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Published: March 24th 2017
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Set and ready to tempt the Ahuiri troutWith the sheer wonder of Millford Sound still swirling in our minds we re-set the GPS with a north-east heading away from Southland. Outside temperature about 8 deg C and a reminder that NZ is now on the cusp of Autumn. Retracing our journey back to Queenstown started out in foggy, rainy weather and a timely reminder that NZ is the land of the long white cloud. Speaking of clouds, a radio chat show we happened to be listening to was focussed on NZ's carbon footprint and the fact that some pompous scientist tucked away somewhere had come up with a recommendation that NZ needed to prune it's livestock numbers by 30 percent to comply with it's gas emissions target by 2100. What! A country whose economy is driven by a beef herd for dairy and a sheep herd for lamb export must cut it's own throat, so to speak. So they have another cloud to contend with. Methane emissions from the national herds. Needless to say the chat show engendered no support at all.
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Sheep, mountains and a brown Karoo like canvas We sidestepped Queenstown yet again but had a good enough view to conclude that it's probably a "nice place" but for us far too busy. A little further down the road the countryside changed quite drastically in the sense that the trees disappeared and the verdant grasslands and pastures were now largely burnt white and barren. If I were to compare it with SA it looked to me like the countryside around Queenstown in the Eastern Cape (home of a fine school for those who don't know). This central region of South Island has Dunedin as it's major city but we had decided not to go further south. It had nothing to do with the "House of Pain" and thoughts about what lies in store for the Springboks later this year. All along the route we encountered small rural towns each proclaiming the reason for it's existence. A quick word on these towns. Many owe their existence to the gold rush frenzy that once gripped the country but now the glue that sticks them together is agriculture and tourism. It is quite remarkable how many really small towns each offer something unique and different to draw their share of visitors
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"Swampy Sue" cleaning her now not so new walking shoes not forgetting that New Zealanders themselves travel a lot around their own country. Everything one can imagine is on offer e.g. horse riding, jet boating, helicopter flights, gliding, cycling, walking, fishing. It struck me that the reason these towns are surviving and, in most cases thriving, is that they each focus on their unique "offering" and market and promote it to the hilt. The AA Traveller's Guide and LPG cover the charm and thrills of even the smallest of towns one travels through. And they each have prominent signage as you approach enticing you with their magnetic charms.They are all spotlessly clean and generally there is no evidence of derelict buildings. They all have lodgings in the form of quaint old hotels, motels and inevitably holiday parks. To sum it up, there is a very noticeable attitude of "we are proud of our town and want you to come and check it out".
Our target on this 220km journey was a town by name of Cromwell which we entered mid afternoon but did not get that fuzzy "wow" feeling that this was a place to stop for the night. A little bigger than we had become accustomed to and
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Great view of Oamuru, a quaint little harbour town on entry to the East Coast it was time for a Plan B option. Quick internet scan of what lay ahead, checked the "dodgy" factor on TripAdvisor and we duly set off for Omarama (pop 360) and it's Top10 camp. The scenery as we progressed along Route 6 just got better and better with a canvas of relatively barren, brown, rolling hills and flat grasslands with some superb rivers carving their way through the countryside.
And bang on, there it was as we got within a few kilometres of Omarama. Signage shouting out loudly about "Icebreaker" woollen tops made as you wait and incredibly an airstrip offering glider flights and not unsurprisingly a claim to be the "gliding center of NZ". This is deep sheep country and if you are really at your wits end with boredom, you can watch sheep being shorn two ways...the old way and the new way. Delightful camp site and once settled, we took up the customary sundowner and scan the park occupants position. I may have mentioned it before but I must repeat that one of the real pleasures of campervan travel are the fascinating people you bump into and end up chatting with. A quick sampling of our
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The Ahuiri River....sublime! two night sojourn in Omarama. First up a Swiss guy who was out to impress with the dinner he was knocking up in the communal kitchen. Two great looking salmon steaks had Sue and I salivating as we desperately tried to make pasta look top nosh. He took some delight in showing each poor sod who entered what his dinner looked like and to cap it all, he had set the table with a white table cloth and trimmings. Got chatting to him and I suspect he is a retired banker with more money than he knows what to do with. My SA roots got him waxing eloquently about a fund he and his buddies were contributing to with the proceeds being sent to a school in Rwanda to support kids there. Very noble but he did agree that ultimately endless handouts would not solve the problems of Africa. It has to be African people themselves and he said (not me!) that it had to start with the men working and stopping the practice of multiple girlfriends all producing babies. Spot on.
