The road initially switch-backed up through dense forest, following steep sided river valleys. We stopped occasionally to look at waterfalls, where pure mountain water cascaded hundreds of feet into rivers and streams below. This road was only completed in 1965 (making it the same age as me!), before which the only road through the mountains from east to west was Arthur's Pass which we came through on our drive from Christchurch. We had read about how a Canadian couple had tried to drive through here in a storm and their car had been washed over the edge of one of the gorges by the sheer volume of water pouring off the mountains. This really reinforced how remote this area is, but fortunately the day was dry and sunny and we just enjoyed the drive.
Eventually we climbed out of the pass at about 600 metres altitude surrounded by snow-capped mountains - Mount Cook at 3,745 metres to our left, Mount Aspiring at 3,035 metres to our right. As the road hit its highest point, we looked down to a series of stunningly blue glacial lakes. First was Lake Wanaka which we followed for 50 miles or so, to our lunch spot of Wanaka: anyone visiting here, should watch out for the seagulls - one snatched half a meat pie clean out of Sue's hand as we sat and ate by the side of the lake!
But the best was still to come, as we continued south to Queenstown and then followed the road north and west along Lake Wakatipu to the small town of Glenorchy. This has regularly been voted amongst the 10 most scenic drives in the world. Words don't do it justice, so judge for yourself from the pictures below.
We had decided to give Queenstown a wide berth and continue onto Glenorchy, partly because we had heard about how beautiful the drive was and partly because it was reputed to be much quieter. We were right, because Queenstown does adventure tourism on an industrial scale. It's the base for bungi jumping, canyoning, white-water rafting, rock-climbing, hang-gliding, helicopter-hiking, jet boating and multi-day alpine hikes - all on a more extreme level than almost anywhere in the world. With all that adrenaline pumping, the bars and night clubs are also allegedly wild and go on through to dawn without abating.
OK, we're showing our age now, but we couldn't cope with all that! I couldn't ignore it altogether of course, so I picked one activity: the white knuckle 'Shotover Jet'. These boats have 2 engines that produce 700 hp and can travel at more than 50 mph. The drivers seem to take great pleasure in taking the boat to its max: hurtling through a narrow 6 mile stretch of the Shotover Creek Canyon, sliding round corners inches from the canyon walls and spinning 360 degrees to a stop! The margin for error seemed minuscule, but the drivers knew every inch of that river and could probably do this blind-fold.
This was probably the closest I have ever seen to a money-mint: people were queuing to hand over their $129 and they turned us over with incredible speed and slickness; two 12 seater boatfuls going out every 15 minutes; all arriving back with big grins and leaving via the gift shop to buy souvenirs. And yes, every boat is fitted with cameras front and back, plus cameras on route with triggers set: and by the time you are back in the shop, a professionally produced video and still-photo package is ready for you to buy and take away!
We were far too cynical to part with any more money, but I have to say it was a really exciting experience. Sue didn't fancy it, but fortunately she was waiting at the start/finish to capture events - before, during and after!
Jet boating in Queenstown: before...
...during...
Glenorchy was a million miles from the raucous Queenstown. Nestled at the top of Lake Wakatipu, it is a small oasis of farmland, surrounded by water and mountains and home to just a few hundred people. We stayed for a couple of nights in a cabin in a quiet holiday park, but could easily have stayed much longer.
Just north of here, is the start of the Routeburn Track - one of New Zealand's greatest alpine walks, cutting through mountains where roads can't reach for 32 kilometres and taking up to 4 days to traverse, weather permitting.This was too much for us, but we managed a good 3 hour hike on the 'Invincible Gold Track' instead. We took the car as far as we dared (the road became so rutted, that we thought the car would be shaken to pieces) and then headed sharply upwards, on a trail that ran through thick forest, occasionally rewarding us with great mountain views. We finished up near one of the peaks, at the site of an old gold-mine where some of the old machinery, used to crush and process the base quartz, still remained rusting away. We also found evidence of old prospector houses and again thought how remote and spartan their lives were: Glenorchy was a 20 kilometre hike away and the only way onwards from there was the bi-weekly steamer on to Queenstown.
