Advertisement
The trip from Wanaka to Franz Josef initially follows Lake Wanaka towards the west, then Lake Hawea and after leaving that lake starts to climb steadily towards Haast Pass.
The only village along the way is Makarora and also the only place for petrol for quite some kilometers. I was keen to see Makarora again as I had memories of being stranded there one time when I was in my 20's hitch hiking with my sister Bronwen from Wanaka to Haast. We had beem lucky enough to get a ride from Wanaka after staying with Nancy and Chris for quite some distance to Makarora where there was a Post Office, a couple of petrol pumps and a motorcamp.
After being dropped off at Makarora, we went into the shop to get some food and as there was no cars on the road asked the assistant what our chances were of getting a lift that day over the Pass. We were in luck as she said that the Post Office Linesman was due to drop in for petrol soon on his way to Haast and she was sure he would give us a ride, all we had to do
was to look out for his grey truck and tell him that she had said we could get a lift and it all should be good.
Half an hour later a grey truck pulled up so I plucked up the courage and went over to this guy and told him the story about our guaranteed ride, he seemed quite young for a Post Office Linesman but never mind it was a lift all the way to Haast.
A few miles down the road we asked him about his job in this remote location and that there must be a lot of faults to attend to on the overhead telephone lines over the pass and through the bush.
He looked suprised and said he wasn't the linesman he was the Forestry Ranger. Bron and I looked at each other and laughed, oh well a ride was a ride under these circumstances. He turned out to be a great guy and on our way over the Haast Pass he stopped and spoke to all the Road Gangs working on the roadside, mainly to see if they were poaching Wood Pigeon (Kereru) but also to keep in touch with the road
and weather conditions.
I cant remember the Ranger's name but after some time of talking, he asked us where we were staying in Haast and we told him we hadn't arranged anywhere yet. He offered that we could sleep on the floor in his lounge by the fire for the night as he had a huge forestry house and lived there on his own. That evening he took us on patrol through the bush checking for deer and pigs.
As we approached Makarora on this trip I couldnt help thinking how helpful and friendly people were then and how I wouldn't like my own daughters to hitch hike like that on their own
The road over the Haast Pass is tar sealed all the way now and is an amazing journey, at Haast Gates the river narrows and as you pass over it on the old bridge the water rushing below is a great sight.
Once through Haast and then heading northwards up the West Coast the road breaks out into incredible views of the Coastline, the Nikau Palms grow well here and bush has a tropical rain forest feel about it.
Our destination that
night was the YHA hostel at Fran Josef, where we arrived just on dusk after many stops
Advertisement
Tot: 0.129s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0654s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb