Week 8 - 11, 12th & Fri. 13th Nov.

Queenstown
Saturday Nov 14th

Toured the downtown and had great coffee at the Vudu Café. Shopped for gifts and walked the wharf, watching the speed boats and the steamer boat on the lake. Walked through the market. We thought it was a vegetable/fruit market, but it was an art market. Watched the steamer leave the harbour. There were gale force winds, branches all over the roads, large sandy whirlwinds and then of course driving rain by later day. Stopped at the Shotover Gorge bridge and then walked down to see the boats at the shore. The gorge is beautiful with large rock sides and turquoise water.
Shotover Gorge, river, and bridge, surrounding mountains,

Wanaka, Queenstown, Arrowtown, Lake Hayes walk
Friday Nov 13th, 2009

We are off to Queenstown. On the way out of town we stop in at Puzzle World to see the puzzles on display. There is a large maze inside that is made with wooden sides. Great place for kids.

On the way to Queenstown the road winds through the barren desert landscape with sheer cliffs and tumble weeds in the hills. It climbs and climbs till we are at the peak and now we can see the valley below.

At the Crow Range Summit Pass, 1076 m above sea level, the road heads straight down to Queenstown with the last 10 kms as switchbacks along the mountain. There are many sheer drops off the side that are quite unnerving to look at. Our trusty GPS takes us right to the Shotover River where we plan on spending a few nights.

Tonight we are given this adorable cabin with a queen bed, a small table with two chairs, two bedside tables and all in the shape of a little cabin in the mountains. We unpack and find the kitchen available, so we make lunch. We pass over the Shotover Gorge to get to the lodgings.

After lunch we are off on a tramp to the Hayes Lake Walkway. This turns out to be a nice gravel walk around Hayes Lake with a walking time of 2 to 3 hours. We do it in 2 and thoroughly enjoy the walk, the scenery and the beautiful mountain fed lake. One side of the lake is steep hillside with lots of ups and downs, while the other side of the lake is a trail in front of some beautiful homes. Many have decks that look over the lake and one particular home has some interesting sculptures sitting all over the deck, very neat.

On the way back we drive through the small town of Arrowtown. What a pretty place. This is a historic community with beautiful streets and old buildings. We wander around the town and stop for lollies.

At dinner we meet Raymond, Yili and their daughter Shaoli. They join us for dinner and then breakfast the next day. We had a great chat with them.

Knights Point, Ships Creek, Haast, Thunder Creek, Blue Pools, Wanaka
Thursday Nov 12th, 2009

This morning the drive along the road to Fox Glacier is very straight, and this is very unusual for this part of the country. After doing the twists and turns of the rest of the island Alan is glad for the nice relaxing change.

Fox glacier is not that far away, so we quickly pass by as the weather is overcast and you can barely see the mountains.

Below Fox, our next stop is Knights Point which happens to be a nice lookout over the Tasman Sea and an overview of the coast. The road for this next part has been very twist and windy and makes up for our straight stretch between the glaciers. The sign at the roadside stop says Knights Point was the last stretch of road to be completed in this area, which was 1965. It seems that this particular piece of road was the most difficult due to high hills, unstable ground causing rock slides, high rainfall, and flood prone creeks.

Down the road we come to a flat stretch called the Coastal Plain. Here we find a stopover point called Ships Creek and as the name would suggest possibly an old ship. We stop to look for the ship but there is no ship. Apparently this ship sank off of the Australian coast and over the years it drifted to NZ. These are rocks piled on the sea side, by visitors.

Here we find a lazy beach and a nice tree covered path walk. The trail winds to an inland lake called Mataketake Lake. It is caught here behind the dunes and is slowly being reclaimed by the land. From here, the steep stretch of rock that we have just completed opens on to a 50 km flat plain and the landscape stretches 7 km inland. A real tropical wetland.

