Blogs from Haast Pass, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

SC writes: Our last day in Queenstown was pretty much rained off. We did drive out about 50 kms to Glenorchy with some great views of Lake Wakatipu and Arrowtown, a ridiculously picturesque village. Both very pleasant BUT we have encountered the infamous, the dreaded, NZ midge. These are tiny flies that bite (and I do mean bite..they draw blood). The bites then itch like fury for hours....very unpleasant indeed. We remembered why we had avoided some places on the west coast back in 1994... The midges! Today we drove northwards towards the west coast at Haast. Again the scenery was stunning and the weather was ok, sunny at times but also a few showers. We stopped at Wanaka on the way, delighful town on the banks of another large lake. A smaller, more chilled version ... read more

Today we awoke to (wait for it...) misty rain. The remnants of the cyclone were still being felt across the South island, and we prayed that on this day before Easter, we would start to see a break in the weather. Even with the rain and mist, we made the most of our time. We decided to see if we could view the Franz Josef glacier (no luck seeing the ice), and Lake Matheson (no luck again), before we finally had a change at the Fox glacier. It was a challenging hike, but we were rewarded with some spectacular views of the ice and dozens of waterfalls. The only thing that could have made it better was if there was more sun. After a couple of hours trekking through woods and across rock beds, we began ... read more

Woensdag 5 Februari 2014: Het Duitse team heeft tot diep in de nacht een feestje gebouwd, gelukkig deden de oorstoppen hun ding maar ne sandflies-beten deden dat ook nog. Ik slaap wat langer en na het ontbijt krijgt men Santos zijn maandelijks onderhoud, ik trek ook de remkabel terug aan ipv de stelvijsjes te gebruiken. De was van gisteren is na het nachtelijke regenbuitje terug droog. Ik ga vervolgens naar het centrum en ga verschillende winkels binnen op zoek naar reflecterende bandjes of dergelijke voor men zwarte jas en naar USB-geheugen om men GoPro-films naar huis te sturen. Ik ga even bij KFC iets eten maar dit is veel te zout! Men voorkeur ging eigenlijk uit naar een vers soepje maar de keuken was al dicht van de desbetreffende tent. Uiteindelijk vind ik bij the Warehouse, ... read more

Another 4 hour drive (everywhere of interest on the west coast is 4 hours away, even the next town). Spectacular scenery and 3 geographical areas on route, plains, subtropical and glacial. Nowhere in the world can offer this contrast in such a small area.... read more

We got up first thing Tuesday morning for a walk down to the Queenstown CBD to pick up the car. We had previously scouted out the Avis location and found a bakery for breakfast around the corner. While it wasn’t as good as Fergburger is sufficed to get us going. We picked up the car, a pretty new Camry and set off on the left side of the road. The first excitement, right outside the Avis lot, the town was doing something major to the street so a bit of a construction detour, but we got through that and came to our first round-a-bout (or rotary or traffic circle), as the signs say we “give way” to the cars on our right and turn into the circle to the left. By this point (about 50m from ... read more