Days 11-14 Curio Bay to Queenstown and points North.
We were our way through Queenstown …….for the second time……. so we had to stop! Spending a night in Queenstown was not at the top of our agenda since we live in a ski resort, mountain playground. But Queenstown is known as a global adventure mecca. It’s where the first bungee jumping outfit started. The skiing is supposedly excellent in the Remarkables, the knife edge mountains surrounding Queenstown. As river guides in Idaho we spent many a night watching videos of the Shotover River canyon near Queenstown with rafts running guests down class IV rapids, surfing and flipping in holes. In high water, rafts actually run through a tunnel culvert with paying guests. Yepper – welcome to NZ – a country not known for their personal injury lawsuits!
It was late in the afternoon when we arrived in Qtown – too late for a river trip [Bass: and I’m still not sure how I would feel about being a guest in a paddle boat…] but we managed to catch the last jet boat trip into the gorge. See http://www.shotoverjet.com. Bass and I knew this would be the most commercial, touristy thing we would do in NZ…and we still could not resist. After the Shotover Jet staff “stored” – read confiscated – our cameras we loaded into the jet boat and took off down the narrow gorge. It was the fastest boat I have ever been on and the guide was navigating down the rapids Mach 5, actually about 50 mph, doing spins and skimming the canyon walls. One twitch or sneeze by the guide and we would be smashed to bits! At first I was so afraid I just held on for dear life. But the six year old boys in front of us were screaming their heads off for more speed and spins so we joined in the fun. The ride back up the rapids was just as bumpy and impressive. We had a great time.
In Queenstown the holiday park was packed. The concierge wedged us between two other vans with about 4 feet of room on either side [despite plenty of open space at the time… weird…]. Realizing this camp would be pretty rowdy with no privacy we walked downtown for dinner and drinks. The nightlife in Qtown is endless, as is the people watching. It was a bit of culture shock after camping in splendid isolation (future boat name?? and Warren Zevon tune) in the Catlins. We were sitting at a nice fireside table in a crowded pub when a couple asked if they could sit with us. These people were Qtown locals out for a night on the town. They were very entertaining and seemed to think we would like doing shots with them. Duck Farts (Bailey’s, whiskey and Kahlua & amaretto) if I recall correctly. Bass and I both ordered Beef Wellington, figuring while near Rome…. basically this is a beef filet in a puff pastry. Our dinner was tasty, served with fresh peas and a scoop of mashers. It was the right thing to have as a base while doing shots with our new BFFs.
The next day we were up and heading west over the Haast pass, one of the only east/west passes on the entire island. The road out of Qtown (Crown Range Road) was very twisty so we drove the switchbacks carefully pulling over often for faster cars. Soon we were looking down on Qtown. Route 6 from Qtown to the coast is a spectacular drive through villages, past local ski areas and farms and finally into Mt. Aspiring National Park.
The next town was Wanaka. This is a mellow resort town on Lake Wanaka. We stopped at the public dock to check out the daysailers at their local “yacht club”. It was a warm, beautiful day. As we would find out in our later travels, it is common for roads to be closed due to landslides. And on this day we came to a place in the road where soil, rocks and vegetation had slid across the road. Kiwis call this a slip – pronounced sleep. “Mind the sleep” became one of our favorite sayings! Luckily crews were at work clearing the debris and trying to reopen the road. We continued on Rt. 6 stopping to walk into the “Blue Pools” in Mt. Aspiring National Park. This was a leisurely stroll through a lovely forest with giant ferns carpeting the ground. A swing bridge brought us to the pools where we looked down on big trout. The mineral content of the rock makes this water incredibly blue and we were glad we stopped to stretch our legs.
We arrived in the town of Haast to find the holiday park was like the one we left in Qtown with camping spaces packed tightly together. We decided to head north toward the town of Franz Josef and the Fox Glacier area. The road north from Haast is on the west coast and on our left was the Tasman Sea. We passed miles and miles of undeveloped beaches with beautiful windswept dunes. On the right side of the road were tall palm trees in a dark, dense temperate rainforest. It was a stunning drive. Six hours later Bass was pretty tired of driving. Good thing we found a small clean holiday park in Fox Glacier. As we were checking we were brought back to “reality” as the owner commented on the storm Sandy as well as the imminent presidential election.
That night I had a dream. Hannah, our beloved yellow lab and loyal friend for 17 years visited me in my dreams. It was a very short, sweet visit. Hannah sidled up to my chair nudging my elbow with her nose. I reached down and scratched her head and chin. The dream was so real… I could feel her soft, clean fur and hear her little grunty, happy sounds. I woke and told Bass about my dream. We decided it was Hannah approving of the NZ trip we had talked about forever!
Curio Bay to Fox Glacier drive (8min 8sec):
The next morning we reserved a camp spot in Franz Josef as we knew the hike we planned for the day would be a long one. Robert’s Point is a platform overlooking the Franz Josef glacier. The trailhead sign and guide book notes this as a strenuous tramp of 11.5 kms. The only other way to see the glacier is by helicopter with some tours even landing on the glacier so tourists can walk around. We opted for the hike. The Robert’s Point hike winds up from the river valley floor through a temperate rainforest to a viewing platform above the glacier. The tramp was indeed strenuous taking us 6 hours to complete. The “trail” was really a muddy creek so climbing involved grabbing roots and rocks and pulling our bodies up and forward. I was knackered but would do this hike again. The terrain was challenging but extraordinarily beautiful with traverses over large granite outcroppings and swing bridges over raging streams. According to the guidebook this is one of the only places where hikers go from a temperate rainforest to a glacier in one hike. And according to locals this is a “very grunty tramp”. Could not have said it better myself!
Half way up we came to the very rustic Hendes Hut and a narrow wooden stairwell, the Hendes Galley, bolted to the side of a cliff. Later at the top we had a picnic on the platform, sharing the view with a hiker from Spain and a couple from Germany. As the German couple passed us hiking up I recalled hiking in Nepal and Switzerland and experiencing the same thing. German tourists like hiking and they hike efficiently, happily and quickly!
In the evening we walked to a nice restaurant in Franz Josef where Bass had a local brew called Montieth’s and I had a glass of Stoneleigh sav blanc, both de-lish! That night we slept like baby rocks.
Robert’s Point Track to Franz Josef Glacier overlook (7min 18sec):
The next morning we stopped in Okarito and walked on the beach. This is a lovely little village where we had the opportunity to spot a white heron standing perfectly still in the Whataroa (pronounced Fataroa) River. A very regal bird which we felt fortunate to see!
We continued North through Hokitika and Greymouth to Punakaiki Rocks and spent the night in another clean, well equipped holiday park. We had come to Punakaiki to see the blow holes, waves forced up through holes in limestone caves. We made a “to-go cuppa” (lemon tea, bourbon and Manuka honey) and walked up to the blow hole viewing area at 7:45 p.m. This is a pretty popular spot with tide charts posted for tourists. Unfortunately the sea swells were coming from the south, not the correct direction for a show so we enjoyed the sunset instead.
Wow, how exotic. Your describing the scene in Qtown reminded me of mooring in a very crowded Cutty Hunk Harbor.
Well written, interesting videos, as usual.
xoD