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Published: August 6th 2007
Good evening folks. We are sat in an internet caf in Wanaka just sorting out our photos as we are fast running out of space on the camera as we search for the ultimate shot of that perfect sunset, mountain scene, etc. Mrs Deane is cooing over baby photos as well.
We left Dunedin on Sunday morning and headed west. It was mainly a driving day but when you're driving through this kind of scenery it's hardly a chore. The one town of note that we passed through was Gore, the world home of Brown trout fishing and also the NZ home of country music. In true 'I want to be Aussie' style they have erected some big stuff to honour their claims.
We rolled into Te Anau in the late afternoon with a big decision to make. Whether or not to chain ourselves up. We were heading out to Milford Sound on Monday and the road had been closed earlier in the week due to snow and avalanche danger. We were planning on driving it. The weather appeared to be ok but there is a small bylaw in place about carrying snowchains to confuse the issue. You technically
(and I mean technically) need to carry them if the sign says so. The sign is updated daily based on the latest avalanche warnings. Always keen to err on the side of caution, as the avalanche risk was low, we went for it.
We headed up the long road (120km one way) to Milford Sound and stopped after about 25km at one of the free campsites for the night. It was a beautiful setting right by the riverside and we spent the last half hour of partial light skimming stones across the river. Mrs Deane had told me that Mr Golden-Father-In-Law had taught her everything he knew about skimming stones. Now, either Mrs Deane has forgotten all her training or the training wasn't so good in the first place as Mrs Deane wasn't too hot. It was mainly just throwing stones into the river. And I was no better. We need practise.
People often ask or wonder whether this kind of travel experience that we're on brings us closer together. The answer is yes. After cooking a quick dinner on our stove we couldn't get any closer as we huddled in our fridge of a campervan in several
layers of clothing and two duvets to try and get some sleep.
The morning dawned and it was a little bit crisp. And frosty. And cold. Freezing cold. But we headed off towards Milford Sound anyway. This drive is probably the best drive I have ever done. It has everything - Mountains (big ones too), snow, frost, ice, tunnels, waterfalls, big rocks, little rocks, steep roads, steeper roads, bends, hairpin bends, Mrs Deane on the edge of her seat, Mrs Deane panicking as she stares over a cliff edge, lakes and then finally Milford Sound. A brilliant drive. It took us about 3 hours as we stopped so often to take photos.
The beauty of the early start was that we skipped the crowds. Not that there are that many crowds at this time of year. We made it down to the Sound (technically it's a Fjord) for the 11.30 cruise out to the Tasman Sea. As we got off the boat, the place was swarming with all the tourist buses dropping off the hordes. We were quite pleased with ourselves.
The boat trip was great as we cruised out from the start of Milford Sound to
the Tasman Sea and back over about 90 minutes. The sound was very calm and all around us were towering snow topped mountains plunging straight into the water. Mitre Peak is one of the tallest mountains in the world to rise straight up from the water. The boat was a little fresh with the cold but it didn't bother me much. It may have chilled Mrs Deane a little though. On our boat (which can hold 170 people) there were 6 of us. We couldn't believe they would still run it with only 6 people but they said they ran the previous day with only 2. It just meant more room for us. We saw a fur seal basking on the side, loads of mountains, waterfalls, the sea, the sound. We even saw a few hardy souls out kayaking. Not for us - a little cold. We went past one overhang of rock (about 700m up a cliff) and this is where a woman filmed the Pepsi Max advert where she base jumped straight off the side. Craziness.
After the cruise we just had the return journey but we stopped off at a lot of the tourist sites we
missed on the way down. The chasm, a very odd rock formation carved out by a waterfall, a nice half hour hike to see some rapids, the Mirror lakes (named for their mirror like qualities - the effect is ruined some what if the ducks are messing about on the surface), The divide and my favourite, The Homer Tunnel. Named after a family man from Springfield who was a big name in the nuclear power world I believe.
By the time we got back to Te Anau we were shattered and all we were good for was booking into a campervan place, cooking some food and having a celebratory beer and then a bit of sleep.
On Tuesday we were heading North again. We have hopes that we may reach warmer climes sometime in the next couple of weeks. Not hot but at least bearable. We had a little bit of a lie in so we didn't end up nearing Queenstown till a little after midday. Once again the drive was great as the last 40km (after Kingstown) ran along the shores of Lake Wakatipu. There were towering snow-capped mountains on both sides with the road clinging to
cliffs that plunged into the deep of the lake. (very poetic that bit of writing - very unlike me).
