Homeward bound

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West Coast

We spent our final day in Queenstown just pottering about. I wanted to do the scenic Milford sound overflight, and Ralph wanted to do an aerobatic flight, but the cloud was too low, so we wandered into town and browsed round the shops.

The next day dawned bright and sunny, of course, and we briefly considered trying to fit in the flights before leaving for the West Coast, but as luck would have it, the car wouldn’t start. This had happened twice before but Eric had eventually got it started, but not this time. Had to resort to the AA, who were pretty speedy - and new battery installed, we went on our way - a long drive via Wanaka and the Haast Pass to the West coast glaciers.

Initially it was a beautiful drive, but the closer we got to Haast Pass, the more the weather closed in, and as we came over the top, it really started raining. And continued for the next 2 days, on and off. We finally arrived at Fox, and decided to see the glacier. Parked in the car park, and headed out in lashing rain, thunder and lightning for a view of the glacier foot - it looked amazing, even in the rain and cloud, and we set off to walk closer, but the streams to be crossed were flooding, and rising, so we turned back, absolutely soaked.

The next problem was on checking in to our motel at Franz Josef, to find that the heli-hike booking that I’d made for Alan’s birthday the next day through the motel had vanished into the ether, with the receptionist claiming no knowledge of it. The best she could do was book another for the following day, which messed up the onward travel plans. The only consolation being that the weather forecast was bad, so the helicopters would probably not be flying anyway.

So next day, Eric and I woke up early, and decided to go and book quad biking, so at least Alan would have a fun birthday activity. On a whim, I decided to go and check with the heli-line people, who said they DID have our booking. So I asked what we had to do and they said, check in in 10 minutes. Panic! Eric shot back to the motel, dragged the boys out of bed, and amazingly was bag with them in 10 minutes. We shot off across the road to get kitted up, forgetting sunglasses, sun cream, cameras etc in the rush. The helicopter took of with the first half of the group - then appeared back 20 mins later - still with the passengers. They hadn’t been able to land as the cloud was too low - so that was the end of the heli-hiking.

So we rushed over the road to book the last remaining quad biking slots for the day. This was quite nerve-wracking to begin with, but as I got used to it I mildly began to enjoy it. We travelled across many swollen streams, rivers - the glacier outflow, lots of mud, and into the forest.

After that we walked as close as is allowed to the snout of the Franz Josef glacier - very impressive, huge ice pinnacles were visible on the surface, and the sight of the huge cavern from which the meltwater issues was quite striking. We got somewhat wet feet crossing the river, but it was very worthwhile.

We still had our alternative booking for next day’s heli-hike, but when we got up it was raining, so we gave up and set off up the coast for Pancake Rocks ( Punakaiki). This was another gem gleaned from Viv’s journal - some weird and wonderful rock formations which have been eroded by the sea to form all sorts of pillars and blowholes .Quite spectacular, but best on a stormy day at high tide. We also did a short walk through original native forest down to another cove, where we narrowly avoided being cut off by the tide

We were staying in a really cosy cottage down by the sea shore for the night, so went to sleep with the sound of the waves crashing in the background.

Next day we were making the long journey to Christchurch, over Arthur’s Pass - made even longer by a detour down to Geraldine to visit Joan and George again -
and also by a slight misinterpretation of the map, which also added another 2 hours.

Unfortunately, as we neared Arthur’s Pass, the cloud was lowering, obscuring all the high mountains. We were looking out for Harper’s Pass on the way up, which we saw. It is named after Leonard Harper, Eric’s great great uncle, the first European to cross it. There is a 5 day walk which crosses it - Harper’s Path - but that was not on our agenda. We stopped at the Visitor Centre at Arthur’s Pass, where there was a big display describing the European exploration of the area, and a big photo of Leonard, which I took a photo of.

On to Geraldine, and a very pleasant 2 hours with Joan and George, also his brother, Eric and his wife were there. We looked at family photos, exchanged news of the last 2 weeks and admired their lovely house set in 3 acres sloping down to the Rangaitata River, with views ( hidden in cloud, sadly) to the mountains. George is 80 next week, but does all the garden himself - it takes 2 hours to cut the grass with his ride on mower.

Then time to head to Christchurch for our final night - where we had a very good meal before collapsing in bed, after a very long day.


Next day was wet again, so the planned activities - Botanic Garden, ride up gondola and scenic walks were put aside for 'next time'. We drove out to the port of Lyttleton, where all the immigrants used to land after 4 months at sea! They would then have to walk up the Bridle Path, with children, belongings etc, over a very steep hill, before descending for the long trek into Christchurch itself. This same scene, of the Bishop and family being welcomed by Selwyn, the bishop of NZ, to Christchurch off the boat in 1856 is depicted on the stone panels of the pulpit in Christchurch Cathedral. Life was much harder then.

We then went back to Christchurch for lunch, pottered round the Art Gallery to escape the rain, then headed out to the airport. Once checked in.and problems of lots of excess baggage dealt with ( we've bought a lot of heavy family history books) we went to the Antarctic Centre, where a couple of hours passed easily.

Then the start of the journey back. Now sitting in transit at Hong Kong airport. Happy New Year everyone - we'll be home later today - never have I felt so negative about coming home after a trip away. Anyway final bits and round up of photos later.

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