Monday 10^th. March.

A footnote has been added to yesterday's.

Sadly the promise of clear weather is not fulfilled; as I open the curtains I am met by a low overcast: shame because from what I had seen late evening, from the right viewpoint, the mountains and pure white snowfields would have been stunning. This is the West Coast where it is supposed to rain all the time and I have not seen any rain at all since Milford Sound and the first day on the western side of the Routeburn Track. 

I take a morning constitutional up to Fox Glacier, which since 1750 has receded by about 3 km. but is now actually extending again by about 1 metre a year.

 

I forgot to take my camera so these photos from mobile phone not so good, but you can see the depth and area the glacier used to cover.

Have a very close encounter with a very tame Kea: do not feed them as they will lose the habit of fending for themselves and they are a relatively endangered species.

 

 

Although the murk thins a bit, it is obvious that it will take a long time to clear, so head north, and during the morning the overcast lowers, but it doesn’t rain. This is good weather for the West Coast where it is supposed to rain all the time.

I meet relatively more traffic of which about 50% campervans, but it is a pleasant drive with many fast straights and long curves – where I see a couple of dangerous overtakes just as in Lincolnshire – and an enjoyable winding hilly section, but not overly inspiring: much of the same NZ bush, interspersed with flat cattle country.

The overcast lifts up the mountainsides a bit, but as I turn inland for Arthur’s Pass, I am worrying that it will prevent me tomorrow from my aim of climbing the mountains from there. The pass starts as a wide long flat valley that appears to cleave South Island in two west to east, but that is deceptive to carry straight on east would be impossible, and after about 40km. you turn south and increasingly more winding and steeply upwards to the pass itself.

 

The actual pass section runs north south for about 40km. The pass is named after Arthur Dudley Dobson the civil engineer who heard of the Maori route and surveyed it in 1864. By 1866 it was developed into a horse drawn wagon route to the western goldfields, and today supports a full 2 lane highway and single track rail, and provides the most important transport connection between East and West Coast. I have here seen more lorries than anywhere else: 20 per hour in day time and a few through the night, freight trains every hour day and night, and one passenger train each way in the daytime. It is not so steep and winding that the relatively powerful 40ton lorries are slowed down too much: They are quite impressive.

Yes the modern day railway is supported by telegraph poles.

 

 2 X 20 = 40 tonnes

 

 Find a nice motel room for the next 2 nights, get info and a proper map of the mountain route I have in mind for tomorrow from the DOC (Department of Conservation which runs the National Parks and provides the Visitor Centres, and builds and maintains the walking paths, bridges and boardwalks, and the huts and campsites on the multi-day tracks: the best way to conserve is to manage the access)

Arthur’s Pass Village is a great little place, originally and still mainly a transport stop at the top of the pass. Railway Station, Café, Shop, Pub, YHA, Backpackers Hostel and 4 or 5 very small Motels.

Sunday 9^th. March.

Today and tomorrow will be covering a lot of distance by car as I head west to the sea, up the West Coast Route 6, and then to Arthur’s Pass.

Leaving Wanaka you are soon driving the 20km. alongside the western shore of Lake Hawea and then cross back to the eastern shore of Lake Wanaka for another 15 km. All very beautifully hemmed in by the usual mountain scenery. No photos as we’ve seen it all before, the sun was against me for the best views, and I don’t like stopping too often whilst driving: as it turned out I was behind schedule by afternoon and stopped short of my target.

Lake Hawea is about 30 km. long by 5km. wide

Lake Wanaka is about 40 km. long by 3 to 5 km. wide, but spreads out like tree roots at the southern end where the town of Wanaka sits on the shore of fine gravel
Lake Wakatipu where I was Tuesday and Wednesday on the shores of which sit Queenstown and Glenorchy is about 75 km. long with a big 20 km. zig zag in the middle, and varies between 3 to 6 km. wide.
Lake Te Anau where I was Sunday 2^nd. and Monday 3^rd. is about 75 km. long about 10 km. wide in  the middle tapering off to each end, but has a 20 km. branch which itself has a 10 km. branch, and another 10 km. branch as well.
Then close by is Lake Manapouri 10km. long  by 10 km.to 5 km. wide with 4 branches, and all this close to the Fiords 20km. to 40 km. in length.

This is big beautiful country.

Finally hit the coast at Haast and continue north east up route 6 along the west coast. Different vegetation now we are exposed to the oceanic westerly weather, there is still a hazy sun here where the weather is supposed to be wet all the time. The roads empty of traffic for much of the drive, and I never saw a lorry all day.

