Since Covid has stripped us of our usual overseas travel options for now we have headed out on another road trip in the South Island to get some relief from the Covid fatigue. We decided to cover some places we did not visit back in September - some new locations, some we missed due to bad weather and some we really enjoyed last time and wanted to repeat.
So last Friday we boarded our flight and two hours later, after some stunning views of the Southern Alps poking through the clouds, we arrived at Queenstown a little after 10:00AM.
After picking up the rental car and a visit to the supermarket we hit the road, heading south to Lake Te Anau, our first stop. Arriving just after 1:00 we quickly checked into our motel and headed to the lakefront. There we boarded a boat to a trip to the glow worm caves in the Fiordland National Park on the far side of the lake, in perfect conditions - warm sunny weather without a breath of wind on the glassy waters. What a stunning place. The bush walk to and from the cave reminded me of the Alaskan rainforest we visited back in 2015.
After the cruise we walked through the quite pleasant little town, although sadly there were a number of empty shops - victims of the tourism downturn. We found a place for dinner that unfortunately proved indifferent then returned to our room for the night.
Day two was a long one. We left Te Anau in the pre-dawn and were on the road to Milford Sound. What a stunning drive this was in the early morning mists through the Southern Alps that rose steeply to peaks thousands of metres above us and gave much of the drive a mystical appearance. One almost expected a hobbit to jump out of the bush.
We paused briefly at the Mirror Lakes before completing the drive to Milford where we caught our boat trip out on the sounds - technically it is a fiord not a sound.
What an astonishingly beautiful place this is and begs the question that why after residing in this country for 58 year is this the first time I have been here? I mean I have visited five of the six continents - Australia, Asia, Africa, North America and Europe. I have been to a sizable chunk of Oceania, but it has taken a pandemic to compel me to see my home country.
After a picnic lunch we headed back to Te Anau the onto Wanaka via the Crown Range Road that rose rapidly hundreds of meters from the valley floor and presented this gorgeous view back down the valley towards Queenstown.
We arrived at Wanaka around 6:00, absolutely shattered having driven for nearly six hours. Dinner followed by an early night were in order.
Day three was a full day in Wanaka - a beautiful spot that we enjoyed last September. There is not too many signs of a downturn here with hardly any vacant shops in the centre of town and all the bars, cafés and restaurants seemingly doing well - helped no doubt by the local A&P (Agricultural & Pastoral) show with the bars and restaurants pumping. We just spent the day around town taking in a coffee or two, lunch, a visit to the local lavender farm - a wonderfully peaceful place - and sitting on the beach in brilliant autumn sunshine and looking out over the lake and the mountains beyond.
Day four saw us head west through the Haast Pass to the West Coast, making for Franz Josef. This was the part of the coast we missed on our last road trip because of bad weather. Rain was forecast for the day and you can see the comparison between day three’s bright and sunny weather to day four’s moody skies over Lakes Wanaka and Hawea.
We struck the first rain at the northern end of Lake Wanaka and by the time we made it half way through the Haast Pass the it was torrential - by a strange irony our last trip here was made in torrential rain. As we reached Bruce Bay on the coast the wind was howling from the Tasman Sea, where we snapped this shot out of the car window.
Just after 1:00 we made it to Franz Josef and our luxury hotel, not that we had booked a luxury hotel, it is just that the downturn is so severe here that three hotels have closed temporarily and all the guests have been transferred to a fourth...another COVID benefit for us...yay for us! The hotel is formed in a large hollow square about 50 metres across the courtyard the middle of which is filled with its rainforest planting (below) .
Day six dawned with the rain departing and by late morning it was gone and the blue skies returned. Here you can see the contrast between yesterday evening (top) and today (below).
We decided to book a helicopter ride over the glaciers, but the conditions up the valley were less than perfect so we will try for tomorrow, before we head north again. For the rest of the afternoon we retired to a local bar to watch the Americas Cup yacht racing.
