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Published: August 10th 2008
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Morning all,
Right, where did we leave you? Ah yeah, we've just finished our glacial walk. Well, the night went alright. though I did manage to drop a bowl (we only had to two, forcing me to eat out of a plastic microwavable bowl) and in the middle of the night the alarm fuse randomly started emitting a strange buzzing noise. Maui haven't supplied us with any manufactures information, so I just turn the damn thing off. Had to do that every night. Honestly, this thing is falling apart around us - the lights have their own personality, one only turning on now if we turn of the left gas hob ring. Weird right?
Anyway, we were woken by my alarm as Jason's phone just died on him while we were sleeping. He's pretty miffed. We get the Merc ready to roll and leave Franz Josef by 8.15, an unbelievable time for either of us lol. The trip is gonna be pretty interesting from a scenic point of view (but pretty dull from a narrative point of view), as from my perspective we traveled through 6 different landscapes (I know I've yet again got the entry about us spending
all day traveling, ah well).
We pass the glacier and then pass the second glacier called Fox Glacier before heading through the mountain passes. There is no sign of civilisation here apart from the signal road we're driving on. The sky is completely clear and the sun is low enough to give each tree a very long shadow. We're passing through the gorge, the mountains looming over us, still covered in snow. We continue to rise up through the Douglas and Coolie Mountain ranges, at times the Merc barely managed to make the fish hook turns at the upward angle. We hit a particularly twisty part, Omoeroa Saddle, and the turns are so severe the table swings lose and bounces around in the back of the Merc. We're moving too steeply for me to even contemplate getting up to secure it.
Suddenly we're out of the gorge and heading down the mountains, heading toward the coast, the same sandy beaches and the too blue sea lapping away mere metres from the road. This is pretty much the very same scene we've been seeing for the last three weeks (I worked it out, we landed on the 20th, so
today as I write is exactly 3 weeks since we landed). We briefly stop to take a few pics at Lake Moeraki, before continuing on our way. After about an hour of this we hit Haast and cross the Haast river, filling back up on fuel and munching on a cookies. The attendant reckons it'll be another 3 and a half hours to Queenstown.
We then follow along the River Haast, keeping to the edge of the Mark Range of Mountains (that's right, me and Jace named them for you Mark... honest.) The view is again stunning, the river is massively wide, and we just keep following it, the sun actually warming the Merc, the first time it's been properly warm since... well, since we got the damn thing to be honest!
We turn of the Haast, slipping between the Southern Alps and the Bealey Range. We're now stupidly high up, I can't even see the bottom of the valley on my left. There are hills down there that don't reach out height! We reach the bottom of the valley and it's like a whole different world. Gone are the masses of forests, we're in what could pass
for a set on Little House of the Prairie. Hip high white grass bobs around in the wind as we shoot through the valley, with horses running in their paddocks. Unreal. I'm half waiting to see a steam train shoot past on us on the rails beside us.
The highlight of the trip waits for us over the hill horizon - Lake Wanaka. This lake is massive - easily 44/43 kilometres long. And it's blue, a deep royal, untainted blue. No boats or anything, just the blue of the water and the contrast of the reddy-brown feet of the Harris Mountains. We follow along the edge of the lake before pulling into Boundary Creek Scenic Reserve at the lake edge to take some photos and eat lunch. We set off again and the road pulls us away from Lake Wanaka, only to stick us next to Lake Hawea, just as blue and just as amazing to look at. We again pull over to take some more photos, mostly of Sentinel Peek Mountain on the lakes edge.
We leave the lakes behind and hit what I can only describe as an African climate. I know it's the middle of
their winter, but we'd gotten so used to seeing evergreens everywhere. This valley, all the plants are dead or hibernating or whatever trees do in winter. Completely leafless, and the bushes at the edge of the road and grey/red. We're driving under a clear sky with a warm sun, but everything is dead looking, with dust lazily rolling around, pushed by the wind. It looks like a drought has been here, which makes the winter bursting rivers that we keep passing look so out of place. It's mind boggling.
We hit Wanaka town and leave the State Highway, instead opting to take the Cardrona Valley Road, which cuts a good 60 kilometres out of our trip. Again, we could be in the Wild West in this valley - hell, the damn town (Cardrona) is even layed out like a Western town as a tourist attraction! It's as we pass around the southern slope of Mt Scott my jaw hits the floor. We're high up... and this time I mean we're high up. I can see the highway we would have taken way way way way way way down beneath us - trucks are so small you can't even properly
see the cars. The clear sky means we can see all around us, and it's an amazingly beautiful site to take in.
We finally hit the Alpine area, with snow capped mountains being all that you can see, pine trees everywhere, with the wooden lodges wedged in amongst them. We head right into Queenstown and pull into Creeksyde Top Ten, one of the worst laid out motor camps I've ever seen. It's also the most eco friendly here, complete with worm farms and solar powered water heaters. I dunno if I'm impressed or annoyed by this. Though the titular creek is running right behind our Merc, meaning we can't use the back doors but do constantly get the river sound echoing around.
Parked and powered we head into town, and spot the information centre. I grab a leaflet about Lord of the Ring tours, which despite skiing is Queenstown other big attraction (see Jason's entry). We then head to a book store as Jason's wanting to find the second Bourne book, but no where seems to have it (but to his annoyance, all have the 3rd book). I manage to pick up four new books for $20, and
we get Jason a new pen for his Journal, having finished his.
We hit an internet cafe where I look up the LotR (Lord of the Rings) but it's $300 per person. Hell no. We find a second tourism shop which offers a safari 4 wheel drive and a LotR tour for #99 per person. Much better, we book that for tomorrow. We have a subway for dinner as we're in town, and then head back to the Merc where we begin to formulate the plan of coming home a few days earlier.
So yeah, that was our trip to Queenstown. Probably not exiting for you lot to read, but hell, I enjoyed it, so screw you lol ;p That was a joke for those of you who got offended. We're in Dunedin at the moment, a very cool gothic city which is mostly settled by the Scots. Jason's not the only red head anymore! Hope you're all well and what not, and that you're having fun with your rain. We've yet to see the temperature go above 3 degrees in the last few days, but at least we've not had rain.
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Claire
non-member comment
Bullet points.....
I didn't get insulted by that comment, I agree, I guess it's too late to ask for a bullet point summary again, isn't it? I still just look at the pictures and read every few sentences, it makes it more exciting for me, bub. Hope ur last week ish will be fun. xxx