 

 

 

Stopped off, with plenty of other tourists, at Knights Point viewpoint for a view of Arnott Point.

 

 

If you see a sign for a viewpoint always stop because it’s always worth it.

Then around midday I stopped for an hour or so for a leg stretcher through the bush, down to another popular spot Monro Beach.

 

 

The highway is heading inland now, but hits the coast again at the almost 10 km. long Maori Beach: Quite a sight.

 

 

It is now about 4.00pm when I am then approaching the Fox and Franz Joseph Glacier’s and have to make a decision: stop now or push on for the next likely stop 3 hours further up the coast.

The west coast cloud has now set in making a visit here less appealing, but driving on till late even less  so: I drive around the small roadside village of Fox Glacier which is pretty well much all motels, a pub, a café, a shop and a petrol station, here purely to cater for the tourist trade to the Fox Glacier.

There is no shortage of accommodation, and after booking in, on the advice of the receptionist who assures me the weather will improve for a visit to the glacier tomorrow, I take a short drive to Lake Matheson for another leg stretch. Very small only an hour or so round. Well engineered as all tourist tracks. Another swing bridge over the river, followed by the ubiquitous grey gravel track and boardwalks and steps. These Kiwis don’t do things by half when it comes to tourists.

 

Supposed to see the mountains reflected in the lake, but not with this overcast, but breaking cloud shows a touch of promise for the morrow. After home cooked supper the sky clears and we see the tops only of snow clad peaks. Hopeful for a quick visit to the Glacier tomorrow.

Lots of tourists now turning up to fill the motels in the evening.

 

I hadn’t mentioned that I stopped for lunch at Haast to try the West Coast delicacy a Whitebait patty.

This turned out to be a small omelette crammed with tiny “baby fish looking at you with their eyes” as one UK tourist described to me in Wanaka. These fish are very different from our British Whitebait, and are tiny ; they are about 30mm. long by 4mm. height and 2mm. width, are a very shiny white (like porcelain) with black eyes and a line of very fine black dots down the side. They look like an exquisite antique objet d’art made by a Japanese craftsman. They tasted vaguely of the sea, but I wasn’t over impressed; but this was only a roadside café and in a top quality restaurant they could probably be more interesting.

  

Saturday 8^th. March. 

Again on previous recommendation I today head off to the Rob Roy Glacier Track, but first I have to drive through the traffic for the A&P Show plus a nearly as big mountain bike rally, but once through it turns out to be 30km. on tarmac followed by 30km. on gravel road: why did I put the car through the carwash previously?

The drive is worth it into the Matukitiku Valley, a relatively broad flat valley of varying width, hemmed in by rugged grass and rock hills up to bare mountain tops (2000 metres). It is greener here than close to town, and farmed intensively with livestock: some deer, more sheep, but even more Hereford cattle: more than I have ever seen. As you get further in you get a good view of Mount Aspiring (3027 metres) and neighbouring peaks

 

As you start to walk in through the beech forest alongside yet another milky blue stream down in another gorge, with more towering cliffs above ( I need some sea and swimming as a break from all this) you get occasional sights of the goal: the Rob Roy Glacier.

 

 

 

 

These last 2 looking back along the way

 

 

This along the way might be a bit worrying

 

 

 

Friday 7^th. March.

Please see an essential addition to yesterday’s post; inadvertently omitted: re Hayes Wire Strainer.

First of all today I could not miss the opportunity of comparing the Wanaka Agriculture and Pony show to our own Lincolnshire Show. It draws farmers in from a wide area, and also panders to the ordinary public, and the rich who have holiday homes in Wanaka. It was just the same as the Lincolnshire Show, but about a third of the size in all aspects. There was less machinery, and that much smaller and only for grass and livestock farming, and plenty of small commercial stands for farmers and public. Also the car stands selling, BMW, Mercs, Audi, and Range Rover, but what you don’t get at Lincolnshire Show, lots of speedboats (Wanaka is a lakeside – and skiing – holiday resort) and a helicopter. Not so many livestock, but the best breeders of sheep were there to advertise their product. The whole affair takes over the town park, and all the streets and Lake Front car parks are jam packed: but it works.

 

 

 

I then set off for Roy’s Peak, it having been recommended by a chance acquaintance. Not very inspiring to look at, and it turns out to be a zig zag track all the way to the top; grass at first, dust at the top. There is a radio mast at the top so I guess the track was made for that. Quite a slog at about 1200 metres of ascent, but the views from the top of Lake Wanaka, surrounding hills and the distant glacier clad Mount Aspiring Range were very good. 

