Worries and Wekas

It was a beautiful day for our ecotour on Lake Wanaka. The boat crashed from wavetop to wavetop and caused Lyn some discomfort. Her back had been dicey since our climb up the steps to the waterfall at Arthur's Pass and she feared doing it further harm. Our tour leader slowed the pace but the glacial valley funnels the wind and quite large waves appear once you leave the shelter of lakeshore or islands. Lyn had a nervous time. 

 Our fellow voyagers included a couple of delightful American boys. When our guide pointed out the local ‘Lord of the Rings’ locations they broke immediately into excellent, and prolonged, impressions of Frodo and Sam.

The trip got better for Lyn when we reached the island we had set out to visit. It had toilets, a red tree, drunk pigeon stories, a picnic, a lake and a curious weka. (NZ’s islands are often used as refuges for endangered flightless birds.) It was the highlight of the trip for me. We visited a lake on an island in the middle of a lake on an island.

That afternoon we did the short drive to Queenstown where we booked into the Hilton for New Year’s Eve. Queenstown has allowed a lot of development on the lakeshore so it was a shock after Wanaka. It was also raining. We spent a quiet night. 

Waterfalls, Lakes and Midgies

Next day there was fog and rain. We managed to get a distant glimpse of the glacier from a lookout as we drove out of town. (Maybe we’ll be luckier on another trip...)

The drive south involved a trip through Haast Pass towards the centre of the island. There aren’t many places you can cross the island and this is the southernmost crossing point. Before we headed east on the road we stopped at Knight's Point. It turns out it was named after the surveyor's dog.

The drive through the pass is a waterfallathon. We stopped at two or three. This is Fantail Falls – the waterfalls in New Zealand became all mixed together in my mind – damp, roaring water, drizzle and looking out for midgies.

Somewhere along this part of the journey we stopped at a beautiful lake. We walked to the lakeshore. Lyn began her eternal stretches and then the tiny black specks began to dance all around her. Midgie attack! We barely had time for this photo and then we fled.  

Our spectacular drive reached its climax when we suddenly emerged from the pass on the corridor of land between Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea. Wow. (And we seemed to be out of Midgie country at last.)

Wanaka is a funny little town at the bottom of the lake. The locals think it is the next Queenstown. I hope not. It would be a shame to spoil it.

   

 

Meltwater and Midgies

We headed south towards glacier country. Along the way we diverted to Hokitika Gorge where a walk to the suspension bridge gives you a view of the improbably blue glacier meltwater.  It was also our first experience of the vicious little bitey creatures known as “midgies” or "sandflies, although the proper name is the West Coast Blackfly . They are tiny but nasty and predictably Lyn, known to be an irresistable target, stayed well covered and kept moving whenever we were in midgie country.

It wasn't raining - but there were midgies!

Then we drove on to Fox Glacier. But by this time the rain had found us. In such weather glacier viewing is not really possible. In only thing we enjoyed about Fox Glacier was our first experience of NZ "fush n’ chups" and a beer at the Heartland Hotel. 
  
 

The weather closing in - Fox glacier

 

Arthur's Pass

We set off to cross the island from East to West via Arthur’s Pass. Rain was predicted but it turned out to be a great day. The scenery was incredible and very un-Australian: bare green hills, spectacular mountains and water.   

In Arthur’s Pass (the town) we went to the Information Centre and worked out we could do a walk up to the Devil’s Punchbowl Waterfall. There were a lot of stairs but a spectacular reward at the end.

Driving on, we stopped for a spectacular view of the causeway that that took us out of the pass and met NZ's famously clever (and hungry) Keas for the first time.

We were making good time and so we diverted to the very pretty Lake Brunner where we swam and had a glass of wine looking out over the Lake. 

Then it was time to drive on to our motel in Greymouth. Greymouth is more famous for greenstone than scenery so we headed north to Punakaiki for a last sightseeing trip of the day. Punakaiki turned out to be a beautifully laid out roadside site featuring the West Coast’s weird 'Jurassic Park' vegetation, the spectacular Pancake Rocks and blowholes.  

It was a spectacular day. 

Restart

It was our first overseas trip for for 25 years. In that time we had created a family and our children had grown to adulthood. Could we even cope with travel? New Zealand seemed a good place to restart our adventures.

We flew into Christchurch because we’d decided that Christchurch needed our tourist dollars after its earthquake. We picked up the car no problems and drove to our motel. The owner told us all about the struggle of his city to recover. He spoke rather sadly of losing all the young people who had nothing much to do.

We went exploring and found the damage still very much in evidence. On the other hand we also found the amazing Botanic Gardens (very Inspector Morse) and a good little museum. The revelation in Christchurch was a bit of Kiwi innovation – an entire shopping centre made of shipping containers called 'Restart'.

Christchurch Cathedral

 

River Avon