New Zealand - Week 3

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Lake Tekapo, Queenstown and the Routeburn Track

I got the coach from Christchurch, which took my to my first destination in the southern half of the South Island, Queenstown. On the way, we stopped at the very blue Lake Tekapo. Queenstown is a very touristy town, in which New Zealanders are a minority, apparently. Despite this, the lake front and general setting is picture perfect. For me, one of the down sides of hostelling in New Zealand is the (in my view) ridiculous sleeping/waking hours people seem to keep. Often, buses depart before 8 am, which means dorm mates are getting up at 6 am. At night, people seem to go to bed early, and I have been complained at for using a torch at the outlandish hour of 10 pm! In Queenstown, it is different, however, but I found myself very tired when I stayed out late - must be getting old! In my defence, I'd had a bad run with snorers, as well as a French guy who shouted in his sleep at regular intervals! Nevertheless, it was great to meet up with Sarah from work. We saw Man Utd get robbed by the ref in the Champions League in the morning, walked around town and through the Gardens, then met up at later at World Bar. Another highlight was the visit to Fergburger, famous for its massive burgers.

On my third day in Queenstown, I was joined by Ellen from Holland, who I met on the Abel Tasman trail. We planned to do another of the great walks, the Routeburn track, over three days, staying in huts on the two nights. The walk was great, with a variety of scenery, including grassy valleys, forest and glaciated mountains. At the end of the walk, we planned to hitch-hike to Milford Sound, where we had beds booked at the lodge. I was a bit apprehensive, having never tried hitch-hiking before, but we must have got the quickest ride in history, as we were picked up by an English couple with a young lad who we met earlier on the walk, before we had time to raise our thumbs. We celebrated completing the walk with a pint of New Zealand ale!

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Photos

Routeburn Track
Cloud pouring into Lake Harris

Mount Cook
A glimpse of New Zealand's tallest mountain from the coach window

Routeburn Track
Dead tree or elephant?

Routeburn Track
At the Routeburn Falls hut

Routeburn Track
Sunset at the Routeburn Falls hut

Routeburn Track
Darran Mountains viewed from Conical Hill

Comments

[Duncan]

Great blog as always graeme, loved the image of the computer game with respect to the mountains! Looking forward to the next update.....

[Graeme Clark]

Cheers Duncan! Couldn´t spend as much time on it in New Zealand as cheap internet access was hard to find. Will be catching up now I´m in South America. Hope all´s well.

[Steve Marshall]

Looks awesome
Just caught up on your latest adventures. The photos look amazing. You look to be having a fantastic time. Looking forward to your next blogs. All the best. Uncle Steve.

[Graeme Clark]

Cheers Uncle Steve! Hope all´s well with the Marshall clan.

[Neil]

Another great set of pics Graeme hope your backing these pics up ?????

[Graeme Clark]

Sure am, although I´ll be doing it more frequently in future, as I thought I´d lost the SD card with the photos from my dad´s visit on. Found it thankfully!