Monday 21st February

We had a slightly disturbed night, blaming noisy air conditioning.  When we opened the curtains, we realised the window was slightly open, it was pouring with rain and the wind was moving the trees around.  Thanks to Mervyn and Jeanne for wishing us rain at Milford Sound!!!!

It was the Olive Tree for breakfast then back to the hotel ready for pick up by coach at 10.00am.  The coach was somewhat late but we found out this was a shuttle doing the round of the local hotels and we were last on the round.  We were dropped at the tour base where we joined a larger coach which had come from Queenstown.

The coach was a special panoramic coach with a glass roof, huge windows, the inside seats set slightly forward of the window seats and the back of the coach higher than the front.  This would have been fantastic on a bright sunny day but as the cloud base was extremely low and the rain was pouring down it seemed a waste.

We made a few stops on the way to Milford Sound but the weather was against any special photos.

The driver had timed her arrival at Homer Tunnel perfectly as we drove straight in; it is possible to have to wait half and hour to pass through.  Linda didn’t like the tunnel as it was pitch black and only one lane.  The road surface was extremely rough and noisy.

On leaving the tunnel the landscape opened out into a huge amphitheatre where the road zigzagged down the valley.  Water was cascading from all of the cliffs and it was phenomenal to see.  We stopped just after getting out of the tunnel for a photo stop and it was an amazing sight in every direction.  Ten minutes further down the valley the coach stopped at an area called The Chasm.  The driver said that the falls should be awesome due to the rain but it was a 15 minute trail to the falls and back.  The majority of the people on the coach decided to go and although we came back looking like drowned rats it was worth it.  (It brought to mind our visit to Skara Brae with Mark and Janet.  The heavens opened on our way back to the car and so when we arrived back, absolutely soaked, Mark insisted that we took our trousers off before sitting in his car!) 

Ten minutes further down the valley we were at the landing stage for the boats and the sun made a brief appearance.

The voyage on the boat down the fiord is impossible to describe so we have just put in a few photos.

The weather changed many times as we progressed along the fiord so our photos are of variable quality.  We were very lucky to see the waterfalls in full flow and although it would have been good to do the journey with a blue sky and the sun shining we would not have had such impressive scenery.

 Heare is a picture of a large boat in the above waterfall, giving the idea of scale!

And here are the photos of us after our boat went near to the waterfall.

And here is our boat near to a smaller waterfall.

As the guide said we can always buy photographs with blue skies!  (Linda has decided to stop talking about one waterfall too many in Canada!). 

The journey back in the coach was a lot drier and we even saw some blue sky. We were able to see the mountains and lakes that the driver had referred to on our outbound journey.   

The weather was a blessing in some ways as we had no encounters with the dreaded sand fly, although we didn’t get to see the birds that we had hoped for.  We have still not had a sighting of a Kea in the wild!

We arrived back in Te Anau and the sun was definitely shining and the lake looked totally different from how we had left it at ten o’clock.

However Linda’s trousers were STILL not dry from the visit to the chasm 5 hours previously.

We visited The Olive Tree for dinner again as their menu was so varied and we knew that the quality was very good.

Sunday 20th February

We awoke to a most beautiful day.  The view from the room was stunning and Linda just wanted to stay in bed and soak up the view.  

We also had a text from Bryony with fantastic news that she has gained her Trainee Manager Post.  She has been acting Ladies Floor Manager since before Christmas so she has worked hard for it.

Unfortunately, we were only here for one night so we had to pack and leave this idyllic location.

We drove to Frankton, along the lake road from Queenstown, and breakfasted at The Tin Goose.  We had a fabulous breakfast and great coffee.

Following the lake south towards Kingston, the views over the lake to The Remarkables was truly remarkable.  We felt as though we wanted to photograph every view.

We stopped in Kingston to take photographs of the railway station and also some of the rolling stock for the Kingston Flyer. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t see the train as we thought it had set off on its journey to the “nowhere hamlet” of Fairlight.  However, on further investigation it appears that the Kingston Flyer does not run now and what we found appeared to be all that’s left and gathering dust.  There were two engines, one first class carriage, quite a few second class carriages of varying ages and a few trucks.  We did, however, find the Signal Box up for sale.  It comprised of a house and the possibility of a business.  (How about it Ted and Mya, do you fancy going into business with us?   Beautiful weather on one out of three days and apparently you become immune to the sand flies!)  

There were other photo opportunities in this small hamlet.  We were admiring and taking photos of an old Chevy outside and an even older car of indeterminate make in a garage, both in immaculate condition, when the owners waved to us from their upstairs windows and appreciated our interest.