Just before Queenstown we turned off to head to Deer Park Heights as there was loads of LOTR filming done here. However, we pulled up at a toll booth and it asked for NZ$20. We were a little dubious as we thought it was just a hill. We paid anyway and headed up. It was brilliant and we ended up spending the entire afternoon there.
The hill itself was grand, with 360 degree views over Queenstown, The Remarkables (big mountains), Lake Wakatipu and all the surrounding countryside. Then there were all the movie filming locations. And to cap it off there were loads of animals to feed. There were feeding stations where you could grab a bucket of feed and head off and feed all these animals roaming the hillside. We saw the ugliest pig in the world, there were donkeys, alpacas, llamas, deer, ducks, sheep, bison, tibetan yaks, goats and even some highland cattle. They were all friendly. Almost. One of the highland cattle cracked Mrs Deane round the head with a horn. We don't think he meant
it though. Just a little clumsy. The alpacas were a little over friendly as we got swamped every time we ventured out of the van.
After all the animal excitement we drove straight through Queenstown to our campsite the other side as it was starting to get dark. The only stop we made was at the lakeside to see if our stone skimming could get any better. By some small miracle it had. I managed several double figure skims and Mrs Deane was not far off that as well. She must have remembered the training from Mr Golden-Father-In-Law overnight.
Another cold night but not quite as bad as a couple nights previous and we awoke to another day of blue sky and crisp temperatures. We headed back through Queenstown and out to the outskirts of town to where the bungy jumping takes place. We had planned to have a go but couldn't believe that the cheapest one was NZ$150! Outrageous price. We watched a couple others do it but decided we would check out the prices elsewhere as Queenstown is supposed to be the most expensive place to have a go. Instead I gave Mrs Deane a treat.
We headed to the Chard Farm winery for a quick taste test. Not a bad selection at all and a beautiful spot for a winery. We picked up a bottle of unoaked chardonnay and left that chilling in our fridge (the whole of the back of the van). Just below the winery is another film spot for LOTR. This was the River Anduin and the Pillars of the Kings. (In case you wonder why I keep putting LOTR references in it's because I'm a bit geeky like that and so is little brother Beany who requested lots of photos on it).
We then headed off to Wanaka. It's a short hike over the highest sealed road in NZ at over 1000m. Luckily no snow and not too much ice so we got over fine. It's then just a 25km freewheel down to Wanaka. Our only stop was at Cardrona. This used to be a gold mining town but all that seems to be left is one pub - The Cardrona Hotel. It's still in it's original form from the 1860's and looks great. We stopped and had a very tasty pub lunch before getting back on our way. Got
into Wanaka at about 1.30pm and booked Friday's activity (you'll have to wait to find out) and then off to Puzzling World.
A fantastic place. Only NZ$10 to get in. It was built by a mad guy about 30 years ago who gave up his job to build a big maze. Over the years he added a room of staring faces, hologram rooms, mirrors, sloping rooms plus loads and loads of puzzles and all sorts of other stuff. Definitely appeals to my geeky nature. We managed to kill a good few hours there. It even has a leaning tower of Wanaka enabling you to take some mildly humerous photos.
Times up for now. We've got a quiet evening planned in Wanaka and then it's off to the West Coast proper.
As promised the results of the Golden Bloggies are below. I hope you're happy with the results.
Deane & Deane, Brrrr
The GOLDEN BLOGGIES - first batch as voted for by the fans (all 3 of you)
-Favourite Blog: Top of The World
-Favourite Male: Mr G
-Favourite Female: Rosalinda
-Favourite Country: Laos
-Favourite Photographer: Random Passer By
-Best Big Thing: The Big Prawn -Most Read Blog: Top of the World - 328 hits (to date)
-Best Accomodation: The tent (Cookie missed the cut off). Special mentions to all of those that have kindly put us up along the way
-Most consistent commenter: Sazzle, you need to get out more (p.s. keep up the good work). Special mention to Beany for picking out all the faults and typos
-Best Johnny-come-lately Newcomer: Jimbob Reid, some sterling work over the last few months.
-Best Activity: Tubing with beer
-Best brewery: Angkor - free beer
-Best fictional character: Pirate Patchybeard
-Best Beer: Bia Hoi - 5 pence
Beer 119: Mac's Great White, New Zealand, Bottle, 5.0%!,(MISSING) 7.5, Had high hopes for this one and it almost got there
Beer 120: Cardrona Ale, New Zealand, Draught, 5.0%!,(MISSING) 7.0, Unfortunately not quite as good as the pub it was served in
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