 

Looking down on Wanaka and the A&P Show in the town centre park

Mount Aspiring

 

The Zig Zag Track

 

To the Top of the Lake

 

For Rosey: Late flowering Dogrose on the way down: Her and my favourite flower, but I don’t think they are as good as our UK variety. 

After getting down I just had time to catch the last wine tasting at the local vineyard, the oldest in Otago.  Tried 8 (spitting out as I was still driving) from Sauvignon Blanc to Pinot Noir to Riesling and Gewurtztraminer, but wasn’t too impressed by any but the most expensive Pinot Noir, and I am usually a Sauvignon Blanc drinker by preference: so I duly bought a couple of the expensive best, and cracked one for tonight and tomorrow night’s meal.

 

Thursday 6^th. March.

From Glenorchy a quick leaving trip further north to Paradise turns into most of the morning on gravel roads with stops for photos; enjoyable but we’ve all probably seen most of it before from different angles, so I will try not to bore you with too many of them.

Extensive herd of Simmentals at Paradise: rather small animals by our standards, but probably a hardier breed.

 

This is Paradise: Honestly: Look on a Map

Head back down to Queenstown and then on towards Wanaka. See a nice café just before Lake Hayes, and decide on a decent lunch for a change. Nearly missed it, as it is a little old wood and tin house – as nearly every house new or old in NZ is – and in a little orchard like garden. Decide on Prawn Cakes and Salad. The Prawn Cakes like nothing I’ve had before; big juicy prawns in something like a cross between an omelette and a very aerated pancake: but brilliant especially with mayonnaise and chilli relish. 

Head on up to the Kawarau Gorge and leave the Kawarau Bridge till I return from a run up to the top of the pass. According to my map, both the west river and the east river running in opposite directions from the divide are called Kawarau River. It would generally appear that the more you head North and East and uphill in NZ, the drier and more barren the scenery becomes. The top of the steep winding valley is either totally barren, or kilometres of hillside supporting nothing but Dogrose.

 

 

 

 

 As you come back down the valley towards the gorge, vines vie with the Dogrose on the larger flat areas which support several vineyards.

 

Stop off at the Old Kawarau Bridge, which is the famous Bungy Jump. It is now an extremely busy visitor centre – the Kiwis know how to milk tourists as well as cows – so I look at a few suspended bodies that scream a bit and then go extremely quiet, but I am more interested in the Gorge and the Old Suspension Bridge, and completely forgot to take a photo of a falling body.

 

 

 

Head back west a bit in order to take the scenic Cardrona route, not realising from the map just how many hairpins there are, but it is great fun to drive, and I seem to have it all to myself till I stop at a viewpoint for a photo, and then can’t get out for the number of cars. It is obviously a very popular route, as usually you have miles of road to yourself. As it is getting a little late in the afternoon, I am beginning to wonder about finding accommodation with so many people heading in my direction, a further worry as I enter Wanaka to find that the annual Agricultural Show is on this weekend. I drive around looking for Vacancy signs and find very few; I try a couple of Motels, but they hadn’t taken in their signs, and they phone round, but can’t find anywhere. I try one next door, and strike lucky, but at a price, and book for 3 nights. Brilliant modern place, but run by an old lady and husband, and they are the only place I have come across that don’t take cards of any kind, so one elderly Australian couple who have just booked in, and nearly settled in, have to leave because they can’t or won’t pay cash, but people are turning up all the time. I pay one night’s cash deposit, and promise to visit the bank. Another middle aged Australian couple wanting one night are turned away whilst I am still in the process of registering, and what I hadn’t realised, was that the family apartment I had just booked actually had 2 separate ensuite bedrooms, unlike others I have been in where you are all in together, so I could, and would, have shared for the one night – you can usually tell people’s character – and made a saving. I felt very lucky for myself, but sorry for the others, because they would have to go on, or back in some cases to Cromwell or Queenstown, 40 or 80 km. depending which way they went.

Drove back into town, and found a bank within ½ km. and it is unbelievable how fast a few hundred dollars makes its way from one side of the world to the other. Not much further on, find the supermarket in the town centre – heaving but fun because it is all different – and buy prepared salad and fruit salad for tonight – Kiwi Fruit taste much better here – and lots of drink as heading north the weather has heated up considerably.

Also between the Motel and town centre I had spotted a filling station with a carwash, so took advantage; you should have seen the car after a few days on gravel roads: I should have taken before and after photos. That was another new experience; a vertical arm goes round and round the car: jet blast, soak with detergent, rinse, another soak, another rinse, a protectant spray of some kind followed at last by an airblast to dry off.

