Tuesday 4^th. March.

 

Again heavy rain in the night, but it had stopped by daybreak, and the sky was nearly clear, and the temperature now down to 4˚C. Turned the radiator on, but I never feel as cold as I would at the same temperature at home.

Anyway it looks a promising day for drive round to Queenstown Glenorchy! Early in the drive I am sure I saw a sign – Rainbow Road – although it isn’t called that on the map, and also not to be confused with the 4WD track in the North done by Norman, Mon and Jemma round turn of the year, so it is probably a local name because of all the rain and you are heading South with any sun in the North. It gave as good as its promise, and the weather deteriorated seriously as the morning’s drive progressed. The drive was still interesting though, still very Scottish flatlands early on, with some of the biggest and best grassland farms I have seen so far, they obviously get plenty of rain round here, so good looking green profitable grass: much more so than what I saw of the Canterbury Plains where expensive irrigation was needed. Lots of sheep, but some cattle and deer. All these Kiwi farms have very little infrastructure - hardly any buildings at all – I guess the climate and free draining soils allow the farmers to outwinter all their stock, unlike most of us in the UK who have to house ours for 5 months of the year because of soil damage. Also not being subsidised Kiwi farmers have to be exceedingly financially efficient and just cannot afford such luxury. As on some of the previous days driving, once again the land became progressively more lowland then highland Scottish landscape. It was still pretty well overcast when I arrived at Lake Wakatipu, but the cloud was beginning to lift and break a little, and it was obvious that I was arriving in very different territory to anything I had seen so far. All very exciting in the prospect, but infuriating in that secrets above were not fully revealed. It was obvious that the mountains were becoming more Alpine, and that there was snow up there. I think that the snow in summer is fairly abnormal. Also infuriating to photograph because of cloud, the sun in front of the best views, and the contrast of the snow.

 

OK photos better than expected: very difficult to tell on the camera screen.

Gorgeous drive all the way along the lake to Queenstown.

Queenstown big, sprawling and bustling, and I am feeling tired of everything today. I am aiming for Glenorchy 40km. further at the Top of the Lake – TV Drama Reference there – so ring ahead to see if accommodation available: long way to come back if not, and get a 2 night motel. Need a few supplies and get lost looking for a supermarket, but happen on an upmarket delicatessen, where can’t resist many expensive delights; so supper tonight is Quinoa Salad with all sorts of delights thrown in – roast pumpkin, avocado, cucumber, raisins etc. – followed by apple lattice pie. Chocolate as well; Kiwi chocolate is brilliantly irresistible, and coming home with me: Grandchildren please note, and don’t let me forget. Also their gorgeous smoked chicken suits well with broccoli for a future quick meal.

 

It is still before 2.00 pm so get out of “Dodge” as fast as I can. (ask an oldy if you don’t understand)

Another lovely lakeside drive, strong wind whipping up the lake; weather improving all time but not fast enough for full views, but shows promise for tomorrow, and photos turn out better than expected.

 

 

 

 

Arrive and settle into Motel, the take a 2 hour local loop walk from the village round a multiple pond, lake area, on gravel tracks, and boardwalks/ duckboard walkways through the swampy bits: In the sun, coldish wind, but fleece not needed.

 

Time to do the blog before bed as feel rested.

Monday 3^rd. March.

Very heavy rain in the night, but it had stopped by daybreak, and the sky looks a bit more promising for my intended walk up the start of the Routeburn Track. The temperature is about 6˚C.

Drive the 85 km. towards Milford again to the start. Cloud not too low, a few bits of blue sky, and glimpses of mountains: so more promise than expected from the forecast then: but they have a coating of snow that wasn’t there yesterday. 

Set off up the track with fleece on, and, poles in hand, realise how cold it is, especially as I get higher, having brought neither hat nor gloves to NZ. Unexpected, but nothing I am not used to in UK, but Pat R. would definitely have had them on. 

The track starts at 532 metres and I hadn’t realised that my goal of Lake MacKenzie was only 889 metres, and over a distance of 10km. it meant that I would be doing a lot of level contouring and a little upward track. It also meant that most of it would be in native bush, which although interesting can become a bit monotonous, if you are expecting to get above it to grass and rock. 

