River near Queenstown, where generally younger folk plunged over 40m, some into the river below before rebounding on the first drop! Neither of us felt the urge! The dry climate of the Omerama area demand extensive irrigation arrangements, bigger than we have seen before, but there is plenty of water about in the lakes.
In the middle of nowhere, Omarama's primary reason to exist is to service the grocery and other needs of the farming community, that's just what it felt like!
Christchurch
From Omerama, the arid conditions continued until we got near to the greener coast and flatter farming land.
Lake Pukaki
We had a brief stop at Lake Takepo and visited the Church of the Good Shepherd by the lakeside, very pretty:
Christchurch was a bit of a shock. The damage from the major earthquakes of Sept '10 and Feb '11, particularly the latter, are still very much in evidence, many sites cleared but not yet built on, some in the process of demolition and others just fenced off awaiting attention. 80% of the central business district buildings either collapsed or have been damaged sufficiently to need demolition, so the city centre is abound with this activity, cranes and reconstruction. 185 people died, but there was no account of the number of injured.
Cardboard (yep) Cathedral - temporary replacement
Some large scale graffiti
The Cathedral - arguments persist about its rebuilding
Bridge of Remembrance being rebuilt
The town centre in the evening is rather ghost-like as there don't seem to be many reopened businesses of an office or retail kind with their workers seeking an end-of-day cocktail or two. Much has still to be done, sad. In some respects we felt as though we were visiting a little too early, but the city seems upbeat about what it has achieved so far. Later, we met Jamie, Els & Dave's son living in Christchurch, and he explained that the optimism is because the number of new buildings going up has now surpassed those being demolished, fair enough.
One creative area, named Re-Start, consists of a complex of shipping containers converted into small shops and cafes, in an attempt to revitalise the city centre, the work of a Japanese guy who specialises in doing this. Visiting this during the day was quite different to the evening, and the Quake City display over the road was very moving with verbal accounts from survivors and exhibits graphically portraying what took place.
So, goodbye New Zealand, remembered for outstanding scenery, albeit it more arid than we had expected apart from Fiordland, excellent roads, some fantastic wines, good food in large quantities, heavy on the meat with lack of fruit and sometimes vegetables, although with variable service at times, widespread green practices but with some quirky interpretations, and some adventure for a couple of oldies! All thet wes just the bist to be long rimimbered!
