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Well, what a night! The van was buffeted for most of the night, although about 5am it became more of a rocking! The rain was coming down in sheets too, and I was certain at one stage that there was hail mixed in. The weather is definitely autumnal here, with quite a cold chill in the air - although still very hot in the sunshine (when it does decide to shine that is!)
Due to the foul weather, we had a really slow start, actually staying in bed for tea and breakfast before stepping out - and would you believe that as soon as we did, the weather began to clear and we could see blue sky! By the time we had driven along the banks of Lake Wanaka and arrived in Wanaka itself (about 60kms) there was bright sunshine and the lake and mountains looked wonderful (when we’d set off, you couldn’t swear there were even mountains there!).
We wandered around Wanaka admiring the town with a very nice feel to it (you were right Jason!), but unfortunately it was too early for us to try out the Paradiso cinema which I would have loved to visit -
a really eclectic place with old sofas and even an old car from which to watch the film - and there’s pizza in the interval (my kind of place!). We did visit the library and were shocked to discover they didn’t have wifi (nor did Queenstown later, which was an even bigger shock!).
We visited the tourist information, and after much discussion we’ve booked a trip to Doubtful Sound for tomorrow. Not what we’d ideally wanted to go tomorrow, but the weather is so uncertain at the moment that we wanted to grab the best day we could. They were advertising winter discount prices, and we finally chose a day trip (we nearly did an overnighter) that had been reduced from $250 to $150 - when we booked we discovered it had been reduced even further to $99 ... we were overjoyed!!
Unfortunately, this meant that we had quite a distance to travel and we set off on the Cardrona Road to Queenstown - described as one of the most scenic drives in the South Island - and boy, was it scenic! I’m beginning to see why Peter Jackson chose to base “Lord of the Rings” here -
the scenery is just out of this world! We stopped briefly at Cardrona itself, more of a winter ski resort, but we were really taken with the old hotel and surrounding shops and stopped for a coffee and a cake by the roaring fire! The bar had the old mine shaft for the gold mine set into the floor.
We then spent some time in Arrowtown, an old gold town that has kept most of its buildings - it really was the prettiest of towns, especially with a backdrop of greens, reds and golds climbing up the steep mountains behind. We wandered round the shops for a while, buying some sweets in ye olde sweet shoppe and some lovely filled bread for our packed lunch for the boat tomorrow.
Then it was off to Queenstown, the adventure capital of the southern hemisphere to hear them talk and the birthplace of bungy jumping. My goodness, it was packed to the gills with backpackers, camper vans and sundry tourists! They are still facing flooding due to all the bad weather which is making everyone a tad nervy. Bearing in mind we had a lot of miles to drive and also
considering the fact that white water rafting, sky diving and bungy jumping are not on our to-do list, we decided to hit the road again and were soon driving past The Remarkables! A wonderful mountain range which deserved their name!
And the good news is that we get to tick off #32 Kicking the Autumn Leaves around Wanaka (made sure I kicked one just to make sure), #36 Queenstown (although not sure if we can count because we didn’t do anything wild!), and #44 Arrowtown.
Now one of the things that we have seen a lot of recently are dead possums by the side of the road - there are some T-shirts bearing the legend ‘possums - New Zealand’s speed bumps’. Now this may seem a tad harsh, but they are a real pest here and universally disliked. They were introduced by hunters who wanted to shoot them for their pelts (which are beautifully soft and often mixed with merino wool and silk to make exquisite clothing). Unfortunately like the stoats, they have got out and are now running amok, causing problems for livestock everywhere, but especially for the indigenous flightless birds. It used to be that hunters
were given a bullet and 10 cents for every pelt they brought it, but when the amount of money this was costing topped £1M the Government decided poisoning was a better way forward.
Everywhere we go we see posters and graffiti complaining about 1080, a poison that is being put into rivers to keep the possum population down - although we don’t know how widespread or prevalent this is. Although as you can imagine, it is indiscriminate and is poisoning all wildlife. We have been told that there are some areas of bush where it’s impossible to tramp (walk) because the stench of rotting carcases is too strong. There are also warnings that dogs should not eat the meat as it will kill, so we imagine this would also be the case for eagles and suchlike. And the cost of the poisoning - last year it topped $3.6M - three times more than paying the hunters.
I find it unbelievable that such a pristine country, with various ecological initiatives and constant reminders to be green everywhere we’ve been, should be systematically putting poison in its waterways - it just doesn’t make sense. And the Government Department responsible? The
Department of Conservation. Frightening.
Anyway, on to happier thoughts - I don’t think I’ve mentioned that the west of the South Island has only recently been accessible by road - the western road was started during the Depression in the 30s, was halted during the war years, and took until 1965 to complete. It was a major feat, taking into account numerous geographical features ... which is where my creeks come in! The creeks flow down the mountains, and when the road came through, they’ve had to put bridges over them, which is how we know their names as they’re all signposted (I imagine in case one gives way). Believe me there are literally hundreds, and we are only naming those we find particularly interesting or amusing!
Those in contention today: Roaring Swine, Chink (followed by Gap), Dizzy, Windbag, Grave, Random, Gun Boat, Staircase and my favourite of the day ... So Big Creek!
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jenny
non-member comment
hello possums!
wow-can't imagine legal killing of possums in Australia-they are protected! even though for those of us with any sort of garden and or trees overhanging roofs they are a pest! it's illegal even to just catch and move them!