There was also Kings Wheel Cottage, where all of the fencing was made out of wheels of different sizes, which was on Oxford Street.

We had an excellent coffee stop at the Five Rivers Café where we were able to sample the fine coffee and the free smiles!

There was a small paddock with horses, miniature pony, goat and pygmy pig to watch while sitting out in the beautiful sunshine.  In the café there was a display of the most amazing art work.   We could have spent a fortune if we could have got them home!

At Five Rivers we turned off SH6 and took the short cut to Mossburn.  We did consider driving up to the Mavora Lakes (39km from the highway) but when the tarmac road turned into a grit road less than 3km from the highway we decided to turn around and make for Te Anau.

We arrived in Te Anau at about 3.30pm which gave us plenty of time to check in and then go to the Real Travel Office to confirm our boat trip tomorrow up the Milford Sound.  We had a trip to the supermarket for more provisions and sand fly repellent, followed by a trip to the pharmacy for sand fly bite relief.

A visit to the Department of Conservation office informed us of a walk into the woods, beside the lake where we would be able to see some of the birds that we were having difficulty in seeing in the wild.  We saw two kea

Two kahe
and a takahe.

in cages.  We also saw lots of bell birds (that we had seen/heard previously but not identified) not in cages

We were disappointed that the cage for the Tui was occupied by a parakeet.  However, on the way back to the car we managed to see, and photograph a wild Tui (it wasn’t that angry!) and we said to each other that one in the bush is worth ten in the cage..

We called into the hotel to get changed and then we went to The Olive Tree for dinner of Soup, Pork Escalope and Blueberry Parfait.

Saturday 19th February

A slightly grey day but even as we had breakfast at Gusto the cloud base started to lift.

A fascinating detail about the road that we drove along yesterday is that there was no road from Haast to Wanaka until 1965.  It was constructed from both ends and the gorge at the Gates of Haast was the final challenge.  This was an unsealed road until 1995 when the final piece had its tar coating. 

We left Wanaka at about 10am after picking up petrol from the BP station.  We had a choice of over-priced petrol stations but decided to help keep Joe’s Dad in a job!!

There are two roads to Queenstown, the one that goes through Cardrona, which is very steep and has lots of tight bends but on a clear day affords spectacular views and the low road through Queensbury that passes Mount Pisa which is very pretty even on a grey day, according to the friendly receptionist at the Wanaka Hotel. Hardly surprisingly Ian chose the high road. 

The panoramic view from the summit of Crown Range Road would have been spectacular if it had not been for the cloud base.  We even took videos of the cloud rising which gave occasional glimpses of the view.  The road down had more than a few hairpins.

We stopped at Arrowtown to become tourists.  Arrowtown was a town created during the gold rush and at its height had a population of 7000+.  Nowadays the population is about 1200 although during the summer with the visitors and the day trippers from Queenstown the town has to cater for over 7000.  There are two distinct areas of Arrowtown, one is the original mining town with the small miners’ cottages and the avenue of Sycamore and Oak trees which gave shade to the homes, the other is the Chinese mining area.  Linda found this area extremely sad as the Chinese suffered great racial hatred, earned half what their white counterparts earned and mostly lived without their families who they had left behind in Canton.  Occasionally whole families clubbed together to send one family member out to New Zealand in the hope that they could send money back to the family.  In 1902 the bodies of over 500 Chinese miners were exhumed and sent back for burial in China, unfortunately the boat sank on the way back and all the bodies were lost.

In the main street of Arrowtown the souvenir shops sit quite happily alongside the town’s normal shops including the local furniture shop.

We stopped for a cup of tea in the old Postmaster’s house, where we were served real English Breakfast LEAF tea in a teapot with china cups and saucers.   Delicious!
The gentleman serving us said that as we were English we had to drink our tea with a little finger crooked!!!

Leaving Arrowtown we diverted via Coronet’s Peak, where we had a spectacular view onto the plain below and on to Arthur’s Point.  The houses on this area look far more affluent than around the Haast area, which is testament to the money that is flooding into the area from the tourists and the New Zealanders who holiday here.  We drove past a new estate with private roads where obviously the post man does not deliver the post to the individual houses as there was a long line of post boxes, some of which were highly original, including one made out of a Caterpillar engine radiator.

 

 

 

In Arthur’s Point we stopped to watch the people come down the river on jetboats, they seemed to be enjoying it. 

