On the road to Wanaka

Well, after the dull country park walk (see previous blog) the road to the south redeemed itself in spades. Here we stopped for lunch at Bruce's Bay, a beautiful crescent full of driftwood.

I've never seen such a sight ... Almost like the aftermath of a WW2 Normandy Beach landing but with shattered tree stumps instead of men and machines ... S.

 

and hundreds of white stones which on closer inspection had been inscribed upon by, in the main we assume, passing adolescent travellers: "Kilroy was here", "X loves Y forever", the usual stuff - heartwarming perhaps but in such quantity that the quality of the sentiment seemed much diluted -

but also the following:

 

Those of you who've experienced NZ sandflies will sympathise with the sentiment, even if not with the way in which it is expressed! Another stop at 'Knights Point' revealed this bay

 

and then we were entertained for many miles by a spate of various creeks' names (no you can't get out more when you're in the van) which included Dismal, Dizzy, Dancing, Trickle, Golden Shower, Roaring Swine, Itsallcreektome, Solitude, Chelsea (why?) and my particular favourite, Gout Creek. (The more observant of our readers may have noticed that the Chief Correspondent has fabricated a couple of creeks ... He is currently rummaging around in the campervan wardrobe to find his jacket ...)

The best was yet to come and the following pics as we approached Wanaka need no descriptions:

 




 

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On the road to the glaciers

Tuesday 26th February

Set out today to travel further south towards Fjordland; on the way are 2 glaciers, Fox's and Franz Joseph (somebody should change its name to something less Austro-Hungarian emperor and imperial, I think). (Although both have a common thread: Mint Imperials and Fox's Glacier Mints ... Time to get my coat again, perhaps... S.)




On the road were two extraordinary things: the first was having to share a bridge with the railway line

and the second was someone moving house. Literally. (Would this become a more common sight in the UK if the craven coalition introduced a mansion tax, I wonder? Not sure about that but it's a fair bet that my coat is ready for collection ...)

 

As there's only one main road to Fjordland, we encountered the moving house for a second time later on during the day. Its support vehicle has a sign on top: HOUSE FOLLOWS. You couldn't make it up.




Quick walk up to the dirty snout of the glacier. 'Elf'n'safety kept us a considerable distance from anything remotely interesting but we've now been there and dunnit with the possibility of another glacier tomorrow as we drive down past the Fox Glacier en route to Wanaka...

Decided to skate on past Fox Glacier and head on down towards Wanaka. An early morning stop off and shortish walk took us round a scenic lake which was a bit dull (Karen compared it to walking around Rufford Country Park with 'er mum (I wasn't quite sure how to take that!). It was very photogenic, however, with Mounts Cook and Tasman reflected in the lake's waters ...

We were both feeling a bit underwhelmed at this point (yes, we know it's very beautiful...) and wondered whether halfwaythroughtheholidayennui had set in ... Another view, another well-tended path replete with well-upholstered tourists and coffee shops ... Some truth in all of that but ...

 

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Avalanche Peak, Arthur's Pass

25 February

 

Panorama near the summit

Today is Monday, so it must be walking up a mountain day: not very confidence inspiring that all the blurb puts the fear of god into you - "People have DIED on this mountain" plus it's called Avalanche Peak although as there's no snow probably we don't have to worry about the avalanche bit, although the 'Peak' is nearly 1900 metres high and our ascent is 1200 of these metres which IS something to worry about.




Cross Pegleg Creek, round Deaths Corner and pull in to Arthur's Pass info centre to check on routes and weather ... Weather hot, route looks good. Avalanche Peak here we come, steep way up and (supposedly) the less steep way down. Very hot, again, and thankfully the first couple of hours or so was in the bush and relatively sheltered from the sun. Lots of little scrambly rock steps but nothing meriting a scrambling grade.

Once out of the bush the heat was unrelenting and the going became a bit tougher ... Readers, he under-exaggerates: it was absolutely BAKING and I was wondering if I was going to make it to the top.

Loose, shattered rock on the final approach to the summit with steep drops on either side added a little, but not too much, spice. At the summit the views were tremendous in all directions ... Mountains, mountains and more mountains with the appearance of a multitude of Skye Cullin Ridges. So it compares favourably with Scotland (on steroids!) which in our book is pretty good. The route is Here ... 1150m or thereabouts of ascent and some photos, as you would expect, follow.

The descent was ok but we were tiring and I had lost all my water somehow ...(at least not his marbles) so we were thankful to reach the road.

... Nearly there

Glacier across the valley

Glacier across the valley

Dehydration had shrunk Steve considerably ...

 

 

 

Post walk drinks

 

Chilled out with a couple more cold beers chez nous as the night drew in ... Another good day.

 

 

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Arthur's Pass and time passing too quickly

24 February

Campsite beach before setting off for the mountains

Conscious that we were still on the northern tip of South Island and that time was tickin' on we put in a longish driving day of some 500km to get from Abel Tasman to just outside Arthur's Pass where we're planning a mountain day ... The driving was OK but some of the roads were so twisting with ascents and descents through passes and valleys that progress was slow.