At least there are occasional clearing in the bush, and some breaks in the swirling cloud giving mostly tantalising and teasing glimpses of mountains around, covered in fresh snow. Could have gone to Scotland for this cold and snow

 

 

 

First waypoint is the Howden Hut only one hour from the road, for the older steady walkers no doubt: you do have to carry all your food in.

The weather forecast posted by the Warden: Gales and Blizzards. Should have gone to Scotland. Only kidding: I wouldn’t have missed NZ for anything. 

Tremendous waterfall that nearly drenches you at one point as you pass very close.

Then yet more bush track.

 

As you see from that picture the track is well engineered; it would appear that in all aspects of tourism and recreation the Kiwis have very much copied the Swiss. You just cannot get lost as you just follow the Grey Gravel Road. However anyone found a way through this bush I cannot imagine, never mind engineered to the standard you see. To walk off track would be almost impossibly difficult, and the slope is generally about 60 degrees, so if you slipped off, the trees would stop you at some point, but you would still be seriously hurt by that fall.

A good deal of very fine hail for a while, so waterproofs on for warmth more than dryness. 

Reach the MacKenzie Lake and Hut in 3 ¾ hours and have lunch.

 

 

 

Also find there is an Alpine Lodge up there for the paying guided Americans. It is like Motel in the Sky. The only way in is the long walk, but I assume supplies are helicoptered in. 

Only way out is as in, some threatening rain never really materailises, some sun, so a bit warmer, and the swirling cloud above keeps breaking in occasional fine views, so a very pleasant 7 hour outing overall.

 

 

 

Sunday 2^nd. March.

 

Te Anau is a very cosmopolitan town purely built on local and international tourism. It is probably quite a bit smaller than the village of Hibaldstow in North Lincolnshire, but it has 2 banks, a couple of supermarkets, some largish posh shops, and loads of Hotels and Motels. It fronts onto the biggest lake in the South Island, and although just across the lake is a range of large hills or small mountains; Alpine like in that the lower ¾ are clad in the usual dense native forest, the top ¼ is rocky, and they are higher than Ben Nevis: all very relatively deceptive. However on 3 sides there is relatively low rolling countryside with a little agriculture in places.

 Forecast not good for my 3 night stay in Te Anau, but everyone says Milford Sound is spectacular in the rain: they get it 200 days a year: sometimes up to 600 ml. per day. So I set off at around 8.00 am for the 120 km. drive having booked a 2hour boat trip. I appear to be fairly lucky with the weather as I head north, and as I drive the rolling countryside to the East becomes progressively more hilly and the hills to the West progressively more mountainous, and I begin to get glimpses of further progress to come.

 

 

 

 

And this (below) is what you see as you wait at the green light for the Homer Tunnel at an altitude of 920 metres. This is your highest point. The tunnel then angles down fairly steeply, and you emerge at around 800 metres in a distance of 1 km. but having cut through a steep ridge, as high as Ben Nevis.

 

 You then wind back down through NZ temperate rain forest

 

to sea level.

 

 

Mitre Peak is the one on the left that I never saw a mile high above me in the clouds

 

 

 

Spectacular Glen Etive in steroids

  

By the end of the cruise

Saturday 1^st. March.

Drive from Papatowai to Te Anau

Very heavy rain before dawn, but the day starts clear and cold - 6˚C – so fleece and waterproof on.

Stopped for a morning constitutional down to the beach and Cathedral Caves (there are many Cathedral Caves all around NZ) where the custodian was bemoaning that this was supposed to be their Summer. I don’t feel so cold so I guess the air is much drier down here than UK. The caves are gigantic and go back about 75 metres, and you can go in one and out of another because they join in a Y shape. However if you got cut off by the tide you would be up to your neck in water and in great danger if the sea were rough. The walk down the cliff is through native bush comprised of some very big trees and a lot of ferns and tree ferns.

 

 

The Catlins is a very large rugged area of mainly native forest and is mostly State Forest Park. It was logged heavily by the early settlers and largely initially built Dunedin, but that died out thankfully to leave such a great Nature Reserve, I am guessing because of the difficulty of access and the establishment of all those Douglas Fir plantations around Dunedin.
 