We drove into Queenstown and called at the supermarket to buy our lunch of cereal bars and bananas.  Then it was onto the Esplanade to eat our lunch and to admire a huge tree.

After lunch we drove along the side of the lake to Bob’s Cove to watch the Seich phenomena of the lake where every 5 minutes the lake’s surface drops by 150mm.  Unfortunately when we were at the observation area there was a pleasure cruiser close to the beach causing some ripples on the water and then a beautiful collie came to play, both of which prevented us from observing the Seich.

We had intended driving up to Glenorchy but the light started to fade and as it was over 40km along the side of the lake we decided not to go.   Glenorchy was a location area for Lord of the Rings .  The area has also become The Canadian Rockies and The Alps, as well as Middle Earth and Narnia.

We decided to book into the hotel early. The Rees Hotel and Apartments is amazing with about 150 rooms.  We had a superb view over the lake in a one bed roomed luxury apartment with private balcony.

Friday 18th February

We had another leisurely start to the day.  The weather is warm but quite misty.

Packed up and checked out by 9.30am.

We drove into Franz Joseph to breakfast at Speights.  We decided to go for coffee after breakfast at the coffee shop next door as it offered free Wi-Fi and we needed to upload the blog.  Unfortunately, for some reason we were unable to make a connection so will have to try again tonight.

Our original plan was to go to Lake Matheson and Fox Glacier this morning on the way to Wanaka, however as the weather did not improve we decided to head straight for Wanaka.  We were warned that the journey of 190 miles (300km) would take about 5 hours as the road has lots of bends.  By the time we arrived at Lake Matheson, the weather had cleared slightly so decided to go for the walk after all.  We were so pleased that we did as we managed to see some more Fan Tails and some close encounters of the 4^th kind with some beautifully calling (similar riff but an octave or 2 higher and so sweet) birds which we are not yet able to identify.  The moss covered trees were remarkable and we spotted a strange blue toadstool.

Unfortunately, Mount Cook was still covered in cloud and the reflections were not as good as we had hoped.

We followed the coast road down to Knights Point where we saw some more fantails and this time managed to get some photos.

However, even though we had bought some sand fly repellent yesterday many of the pesky little things weren’t worried by it.  We beat a hasty retreat and had to use some after bite.

Driving further South we stopped for a pot of tea at Haast.  Although Haast appears to be a reasonable sized place on the map it is very small and we agreed with the guide book’s description of the settlement as a bit of a non-entity.

The road then turned east into the Haast Valley.   As we climbed we got into the cloud base and everything appeared very damp. 

We made a couple of stops to photograph the waterfalls but we were not prepared to hang around for too long and become fresh meat for the sand flies.  We stopped at the gates of Haast where the cliffs towered above us on both sides and the river roared beneath us.  It could easily be the setting for the gates in the second book of The Lord of the Rings.

Almost as soon as we went over the Haast Pass the weather cleared.  We dropped down to Makarora which was even more of a non-entity than Haast.

Linda started to relax after being on the cliff roads where the rocks towered above us and there were signs of rock slides.

We arrived at Lake Wanaka, which was much bigger than we had expected.  The water was so blue even though the sky was still overcast.

We went over a small hill and Lake Hawea appeared.  

The views of both of the lakes were good as they weren’t obscured by trees.  Each of the Lakes is about 50km long and we went down half of each.

We arrived in Wanaka, which at New Year appears to become home to half of the teenagers from South Island and is the NZ version of Newquay, to find that it has one main street.  The restaurants were much more stylish than we had experienced previously in South Island (jandals, frayed jeans and scruffy clothes are not acceptable).  We opted for a Thai Restaurant and our meals were delicious.  We are staying at the Wanaka Hotel which is not as upmarket as the Hotel in Hanmer Springs and not as relaxing as the Lodge in Franz Josef.

Thursday 17th February

We had a very lazy start to the morning as the mist was right down and we could not see the mountains.  Linda was ironing some of the clothes that she had washed last night before 9am!

We went into Franz Josef for our breakfast at the restaurant that John our Argentinean Receptionist had recommended.  Ian had the Aviator Breakfast, which was huge and Linda had her toasted muesli served with banana and a plate full of toast.

We wandered around the shops for quite a while before the mist decided to lift.

We then drove out to the car park near to the foot of the glacier.  It was now extremely hot and the hour and a half that we took to walk to the glacier and back began became a bit of a challenge.  We should have taken the water bottles with us but I don’t think either of us realised quite how far we had to walk.  However, it was well worth the walk when we got to the base of the glacier. 