The lead in to the next interesting guy needs a background reminder that NZ introduced a number of non indigenous animals which have all done very well, thank you, due to the fact that there are no predators. So there are numerous animal species roaming wildly including red deer and other antelope types, wild goats, spring hares and some animal from the Himalayas which needs further research on my part. Walking to the kitchen I spot a guy skinning and cleaning a spring hare. Turns out he is Danish and travelling on his own purely to hunt. Apparently in NZ once you have a hunting licence it's fair game. Go and plug whatever comes into the crosshairs. Obviously bugger all to hunt in Denmark so why not go half around the world to bag a trophy (spring hare....probably not!). He did emphasise he was after a wild goat up in the hills nearby.
Then late afternoon two young American girls drift in and set up a tiny tent next to the HBS. Interesting. They are doing a year of their Varsity studies in NZ and had time off so they decided to do the Alps2Ocean Cycle Tour. Hang on, this is not just a meander down the road. It starts at Mt Cook and about 300kms later finishes at Oamaru on the East Coast. Anyone into cycling go to the website..www.alps2ocean.com. To avoid carrying all the needed camping stuff, there is a service provided which delivers it to different camp stops along the way. And Omarama is conveniently and ideally placed as one of the recommended stops.
I am banging on a bit about fellow campers. Then this guy drifts in on a huge motorbike. Jerry, from North Island, is on a two week trip of the south all on his own. Delightful guy who confesses, when I tell him I am from SA, that he was "married" (i.e. didn't quite tie the knot) to a girl from Cathcart in the vicinity of Queenstown. Blow me down. What a small world.
OK. The real magnet in Omarama was the Ahuriri River which my research flagged as a very good trout river. Sue dropped me off one morning and I walked the stony banks of this magnificent river for the best part of three hours. Blissful and I managed to catch four smallish rainbow trout. And here's the thing...I never saw another person or fisherman along the way. Pristine and if there is a trout fishing heaven, I suspect this locale would be a strong contender.
Every journey has it's adventures. Or, in our case, misadventure. My research and referencing on the nzfishing.com website indicated that the point where the Ahuriri River entered Lake Benmore further south was a good spot for salmon. We left Omarama after a two night stay and by mid morning I had located the Fishing Access sign which supposedly put us within a 20 minute walk to the river mouth. Sue was up for the walk and off we set on the "fisherman's path". We were soon in chest high swampy grass walking in silly little circles with Sue's new walking shoes taking a muddy pasting. All the while, in our state of disorientation and confusion, we were being closely watched by some large, plump NZ sheep who also starting running around in confusion. Cut a long story short, we aborted after an hour of walking and headed back to the HBS. I need to get hold of those blokes at NZ fishing and ask them if any have actually done the 20 minute walk. I doubt it.
Back on the road and heading east towards the coast we kept passing stacks of the Alps2Ocean cyclists and what really struck me was that there is no age limit. There were men and women well into their late seventies, I would guess, happily (maybe not?) cycling along. After the swamp misadventure we could not resist the magnetic force of the Kurow Wine Estate alongside the road. It was midday after all and perhaps a wine sampling was needed to settle the dust. Looked at the cost for this simple pleasure and we settled instead for capachino's and a shared cake (R130). The cycle path leads into the winery and I guess some cyclists arrive exhausted, swig some wine and continue days later. Or maybe abort. Got chatting to a Uruguayan guy who has worked at this winery for eleven years. Interesting guy who made it clear that the Argentinians are not their favourite neighbours. He said.."they act Italian, speak Spanish and pretend they are English". He also told us about some of the challenges of NZ wine making which include low yields (climatic) and high wage costs.
The coastal plains once we left the mountains reverted back to the bright green and flat pastures one sees in so many parts of NZ. Major herds of dairy cows in the fields confirming that NZ is one of the world's largest exporters of dairy products. Late afternoon Oamaru came into view and we had identified a really good holiday park for a one night stay. Food supplies needed replenishing and on this occasion we found a New World supermarket. They are excellent. NZ is an expensive country and Sue and I have become two proper "schmucks" as we trawl the aisles looking for "specials". Added to this we have a New World shopping card which kicks in all sorts of discounts at the checkout till. Alarmingly there is simply no wine, either red or white, available for less than R90/bottle and it is noticeable that the Aussie wines are a lot cheaper than locally produced NZ wines. Difficult to understand but I think the Uruguayan guy was spot on.
The holiday park proudly proclaimed to be a five minute walk to the beach. Well, the "beach" turned out to be a mass of grey boulders and stones and throw in a temperature of 12 deg C, any thoughts Sue had about lounging on the beach the next day evaporated.
Spirits soon lifted as we tucked into grilled NZ lamb chops accompanied by a good Aussie Shiraz wine. We had arrived on the East Coast of South Island and now had to confront the reality that our five week NZ adventure had less than a week to run. And still have not caught that elusive salmon. But.......
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Alison
non-member comment
Wine
We'll have some ice-cold Gorgeous waiting for you Sue. It hasn't hit the R90 mark yet.