 

Being so hilly and winding, the coastal road is slow going, but as you head towards Invercargill - a vast sprawling town -  the land becomes a great plain but being so far south it is virtually all grassland; mainly sheep, but a few cattle: much more fertile and green than further north.

Follow the scenic route to Te Anau via Riverton and Tuatapere past some beautiful beaches with waves rolling in.

The route inland towards Te Anau is still surprisingly low rolling sheep country despite the promise of mountains in the distance; I guess it will change rapidly as I follow the shore of South Islands biggest lake towards Milford Sound.

Not having made a booking this time I drive round the town to see what accommodation on offer, and this time get a good value motel with a double and 3 singles all to myself for 3 nights (could have a party : maybe will : I doubt it)

Went to see the Fiordland Film at the cinema: not in 3D but very very spectacular: bought the DVD

Friday 28th. Feb.

A central Otago round trip, and into the Catlins.

Ranfurly via St. Bathans, Alexandria, Roxburgh to Papatowai.

Awoke to 10˚C grey skies and heavy rain, badly needed by the farmers, as the wide rolling plains scenery very parched. Mostly scruffy cattle, but some sheep.

Stretched my early morning legs (still only 8.30) at the Golden Progress Mine, a late 1800s and early 1900’s Goldmine. 

Then just down the road for 9.00 am opening time at the Hayes Engineering Works a late 1800s and early 1900’s family workshop. Ernest Hayes and his wife Hannah were immigrants from Lancashire. Ernest became a millwright in Otago and then set up his own workshop in 1890 and known as the King of all Trades. He made windmill water pumps, and invented and refined the barbed wire tensioner; modern reincarnations still being produced today. I favoured something slightly more modern, but today we just anchor the wire to the JCB telescopic handler and draw in the boom a few inches.

 

He powered the workshop with a giant windmill, but later made his own pelton water wheel fed by a dam several hundred metres away. This later also generated electricity for the workshop and house, with regulating controls for even voltage.

Only a farmer would post this photo: You can just tell barbed wire is in my blood.

Then on to St Bathans well publicised as a tourist destination, but not in my SatNav. This was a gold mining town of 2000 people between 1863 and 1930 with supply stores, bars etc. but more or less all that is left is the Vulcan Pub and the blue lake, which was once a 120 metre high hill of clay, dug away by mining to a 70 metre deep lake, coloured blue by the leaching minerals. Unfortunately it was a cold, wet, grey day for me, and I was told it is no longer blue because of disturbance by jet-skis

 

As you head back to the coast south of Dunedin the land once again becomes greener. Roxburgh very important fruit growing area. Becomes more hilly and green, with a large forested area just like Scotland again. Asked a forestry worker involved in the extensive felling what trees: Answer Douglas Fir.

More cattle where irrigation: otherwise lot more sheep. Some Deer

Broad Clutha River Heading towards the sea and me chasing blue sky at Kaka Point, but I brought the rain and wind with me, fleece and waterproof jacket instead of a swim in the sea. 

 

Went on the short walk to Nugget Point spectacular position high above the sea.

 

Further on into the Catlins: again very Scottish Lower Hill Scenery. 

Southern Comfort Motel : In danger of being overgrown by the bush, but typically spacious and comfortable nevertheless. Not even a mobile phone signal never mind internet access.

Thursday 27th. Feb.

Drive to Dunedin.

From Mount Cook dry arid gravelly plains, over the very large canal carrying the sky blue water from Lake Pukaki to the two Hydro Power Stations at Twizel. This all then goes into Lake Benmore which is also filled by river from Lake Tekapi and another power station. I was told that the first two very large lakes which are fed by the snows and rains of the eastern side of the Southern Alps provide a third of NZ’s Electricity: it is all very impressive. There are more dams downstream, and as you drive downriver on the way to Lake Aviemore the topography becomes more hilly and scrubby; there are quite large areas with nothing but Dogrose and a few Hawthorn: more British Imports : Follow Up Sometime.

 

Lake Aviemore Dam

As you move further downriver to the sea at Oamaru it remains very Scottish scenery, but where there is wider flatlands there is more animal agriculture: cattle where irrigated otherwise sheep.