After our stop for a beach walk, we carry on down the 50 km’s till we reach Haast. Here we cross a long one lane bridge that is unusual. It has in the middle of the bridge two separate passing bays. This bridge is over the Haast River and it is a beautiful. On the other side is the town of Haast, well actually it is a whistle stop as we saw no town.

Thunder Falls is a lovely spot along the road. We walk to the waterfall through a forest of natural trees. At this point the Thunder River ends in Thunder Falls as it cascades 28 metres down to join the Haast River. Just around the corner, the Haast River creates a gorge just up the road. The sky is a crystal clear blue and the water cascading through the river is also a beautiful blue too.

Our next stop is the Blue Pools. Where the Makarora and Blue Rivers meet form these blue pools. Both rivers are fed by azure glacier waters. At the bottom of the walk we find both rivers and these great suspension bridges. One takes you across the Makarora River and the second suspends you over the blue pools on the Blue River. It is a beautiful sight.

The mountains we have been driving through have been beautiful, but they are changing and are now more majestic, barren and become more like what we saw in the Lord of the Rings. Could this be the area that we saw in the movie?

At one point on our trip there is a road sign for cows ahead. A famer is herding his cattle along the road about 1 km, on his ATV with a dog to help. Alan manages to navigate the car through the middle.

The valley opens out to this immense lake called Lake Wanaka. The mountainous country side turns barren and brown, similar to the landscape that we see when we drive through Kamloops, BC. At the top the view is spectacular and we are officially at the divide between Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea.

We book into a Backpackers lodge in the town of Wanaka. This place is not as nice as most spots. We have a problem with the internet and they suggest we go into the parking lot by the backpackers in town.

After supper we decide to drive into town to see the Paradisimo Cinema. Alan has read up on it and from what we understand the Paradisimo Cinema is a retro theater with funky couches, a Morris Minor car, in the theatre, and they have a real intermission so that the patrons can come out from the movie and buy all kinds of restaurant goodies. This all sounds too good to be true, so, rather than miss out on it off we go.

Tomorrow we are heading to Queenstown.



Pancake rocks, Blowholes walk, Hokitika, Franz Joseph Glacier
Wednesday Nov 11th, 2009
Morning arrives and we have the usual breakfast of a grapefruit, orange and kiwi with peanut butter toast. Today we are heading down the coast to see the Pancake rocks. This little white cat kept trying to come into our room. Alan had to rescue it off the roof...it got up but wouldn't get down.

On the way down south the rain begins and we see the coast through the rain. About 60 km south of Westport we come to the Pancake rocks and blow holes. These are limestone formations formed under the sea 35 million years ago. Over the past 100, 000 yrs, the land has uplifted and through weathering by the wind, sea and rain has created this amazing formation of layered limestone. They are lovely.

The pancake trail winds in a circular pattern over a small bridge, up the pancake rocks, down some innovative pancake stairs, and back to the trails beginning. It is a delight and we thoroughly enjoy the walk. I particularly liked the stair cases build in rock.

As we carry on down the highway, we stop several times along the road to take pictures of the scenery of the wild west coast. When we get to Greymouth the sky looks dark. We carry on down the road and take a few more pictures of the sea shore.

At Hokitika we tour the town, definitely a jade tourist trap. We ask one of the local shop owners if we are the lucky owners of some beach jade we picked this up yesterday at Cape Foulwind. To our disappointment, we have found good examples of lever rock (i.e. lever behind on the beach) and serpentine (it can also be left on the beach). So our great finds aren’t jade after all but we had fun looking for it.

Just before we head out of town, we take a quick drive through some of the back streets. On one street we find a store called Traditional Jade and wander in to have a look. The fellow is very informative and shows us his jade pile in the back. We ask lots of questions and he tells us lots of good information but I am sure we are not experts yet. We thank him and say our goodbyes then carry on.

In the evening we stopped at Franz Joseph Glacier. Great hike out to it. Out there was a Kea bird, quite a large native parrot. I found its burrow in the ground…away from where the tourists were feeding it.
Tomorrow we are off to Wanaka and the movies…the theatre has couches!