It was interesting to note that there had been plans to extend the Quenstown to Glenorchy road onto Milford Sound. At the moment, the only way to do this by road, is a 180 mile trip around the mountains and lakes. The proposed new road would have involved much destruction of ancient forest and tunnelling through rock and a constant stream of tourist traffic plying the route thereafter. New Zealand has a very strong environmental lobby, which has stopped a number of similar projects and ultimately the plans were dropped. Whilst we were here, a new proposal had recently been raised for a mono-rail train to run the same route. There were petitions running in nearly every shop and cafe we visited and we suspect that this will be similarly defeated - good on the Kiwis we say for holding onto their principles and recognising how precious these pristine wildernesses are!
We very happily drove the 180 miles on our next leg, with the scenery remaining stunning all the way. We broke our journey in Te Anau, a small town at the southern tip of the lake of the same name (and New Zealand's second largest). This was the site for one of the first environmental battles, when plans came out in the 1950s to built a huge hydro-electric power station on the western side of the lake, which would have resulted in the flooding of some environmentally sensitive areas on the edge of the Doubtful Sound Fiords. The protests were heard loud and clear and the government eventually approved a much reduced project wth no effect on water levels.
Te Anau is the last stop before the wonderful Milford Sound and we made a day trip of it. The 75 mile trip each way is another of the world's great scenic drive. It starts promisingly enough, hugging Lake Te Anau and rising steadily through native rain-forest, but the best is saved for the last 20 miles, when the road heads through a narrow pass in the granite mountains, which jut sharply up for hundreds of metres on either side of the road. It is referred to in one of the brochures as an 'ice-carved amphitheatre' which describes it perfectly. On our chosen day, it was raining steadily as we headed up, which sounds like a real spoiler, but it only added to the atmosphere as the rain poured off the mountains in a series of waterfalls. At the top, the road appeared to run out, but we had simply reached the Homer Tunnel - where there was no other option but to blast through the mountain - nearly a mile to the other side. We sat and waited for our turn, the entrance being controlled by traffic lights, as it's single lane all the way!
Whilst we waited, we found out some more about New Zealand's second most famous bird - the kea, a native parrot. We had spotted a few of them from a distance on our travels. Here they were in their element and bizarrely we found they had a taste for rubber - one landed on our wing mirror and started to try and eat our door trim, a trick it's cousins were repeating on other cars in the queue!
But if we enjoyed the drive, the best was still to come, with a two and a half boat trip out from Milford Sound, ou through the magnificent Fiords and to the mouth of the Tasman Sea. We had picked a small company to go with, which proved a great pick as there were only a dozen of us on the boat and our trip started as most of the bigger boats were finishing up. We started with a geology lesson: a 'Sound' is formed by river erosion and, whilst this area is called Milford Sound, it was formed by glacial erosion and is therefore technically a 'Fiord'. The European settlers naming it realised their mistake too late and corrected the error later by naming the whole area 'Fiordland'!
Whatever it is called, it is magnificent and we sailed out through the calm waters with Mitre Peak and the other mountains rising majestically straight out of the water, their peaks appearing and disappearing enigmatically through their clouded shrouds. We sailed through sun, then rain and then sun again and rainbows appeared in celebration as we passed through the showers. Seals basked on the rocks as we passed and to crown it all, a pod of dolphins joined us swam with us for 20 minutes as we headed back for port - a rare occurrence the crew told us.
That's all for this post. Next time, we will tell you about how we completed our circuit of the South Island back to Christchurch.
that is a beautiful picture of the two of you - loving each installment and can't wait for the book xxx.
ReplyDeleteIt brings back many happy memories. Some of the pictures are the same ones we took on our visit there, such a beautiful place, enjoy xxxx
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