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Published: August 26th 2006
Waikato River
The raging Waikato river New Zealand scenic journeys
1)Auckland to Rotorua via Waitomo Glowworm Caves
The coach traveled through the fertile grassy valleys where woolly sheep, rectangular cows (I call them rectangular cows, because the Jersey breed has right-angled rumps, whereas Indian cows have curved rumps) and sleek deer were cropping lush green grass. The rivers and lakes, filled with crystal clear, unpolluted waters, further enhance the beauty of these pastoral scenes.
New Zealand’s economy appears to be based basically on sheep, cows, deer and tourists. Each sheep, cow and deer is a factory that converts grass into wool, milk and venison respectively, whereas the tourist converts the ‘sweat of his brow’ in New Zealand’s currency.
2) Rotorua to Wellington by Desert Road
New Zealand is blessed with the snow peaks of Southern Alps, glaciers, fjords, large and small lakes, thick rainforest, huge grassy tracts of land and the wonderful Cook Strait between these two islands surrounded by the azure sea. Like gems put on the blue satin of a jewelry box, these two islands are put on the blue satin of the ocean by the God. The only thing it lacks is perhaps a ‘true’ desert, though it
The Desert Road
The Desert Road hemmed in by snow peaks has a sort of, Alpine semi-desert. However, this desert is fringed by snow peaks on the distant horizons instead of sand dunes.
The word ‘desert’ evokes an image of hot sand dunes of a flat, arid landscape, date palms, camels and a gun-toting Omar Sheriff in his role as an Arab Sheikh in the ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.
The New Zealand’s Rangipo Desert looks altogether different. There are no trees but lots of reedy bushes called ‘tussock’ cover the ground thickly. So thickly that the plain looks as though it is carpeted with a rug of warm, rich, brown and dull yellow fur, like the fur of a panther. I HAVE seen rugs and blankets like that.
The snows of Mount Rupehu and Kaimanawa Range dominate this bleak, desolate, windswept tussock plain.
This ‘rug’ed, rugged plain is New Zealand Army’s largest military base and training area.
The Desert Road winding through this Restricted Area might be the only civilian intrusion the Army tolerates. You wander away from the bus more than 30 feet in search of ‘photo-ops’, and the next thing you know, you might be laid up in the Military hospital with a bullet in your
The 'tussock' covered plain
The tussocks in the foreground. Haven't you seen a rug like that? leg.
I did not allow my husband to step out of the bus for taking photos. I did not like the idea of nursing him back to health in the Military hospital during our vacation. I do not mind publishing my blogs without any photos.
3) The Inter-islander Ferry from Wellington to Picton
The Inter-islander ferry from Wellington to Picton is a very enjoyable experience. Landlubber that I am, I am not very comfortable on a sea if the coastline is not in sight. In this journey, you do not lose sight of the North Island shore before the South Island shore comes in view and then you enter a channel hemmed in on both sides by beautiful green hills that are admiring their own reflection in the water below. Reassured by this proximity to the land, I could sip my coffee in the comfort of the ship’s cafeteria, and keep it down. (You guessed it. Yes, I suffer from sea sickness.)
4) The Tranzcoastal Scenic Train
The Tranzcoastal train that connects with the Wellington-Picton Ferry, travels from Picton to Christchurch along the eastern coastline of the South Island. The train travels through a lot of
The view from the ferry
The view is from the South Island tunnels and goes over a lot of bridges, and so, they become, sort of, monotonous, but the sea-arch or the black-sand beach that we saw, was a rare sight. Lucky people might sight whales or dolphins or penguins on this train journey, but we did not. However, we were traveling off-season, and a clear, sunny day was luck enough.
As our train was approaching Christchurch, we entered the Moa country. I mean this was the area where bones of the now extinct Moa were found. For more info. on giant 10-feet tall flightless Moa bird , use the link given below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moa_(bird)
Also, please read the fantastic story “Aepyornis Island” by H. G. Wells. Though a bit grim like all H.G. Wells’ writing, it is wonderful.
http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/sid.6/bookid.809/
So, the Moa are extinct now, but just imagine what COULD have happened if they were not extinct and you happened to be near a Moa hen that had hungry chicks in a nest, all squawking for food. Why, the bird-brain might regard YOU as a particularly juicy tidbit for her young ones.
It was raining at Christchurch, and our Tranzalpine train journey next day also started
The view from the ferry-2
The view from ferry near Picton with a cloud cover but fortunately, the clouds dispersed and we again had a clear day.