We finally camped just west of Arthur's Pass in a superb campsite ... Quiet, great views, and facilities like no other I have encountered. Brilliant. Just out the back of the site a trail ran through the bush to a beautiful waterfall ...

 

 

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Abel Tasman Coastal Path

23 February

Camped in a scenic Department of Conservation site for a couple of days - a huge site which has 800 pitches, but numbers aside, a spacious and welcoming site.

Sunrise at the camp beach

The next day we walked a part of the Coastal Track ... 5 miles out and 5 back. This was superb and redeemed Abel Tasman for us (see previous blog)

The wonderful thing about the path was that you walked through the bush for some time and then just popped out onto long, deserted sandy beaches

The end of the walk was Separation Point: there were a couple of sea lions and you can just about make out one in the middle of the photo below.

Note to Tom: The following contains material of an embarrassing parental nature. you might want to look away now...

The seductive nature of aforesaid beaches caused Steve to have a funny turn, tearing off his clothes and plunging into the sea. On the return journey yours truly was persuaded to do the same thing, but only because I needed to freshen up.... At an extended meeting of the Blog's editorial board it was reconfirmed that we are, indeed, a family blog, and as such we have decided to censor/redact/restrict access to the racier skinny-dipping photos. Those of a more prurient nature (you know who you are!) will find a more satisfying gallery of spicier note on p94 ...

 

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Abel Tasman

22 February

Camping near Golden Bay for a couple of days with a view to completing a short section of the Abel Tasman Track. We are reserving judgement on this ... The countryside thus far is not particularly inspiring - I'm beginning to yearn for the mountains!

Drove into Takaka before dinner ... A mini-Glastonbury ... New Age, Hippy type shops, lots of crusties/white Rastas etc. Had a beer in the Roots Bar which had a decent range of 'handcrafted' beers (aka overpriced home brew 😜), and an exquisite range of poseurs. I must admit to feeling a bit vinegary this evening ... Apologies to my more pH balanced readers.

 

Tomorrow night promised "an evening of the original reggae vinyl". Some less charitable than your Chief Correspondent might maintain that the words " and occasionally misogynistic and homophobic" had been omitted after the word "original" ...

Some funky little shops, however .... Here's a bike shop ...

.... And a roots campervan. The van was chock full of 'stuff' - I've never seen such a wonderful hoard of apparently randomly distributed possessions; archaeologists would be gainfully employed for some time as they excavated down into lower reaches of the van's history and ecosystem!

 

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Thanks to Tom and Jim

... For recommending that we buy one of these mini-speakers which connects to iPods, iPads and just about anything else. Photo needs rotating 90 deg to right ... Too late for me to do it.

Absolutely brilliant ... It has enabled The Editor to continue to listen unhindered and, I might add, unabashed to her extensive collection of Val Doonican albums, and yours truly to the plaintive and timeless notes of Whistling Roger Whittaker (younger readers may resort to Google at this point ...)

 

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South Island Here We Come ...

After 2.5 weeks in North Island we finally enjoyably trickled down to Wellington and took the ferry across to South Island where we have another 4.5 weeks. We started in the Marlborough Area where three quarters of NZ's wine comes from and which the Hawkes Bay vintners had taken the mickey out of on our previous wine tour.

A couple of hours outside the port, Picton, down a slow and winding road, and then a singletrack gravel road brought us to Mistletoe Bay Campground (which advertises as an Eco Village). Forget sky-diving, upside down water-skiing and jumping out of aeroplanes: try driving a 21 foot campervan down a super-narrow 1 kilometre road which descends 1000 feet to the sea...But it was worth it, as you can see below: (the Chief Correspondent is putting his job on the line perhaps by pointing out the injudicious conflation of units in his Editor's post; thankfully, however, the Editor avoided reference to the avoirdupois system...) But I'm an Arts graduate: it's called poetic licence.

 

Gloriously isolated and with few other campers, it gives access directly onto the Queen Charlotte Track, a relatively easy 3-4 day walk. After a bite to eat we went for a short run up to the highest local point .... Only 3.5 miles or so but with 1400ft of ascent it was very hot work! Here's a bit of the path up through the bush:

and us on the way up

... And at the top.

He's behind you!

The track is

here ... Even those not particularly interested in the Chief Corresondent's GPS tracks might find some interest in this one as by zooming in and out you get to see clearly the isolated location.

Here's a photo of the view, if, like me, you don't want to engage in the 'zooming in and out'

The next day we did a few hours walking on the Queen Charlotte with stunning views round each corner. Very pretty but, we felt, a little lacking in variety ... One can only have so many views of blue paradise before a little ennui sets in 😉The Ed. doesn't agree with this... it was fab. And below is the photo of our lunch stop:

We did worry about whether we would be able to get the van out from the campsite again and trembled at the thought of meeting another vehicle coming down ... As things turned out it was foot on the gas and 'eat my dust' ... We were safely away. (It was worse going down than coming up!)

 

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