We ended our visit to Queenstown by picking up a hire car and driving to Arrowtown, a former gold rush town nestling under the mountains. En route, we stopped to take pictures at Shotover Gorge, yet another remarkable feature in this country where the merely beautiful is just the norm!
Next day we packed up, loaded the car and set off for the West Coast. We took the route via the Crown Range, very much over the hills and providing another couple of photo stops. This took us to Wanaka, a small town at the foot of a major lake, and from there we headed up through Makarora and the mountains towards the coast at Haast. En route we paused at the Thunder Falls, not a high fall but a long one and very spectacular to look at: I was able to take a video clip as well as still photos. The weather had steadily deteriorated as we progressed, from pretty fine and sunny in Queenstown to drizzle and then serious rain. I was glad I'd bought a new umbrella in Queenstown to replace the one I've left behind somewhere.
Eventually we reached Haast, and stopped for a light lunch - a pie and an ice cream in my case. We drove - well, Hilary drove, I navigated, we both prefer it that way - along the coast, pausing to look at what we later discovered was 'Rock Art', a large number of curious little mementos along the land edge of the beach: crosses, mini cairns, rocks with things written or painted on them. We were told that these are just a way of 'leaving a bit of yourself'' there, and that they get washed away by the sea pretty well daily. Apparently we'll see more on the East coast north of Christchurch, where we'll be in a few days time.
We arrived at Fox Glacier in very good time, and decided before going down to our B & B at the far end of town to go up the Glacier access road and see what we could see. At the end of this, we could see the bottom of the actual glacier, a substantial chunk of ice which presumably breaks off from time to time and feeds the river, and allows ice movements behind it. We got within quite a short distance of the ice itself, though the weather and my knee made going right up to it not a good idea. But it's the first time I've seen an actual obvious glacier close to: I never did in Canada three years ago.
Photos taken, we went on to reach our very nice B & B. The owner was very friendly and talkative, and over a cup of tea suggested we go at once down to Lake Mathieson, which in good conditions is a 'mirror lake' and on the right day will reflect both Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. Alas, today neither were visible, the clouds being well below their 14 and 12 thousand feet summits. We drove down to the lake, but as we left the car it started raining, and by the time we'd done the ten minute walk to the lake itself it was fairly chucking it down. We walked through to the first viewpoint, but decided then to abandon the trip as there was no mirror effect with the rain and it seemed set in for the evening. We went back to the ranch before going out again to the same place for a delicious meal, and then back for a fairly early night.
During the night we had rain and wind in storm quantities! Next morning, our intended helicopter ride was clearly off, and it seems unlikely that we'll be able to do this because there is now a long queue of people waiting to go who've all been held up by bad weather. Ah, well, we had a good day on Milford Sound, so you can't have everything.
No comments:
Post a Comment