5) The Tranzalpine Scenic Train
On the Tranzalpine train journey from Christchurch to Greymouth, gorgeous gorges, pristine river valleys and lofty snow peaks joined the tunnels and bridges in the battle, to assault the tourists’ senses, though, fortunately, the coastline had deserted. The tourists were outnumbered, outmaneuvered and outsmarted by these reinforcements and just succumbed. They were ‘surprised’ and ‘taken prisoners’ and could only look around with awe and reverence. In other words, the scenery is fantastic.
6) Greymouth to Fox Glacier by coach
This coach journey that will remain in my memory forever. Imagine snow peaks on the left, sea on the right, lovely lakes and rivers in between and satin smooth gray road zigzagging through these.
When we were approaching Hokitika, the driver warned us that as the glaciers were remote from civilization, any essential items like food, battery cells, Huggies should be bought at Hokitika. However, essential items were far from my mind. I knew that Hokitika was home to lovely green Jade or Greenstone (Paunamu in Maori) and I was hankering after those non-essential items.
The view from Tranzcoastal
The view from Tranzcoastal train So, when my husband asked me what I wanted to buy at Hokitika, I told him “I want to buy one bread and one Jade” making the Jade sound like an afterthought even though it was very much a ‘beforethought’ in my mind.
My husband said “OK” before he realized what I had asked for. He was sport enough to appreciate my rhyming of the words ‘bread and Jade’ to actually buy me those two items, even though he knows my wifely wiles. We are married for 35 years now.
The Fox Glacier rewarded us with a most fantastic sunset that I have ever seen. Spectacular sunsets are fairly common in tropics, but this one surpassed them in grandeur. See the photo. (Our photos are WYSIWYG i.e. What You See Is What You Get. I mean, we do not use filters or touch them up in any way, so the colors that you see in our photos are absolutely natural.)
7) From Fox Glacier to Queenstown by coach
Wonderful West Coast scenery!! At Knight’s point, see those rocks sitting down, rolling cigarettes and gossiping?
“I heard the Sheep-shearers’ Union in asking for increased wages this
The view from Tranzalpine-1
The view from Tranzalpine train year.”
“The wool price is decreasing and they want more money? They will ruin us at this rate.”
“Peter has sheepdog puppies for sale. Want to buy some?”
“My own two are good enough. What I really want are a few milch cows”
“Cows are harder to come by this year. Last year’s epidemic wiped them out”
And so on and so forth.
Men (and rocks) gossip. (They call it ‘Discussion’ or ‘Consultancy’) I hear them gossiping in trains, buses, offices, canteens, everywhere, mostly about politics. They even take membership of several clubs or ‘lodges’ like the Water Buffalos Lodge or gather in pubs to gossip. In India, they occupy ‘Chaupal’ or ‘Pimpal Par’.
So, we have renamed the Knight’s Point as ‘Chaupal’.
It was on the journey from Fox Glacier to Queenstown, at Wanaka that I saw my first penguin in this country. After traveling between the lakes Hawea and Wanaka, our coach had stopped at the Wanaka bus stand, when, in walked a lady pushing a pram and accompanied by a boy and a penguin. I rubbed my eyes. I was not expecting a penguin so far from the sea, and I did not
The view from Tranzalpine-2
One more view from the Tranzalpine train know that they make such good, obedient pets. The boy said something to the penguin and the penguin turned towards us.
Why, it was just a child, maybe 2-3 years old, dressed in a black windcheater with hood. As soon as the child turned away from us, the illusion was complete, and again we saw a penguin. It even walked like one.
It was also on this journey that I insisted that my husband should take a photo of the ‘Yellow tree’. He did not want to take it because the tree is leafless. When we were taking the photo, two teenage girls came running like lambikins to take the same photo.
Queenstown, at last!!!
At Fox Glacier, I was told that these glaciers (Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier) are advancing instead of retreating from the last ice age. (Elsewhere in the world, they are receding) I wanted to reach Queenstown before those white, cold fingers of ice got their hold on us.
At Queenstown, I was informed that the Ice Age is over and also that the Glaciers advance
The glorious sunset at Fox Glacier
The most spectacular sunset I ever saw very slowly, maybe a few centimeters per thousand years. Glaciers are not Avalanches to suddenly ambush you and bury you in the snow. They are peaceable, gentle things. However, for the past one week, I had seen so much snow, that I was under the impression that we are still in the Ice Age, and the ‘advancing’ glaciers had done nothing to reassure me on this point.
8) Queenstown to Auckland, to Sydney, to Darwin, to Mumbai by Flight.
Home, Sweet home at last!!!
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