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Published: July 11th 2011
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Some Lake
There are so many we can't remember which one this is. So day 5 is meant to be a bit of a relaxing day of travel from Franz Josef to Queenstown. A scenic drive through the mountains, along the ocean, and over rivers was what we thought we had ahead of us. Well our 4.5 hour drive took us 7 hours. Why do you ask did it take this long? Well in short, Kiwis are Pussies. We don’t mean to offend any of our Kiwi friends, but you really are pussies. Super nice, friendly, but you are just pussies. As we are in the heart of the adventure sport capital of the world, where adventures sports where supposedly created, one would think that a little snow on the road would be no big deal. And by a little snow we mean less than 1 inch at the most and really more slush than snow.
So we check out of the hotel and head south. The hotel manager asks if we have chains and of course since we are in a rental car of course we do not. He suggests we stop in Haast before we reach the Haast Pass to check out the conditions. Others in Franz Josef as well said
Over the rainbow
The rain does bring beautiful rainbows. We saw both ends. we will likely need chains. When we arrive in Haast, we inquired about the road and were advised that chains were “essential”. What the hell does that mean? Wine and beer are essential. But chains? They did not have any in town to sell as people had been buying them up all week. At this point we are a bit stressed out wondering what to do as there is no other way to Queenstown that is not a 2 day trip. So with our adventurous spirit (well that’s what we are calling it), we head up the pass to see how far we can get. It does start to snow a bit and there are traces of snow on the side of the road. We see about only half of the cars passing us the other way have chains, so we figure there is hope. We get to the top of the pass and have yet to see any place to put chains on, which seems unusual if they are “essential”. At the top there are several campers pulled over putting chains on. We pass them and head down the pass. We slowed down, as we kept thinking it will
Sign
This is probably why they can't drive. They found a way to cross their tires when they slide. get worse, but it never did. That was the worst of it. There was only a bit of sleet on the ground, much the same as an entire winter in Nebraska. Five minutes later we were at the bottom of the pass. All that hype, warnings and stress for 10 min of sleet. Hence our conclusion is confirmed that Kiwis are pussies and apparently cannot drive in the snow.
The scenic drive continues as we get to within 30 KM of Queenstown taking the shortest route, not necessarily the best route as we found out later. This route took us through the mountains again and did bring a bit more snow, maybe 4-6 inches on the side of the road, just traces on the road. We got to what we believe was almost to the top of the pass and a tow truck driver and local were there, asking if we had chains. We again said now. They advised us that we are not getting very far without them. We would get over it, but not down it. I told them no problem, we can always slide down, but they didn’t see the humor in it. So at their
insistence we turned around and went back about 40KM and took the long way around which added another hour to our trip. Again we question the driving ability of the Kiwis as Kirsten’s ability to turn around on a 2 lane snowy road really impressed the tow truck driver.
We finally made it to Queenstown the “long way” and thinking we were staying in Queeenstown at the Hilton- Queenstown we tried to find our hotel, with no luck. We finally called and the Queenstown Hilton is outside of Queenstown on the other side of the lake. The hotel is very nice, but a bit out of the way. So our lazy buts are eating at the hotel tonight.
Tomorrow we have a day of more adventure planned. Jet-boating, bungy-jumping and doing laundry (to probably clean the poop out of Chester’s drawers) are on the agenda. Stay tuned for details.
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