Home to shower, supper, write this up and bed.

 
Goodnight Folks.

PS

Whilst walking around the vicinity of the Kawarau Gorge Bungy Centre I came across a fencing contractor doing some work, and he had in operation a genuine Hayes Wire Strainer.

 

Andrew Dagg and Hayes Wire Strainers

He is using the lever operated chain strainer to draw the opposing wires together, and then using the star wheel and pawl tightener, that you will have seen many times before as they are left in situ and can be retightened at any time.

 

Wednesday 5^th. March.

 

Another cold blue sky morning. Today going up the Eastern section of the Routeburn Track. Going to be the biggest walk yet, so pack double rations and 2 ½ litres of water. 

Drive the 20km. some over gravel road to the Routeburn Shelter, the start of the Routeburn Track from the Eastern side.

Fleece on I start the walk with Carl an American living in Christchurch – retired US Navy - joined the Navy because his father was US Airforce and Carl didn’t like the flat plains of Wyoming – took his photo for him because he was off on a more remote track and unlikely to see anyone for a 3 days or so. 

With an amazing spring in my step (I am getting back to something like my old self) I follow the Grey Gravel Track for a couple of hours through the extensive beautiful Beech Forest. These NZ Beeches are very different from our own. Red Beech to start at the lower levels, which has dark red-brown shaggy corrugated bark and leaves only the size of a thumb nail, and then Silver Beech further up, which has even smaller tiny glossy dark green leaves. The ground to the side of the track is rocky and steep, and covered with moss and lots of young Beech from shrub to sapling.

 

As I started early, I saw few people initially, but then you meet 20 or so mainly Americans, although guided, spread out coming down from the second Lodge, this being their 3^rd. and final day; but then I am overtaken by 3 American lads doing the whole route in a day, and then a local runner doing it in a few hours. From the way I have been going I know I could do the whole 32 km. track in a day, but then I would have the problem of the 350 km. road trip back to the start. There are ways and means of doing this, but too complicated for me to organize without more local knowledge.

3 swing bridges over very large gorges, alongside the Routeburn itself, a large stream gurgling its way down amongst massive boulders, with 300 metre vertical cliffs above in places, and views from between the trees of a variety of mountains around from Scottish to Sub Alpine to Alpine.

 

 

 

You come to the first hut at the Routeburn Flats. Flats would probably have been lakes in geological history, but now completely filled with washed down mountain debris and grassed over.

 

 

Then the second hut and the Lodge at the Routeburn Falls. From there on Scottish Mountain Scenery to the highest point of the crossing at the Harris Saddle and the Harris Shelter. To carry on would take you down into the Sub Tropical Native Bush, and the MacKenzie Hut that I reached from the other side on Monday.

 

The walk so far has been spectacular, and you know why this is one of NZ’s finest tramping routes, but the vista from the Harris Saddle even more so. I had made it in about 4 ½ hours, and you, like me, will have noticed a track to the right going higher still. A sign said Conical Hill 1 hour return: I wasn’t going to miss out, and what an even better viewpoint.

 

When I got to the top I notice a group of people scrabbling around in a little muddy puddle, and it is fairly obvious that something small and valuable has been dropped. A young woman said “It’s not highly expensive, but it’s very emotionally valuable to me” and they had basically given up hope. I am not sure whether I had a premonition, but I thought an alternative eye might be useful, and went over. A quick scan, and, without certainty, I spotted a very small artificial difference to the surface and pointed with my walking pole. “That’s It” the young woman cried out. It was an earring and I had made Kate from New York and her partner Ryan very happy.

 

Also on the top I was surprised to see another young woman with a distinct bump and I congratulated her on her achievement. I took photos of her and partner for them on their camera on the way down, and was astounded to realise they were doing exactly as I, the Eastern half from bottom to top, with Conical Hill as well, all in the day. 

A ten hour walk overall: 27km. (16 miles) 2000 metres of ascent and descent, plus for them the drive from and back to Queenstown, at least 1½ hours each way.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised when I learned that Jen Pond earned her living as a GP on the Island of Bute, but also did lots of charity work in Zambia, India and Everest ER, and there had met her Kiwi partner Bruce Hasler, an Everest and Himalayan Guide with Himex.

 

 

The baby is 36 weeks already, and they now have to work out how family life is going to work from now on. Best wishes to all 3, and any further additions to the family.

I can tell you that I was tired enough when I got back home.