It was very different from the glacier that we walked on in Canada, partially because that was a steep uphill walk but also because the one in Canada was way above the tree line and was so barren.

After visiting the glacier we went back to the chalet to change into something cooler and to have our lunch in comfort.

We then drove out to Okarita, a lagoon next to the sea which had been a centre of activity at the time of the NZ gold rush.  Only 3 buildings remain of the once thriving township, although there are a number of holiday cottages.  We had been led to believe that we could visit the lagoon and do some bird-watching.  However, that was not quite the case; the lagoon was on the other side of the river and only accessible by boat.  We did get down to the beach and saw some amazing drift wood on the beach. 

 Ian walked along the river bank and took some photos of wading birds while Linda soaked up some rays.

Back to the chalet to collect our swimwear and then we drove back into Franz Josef to experience the thermal pools.  There were three pools at different temperatures, 36º, 38ºand 40º C.  It was wonderful to just relax in the warm water and Linda found that she was floating, something that she has never experienced before.  After an hour and a half in the pools we were beginning to get a little wrinkly (no comments please!) so decided to leave.

We went to the same restaurant as last night as the food had been so good.  The food was still excellent but the service wasn’t as good as the staff were totally different.

A little bit of packing was done tonight as we are moving on again tomorrow.  We have had such a lovely relaxing time here that it will be hard to leave.

Wednesday 16th February

Just before we reached Punakaiki yesterday we noticed a sign saying beware of penguins!  We didn’t know that they were dangerous or even in this area!

Apparently they arrive on this coastline between October and February to breed.  They don’t make burrows but are quite likely to make nests beneath the houses.

 

After a very good night’s sleep we woke to a beautiful day. The We(s)t Coast is not living up to its reputation.  We are being very blessed with the weather. We could hear the rollers crashing onto the rocks below The Rocks as we looked out of our veranda over the tree tops.

Breakfast, with our fellow guests, 2 Germans and 2 Dutch travellers was interesting!  Breakfast was organic muesli, home made bread, fresh fruit, yoghurt and eggs.  Roland made delicious coffee and was a perfect host.  He also gave us some suggestions for interesting places to stop.

We said our farewells at about 9.30am to give us time to go to the blow holes as high tide was expected about 10.03am.  The sound of the breakers was phenomenal and the blow holes breathtaking.  Obviously, we had to take lots of photos, it would have been rude not to! 

A school of small dolphins swam by while we were watching the waves but Linda’s camera did not have a good enough zoom to capture them.  We were amazed by the pancake rocks as the area was far more extensive than we had expected from the guide brochures.

From the blow holes we returned north so that we could walk down the Truman Track to the coast.  This is a trail through some tropical rain forest that leads down to the coast.  We managed to video some of the sea birds and breakers.

On the path back to the car we had a special encounter with a Fan Tail, but were unable to photograph it as we had the polarising filters on the cameras and the light in the forest wasn’t good enough to allow quick focusing.  Oh well, at least he gave us a personal show.

From there we turned south again, following the coastline and seeing more breathtaking scenery.  We stopped in Greymouth for coffee; this is where the trans alpine train arrives from Christchurch.  It is also where the mining disaster was in December 2010.  The town had very little to recommend it so after coffee we carried on down the coast road, passing through many small communities, even one called Chesterfield.  We arrived in Hokitika and found that it was a charming little town.  We had a wander around the shops for half and hour before driving out to the Lookout Point for a belated lunch stop.  Hokitika owes its existence to the gold rush of the 1860’s.  Gold miners from Australia and Ireland flocked to the area and within two years the population grew to 6000 which is 2000 more than it is today. Before leaving Hokitika, Ian took photos of the treacherous sand bar at the river’s mouth and the masses of driftwood on the beach; no wonder the local craft industry uses driftwood as one of its raw materials!

As we drove further south, the road took us away from the coast and we had some splendid views of wide river valleys with mountains in the background, some with snow on their peaks.

Our host, Roland, at the Rooks had recommended that we took time out of our journey to stop at the Bushman Centre in Pukekura which exhibits and sells strange bush stuff, much of it manufactured from ‘possums including possum pie.  We decided to make it our ice-cream stop of the day. We spent about half an hour wandering around and photographing the tongue in cheek signs that were around the place. 

They have a huge sandfly to advertise the centre.

We had wondered about staying in Pukekura but seeing the name of the hotel we are pleased that we didn’t!!

The pub was visited by Billy Connolly on his World Tour of New Zealand. 