From Oamaru down the coast to a lunch stop at the world famous Moeraki Boulders. Unfortunately my timing coincided with high tide so I didn’t see them at their best, but still very interesting. These are spherical and between 1½ and 2 metres in diameter (there used to be some very much smaller ones but anything liftable was lifted as souvenirs years ago) and are an accumulation of calcium carbonate and other minerals, just like limescale in your pipes in hardwater areas.

 

From there down to Dunedin, where the scenery gets even more hilly, green and Scottish with large planted forests. The large area around Dunedin is more Scottish than Scotland.

Semi trusty SatNav helped me find the dead centre of Dunedin where unbelievably I immediately found a parking space, but had to ask a local to change a note to coins for the metre (I must learn to keep a supply in the car as I do in UK) Went to find the iSite to enquire about accommodation, but I hadn’t liked the hustle and bustle of all the traffic (there wasn’t much in Christchurch because there is no longer much Christchurch) so decided to head back out into the country on a bit of my next day’s itinerary, but I needed to know if there would be accommodation available in what is a small rural town. Ranfurly does boast a motel and backpackers, but the i-SITE could only find me a room in the old Art-Deco hotel. Suited my purpose and had a couple of pints with the typical pub food on offer; slept like a log and late up: unusual for me.

Wednesday 26th. Feb.

 

Mueller Hut Walk 1275 metres of very steep ascent 12.6km 7.5hours 

Another cloudless day in Aoraki/Mount Cook Village. Cool at 15˚C, but obviously going to warm up even at altitude, and a good supply of water added to rucksac, in order to climb to the Mueller Hut at 1800 metres.

Start out around 9.00am from the village at about 760 metres and walk the 2 km. on the flat through relatively sparse bush to the start of the climb. Looking ahead you can see no evidence of a track up the very steep hillside because it is completely smothered in head high bush.

 

 

It would be a shock to anyone to find that the first 500 metres is continuous well engineered wooden steps with gravel infill, and these are very steep “steeps” (steep steps for those of you who don’t already know the Kiwi pronunciation of step); in fact 500 metres of stairway steeper than my steeper than normal stairs at home is serious business.

 

  

After that the bush turns to grass and rock and the next 500 metres is still steep but eases off a bit.

A great viewpoint for Mount Cook and Mount Sefton from a convenient rock promontory, followed by a typically alpine rock track to the Mueller Hut at 1800 metres.

 

 

Feeling good and ahead of the guide time I went on up a very rocky (mostly large, angular and sharp) ridge to Mount Olivier at 1933 metres.

 

Looking down from Mount Olivier to Mount Cook Village and the Hermitage

 

Looking from Mount Olivier to Mount Cook

 

Then back down those steep steeps (Pat you would hate them)

 

 

Not a cloud in the sky all day and whilst relatively cool up top very warm on descent for a well earned cold drink and ice cream.

Saw a few Keas around the entrance to the Hermitage but they weren’t performing to expectations of the hoards of tourists trying to film them: being quite stand offish really.

The Hermitage despite its name is in fact a massive very swish multi story hotel complex, all glass and steel (a very tasteful dark grey: really, it works) . It is in its 5^th. reincarnation from the first small wooden hotel in the 1800s.

Aoraki/Mount Cook village is a very pleasant and tidy Alpine Village, small by comparison to most of those of the European Alps, but well spread out, interspersed with bush, and connecting roads and footpaths.

After my evening meal I went to the 3D cinema to see the Maori Legend of Mount Cook, its history in the hands of the immigrant community, and how it fits in to present day climbing, skiing, and tourist expectations. 3D was certainly an experience; the fly-bys of the mountain and the glaciers are quite stunning, and occasionally they threw something out of the screen and everybody ducked: in fact I think for a joke one of them was a duck.

Also went to see a more detailed, but none 3D film, about the climbing of Mount Cook past and present including Sir Ed. Hillary. It all looked pretty frighteningly impossible to me, but then one bloke skied down it with a camera: that looked even more impossible, and no room for error with massive drops and crevaces either side of very narrow steep route. And so to bed for nightmares of climbing and falling off the very steep, knife edged top of Mount Cook: not really: slept well after a day like that.