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Published: November 23rd 2022
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Here we go again! It isn’t raining, believe it or not! There is blue sky and we can see the snow capped mountains in the distance. Because it’s fairly clear we are able to get a spectacular view of Fox Glacier which is bigger than Franz Josef glacier. Yesterday there was no view of Fox because of widespread mist and rain.
Some interesting things about NZ: there are metal bands part way up each hydro pole. These are to prevent the possums from climbing up and chewing on the wires; possums are different than opossums in N. America. They are a cat sized marsupial with a long bushy tail introduced to NZ for the fur trade. The fur of possums is very soft and warm; there are multicoloured lupines and foxgloves growing wild everywhere; all the roads we have been on in NZ are really good but they do require a lot of maintenance because of the rain and landslides in the mountains; there are plenty of landslides because of the glacial gravel left behind by glaciers. This becomes waterlogged with heavy rains and it lets go and washes out roads regularly; there seems to have been a lot of
gold in NZ and there are still prospectors finding gold; glacial rivers (those running directly from under a glacier are muddy grey as the water picks up the ground up rocks from under the glacier; all prices here include 15% HST whereas in Canada we pay the tax over and above the selling price; it is illegal to sell trout in any store but it is ok to catch it yourself to eat; are you bored with all these little tidbits yet?
Back to today - it is raining again by 11 a.m. as we are going over the mountain passes. I see what I think is another small glacier forming at the top of a mountain. Near the top of the pass, there is snow dusting on the sides of the roads which the driver says is unusual for this time of year. We are driving along the Haast River Valley which can suddenly rise by 1 meter if there is a heavy rain. After going over Haast Pass we are now on the east side of the island.
Coffee & toilet break is at a Salmon Farm where you can buy salmon or feed them in
the pools outside. There are giant trout and eels swimming outside the salmon tanks because they pick up the extra feed pellets that are supposed to be for the salmon.
Another quick stop takes us back a short trail to view magnificent Thunder Creek falls.
Despite the steady rain, our next stop is the Blue Pools which are deep clear water running into the Makarora River. They are named that because of the colour of the water which to me looked more green than blue. The pools harbour giant trout which must taste delicious because of the cold clean glacial water - too bad you’re not allowed to catch them! The track back into the pools said it was 3 km return but I think that was as the crow flies - the path went up and down and wound around so I’m sure it was at least 5 km. That’s my story and I’m stickin‘ to it! As we were making our way through the rainforest there was stupendous thunder which was loud to start with but then echoed back and forth amongst the trees amplifying itself.
As we are getting nearer to Queenstown, we are
travelling along the Kawarau Gorge and start to see vineyards. This is a major grape growing area and there is one vineyard after another along the highway. One of which we will visit tomorrow. The Kawarau River flows from Lake Wakatipu, the 3rd largest lake in NZ. Queenstown is situated on the banks of Lake Wakatipu. This large lake has a “tide” which causes the level of the lake to rise and fall about 10 cm every 25 minutes. Maori legend says it is the heartbeat of a huge monster Matau sleeping at the bottom of the lake.
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