Tonight’s stop is in a lovely chalet.  The area is so peaceful but we may be woken up early tomorrow as we spotted a cockerel strutting around.  There is no food provided at our site so we had to drive a few km into Franz Josef for a meal on the patio of a popular restaurant.

Tuesday 15th February

We looked out of our window; such a contrast to the previous evening!

We breakfasted in The Wood Shack which was one of the first buildings in Hanmer Springs.  It still looked the same as in the early photos of Hanmer Springs which were displayed inside.  There was a rally of veteran cars setting off from the centre of the town so we managed to take quite a few photos.

We drove South from Hanmer Springs and then joined the main road from Christchurch.  Driving westwards we drove through Hanmer Forest Park which was a broad river valley and the road allowed us glimpses of the river.  There is very little traffic around and we had good panoramic views as despite the name there is not much forest.

Linda had problems videoing/photographing birds of prey as we drove along, so has finally been given instructions on how to use the video camera.  Lots of practising going on but Linda is not very successful yet.

Just past the small settlement of Boyle, at the beginning of the Lewis Pass National Reserve we pulled off the road to find the track beside the Lewis River where warm water bubbles up and mixes with the cold river water to create refreshing thermal pools.  Unfortunately, the sand flies seem to like this area and decided that we made a nice breakfast for them so we beat a hasty retreat and didn’t get to paddle.

We had been hardly aware how high we had climbed until we crossed over the Lewis Pass itself and the road dropped down a steep winding incline for 8km to the valley bottom at Maruia Springs.  A few km further, we reached Springs Junction where the road split.  We drove west through a forested area to Reefton where we stopped for morning coffee.

Reefton is located beside the Inungahua River where the roads for Westport, Greymouth and Christchurch intersect.  It was called Reefton as it owes its existence to rich gold-bearing quartz reefs  Reefton was considered by some to be “the most brisk and business like place in the colony”.  The frenzy of financial speculation put Reefton in the vanguard and it was the first place in New Zealand and one of the first places in the world to install electric road lights powered by hydroelectricity.   The buildings on the main street reminded us of the Wild West.

After driving north for some distance, we drove down the Buller Gorge where there were tantalising glimpses of the Buller River.  We stopped for our customary lunch at Hawks Crag where there was a lovely view of the river and we were parked on a bend.   There were lots of photo opportunities at this point as we could see the overhang in the rock where the river had eroded the rock during the floods in 1926 (several metres above the road level indicating the volume of water that must have flowed through the gorge).  At this point the road is only wide enough for one vehicle at a time so drivers have to be courteous and give way.  The cicadas are back, Yeah.

We drove into Westport which is a holiday town.  We stopped at the harbour to take some photos before driving back through the town and buying some petrol.  A sign tells us that there are no petrol stations for 100km, so that will be 50 km after Punakaiki

Following the coast road we stopped at the seal sanctuary at Cape Foulwind (thankfully the wind was in the right direction and we didn’t smell anything untoward).  The scenery was superb and we both indulged in a great deal of videoing and photography.  There were not as many seals as we had seen on the East Coast but the rollers and the rocks made up for it.

We spotted a brown bird about the size of a pheasant and tried to get a photograph but it went into the bushes.  On the way back to the car we met it again and it stayed on the path for us to photograph it.  At one look out point we heard a very loud noise and realised that there were two of these birds.  Back at the ice cream kiosk we bought Goldrush ice-creams, which are caramel ice-cream with chocolate covered honeycomb pieces.  We asked the lady serving the ice-cream what the birds were and she told us that they were Western Wekas, a type of flightless rail.   While we were eating the ice-creams we gained an audience of three Wekas as they were waiting for the crumbs!  (We didn’t give them any as the information board asked people not to feed them human food!)

Then it was back to following the coast road down to Punakaiki. 

Our stay tonight is at The Rocks which turns out to be a Bed and Breakfast stop with a charming Swiss couple.  They are very into art, birds, the environment and ecology.  The house has huge windows and a verandah on two sides.  We saw and photographed some cicadas on the veranda.

There are beautiful wooden floors in the main rooms and we were asked to remove our shoes when indoors.  We have been asked to keep the verandah doors closed at night to stop the opossums getting in, although we notice the mosquitoes are a more immediate threat.

After showering and changing we went into Punaikaiki for our evening meal.  Apparently there are only two places to eat, one was very up market and we needed to have booked, the other was The Punaikaiki Tavern.  We went to the Tavern and it was very full so we had quite a wait for our evening meal, which was adequate but not sensational.  Then it was back to The Rocks for coffee with our hosts and Ian had some Chocolate Mousse.