Part 5

Day 11


Today is our 35th anniversary! And what a day it turned out to be.

We left Hokitika and continued driving south. We got to Franz Josef but the Tourist Radio said it would be a 4km walk into the glacier so we just kept driving and instead went in to see the Fox Glacier. As a glacier it’s okay but pales in comparison to the Columbia ice fields. I may be jaded too in that once you’ve seen one glacier you’ve seen them all. But it was still a stop worth making.

After departing the Fox glacier we continued south stopping for lunch at “Knight’s Point” where there is a nice over look of the rugged coast made all the more impressive by the continued high surf.

Next stop was Haast where we stopped for fuel knowing that there was little in between here and Wanaka. When we pulled out we quickly caught up to another car that was just putting along but soon started to speed up. Since I thought they were dawdlers, as it turned out, I made the mistake of passing them. For the next 20 km they stayed right on our tail. Then we came to one of the many one lane bridges, this time with a vehicle coming from the other direction just entering the bridge when we got there. I stopped to let them by and bang! The car behind us rammed us as they didn’t stop in time! The driver of the vehicle, a young Japanese woman, rushed up to make sure we were okay and apologised profusely. Fortunately, other than bent metal and broken glass no one in either car was hurt (note the broken glass in front of their car as that was where the end of our car was before impact- it was pushed to the position you see by the impact!). We exchanged driver and insurance information and, after discovering there was no cell service with which to call the police we both then drove back to Haast as neither vehicle was damaged to the point of being incapacitated. After making a police report over the phone and re-confirming we had all of the required information I called the rental company to find out what to do. The representative said they had a depot in Queenstown so we continued our journey but now much more cognizant of anyone behind us as we no longer had cushioning left in our rear bumper.

We got to Wanaka, and looking at the map saw that there was a much shorter route to Queenstown than if we stayed on Highway 6. So we took this road through the Cardrona Valley. For ¾ of the way we slowly kept climbing in elevation yet wondered why this was not a favoured route as the road was just as good as any other we had been on to date. Then we reached the height of land and suddenly realised why! It was a steep and twisty decline back down to Highway 6 with one part consisting of at least half a dozen hairpin corners as it wound its way down the slope.

We finally made it into Queenstown and then found a motel that turned out to be about 2 short blocks from the car rental agency. We walked down town and found a very nice Thai restaurant overlooking the harbour with snow capped peaks in the background. What a view! And that is how we spent our anniversary!

Day 12

I went down to the car rental agency and filled out an accident report. While the other persons insurance should pay for it all we still had to pay the deductible for the Collision Damage Insurance ($1500). I then called the insurance provider that provides the equivalent insurance through our Platinum Credit card and filed a case in case the deductible is not refunded.

As a result we got off to a late start and because of our “incident” the day before we decided to forgo the drive into Milford Sound. Both of us have has enough driving through these narrow and twisting roads through the mountains, including the one lane bridges! So we drove down Highway 6 along Wakatipu (spectacularly clear water surrounded by snow topped mountains – fantastic!).

And then down to Highway 94 where we cut across to the east coast arriving eventually at Dunedin. There we went downtown to the “Octagon” and walked around there for a while including having a look at the statue of Robbie Burns (too bad the birds showed no respect for him) and the Anglican Church, seat of the New Zealand branch of the church.

We then continued the drive north on Highway 1 making a stop at Moeraki to see the “Moeraki Boulders” that my brother Stephen had told me about (he had seen them when he and his wife, Jo-Anne, had been to New Zealand several years ago). They are rather unique as they are almost perfectly spherical. Based on a number of them that have been broken down by wave and other forces it appears they are the result of quartz filling fractures and permeating the surrounding clay forming what are called concretions. As the waves wore away the soft clay around them it exposed these round balls.

We finished the day by driving to Oamaru. This is home to two pelican colonies; one of Blue Penguins and the other Yellow-eyed Penguins. After checking in to a motel we took a drive to find the viewing area for the Yellow-eyed penguins (the other has been too commercialised so we didn’t go there. It took some doing thanks to the fact that the highway signs are designed for traffic coming from the south and this time we were coming from the north and thus missed the turn-off. But we eventually got there and in the end were not disappointed! The penguins come back after spending all day out at sea feeding in the late afternoon-early dusk. They then land and work their way up into the scrub covered slopes to their nests. At this site there is a walk-way along the top edge of the slope with several viewing platforms. From here we saw several penguins in the scrub and at least half a dozen as they came in on the surf and waddles their way across the beach to the bank. Plus we got to see a fur seal work his way up the beach to be above the surf and then laid down to have a nap. Janice was especially thrilled by all of this as she had wanted to see both seals and penguins in the wild and she was not disappointed!

Day 13

For today’s entry I’m going to start with some general comments/trivia. The first is that I wish to expound upon our Tourist Radio. I know I have mentioned it previously but I feel I should add a bit more. While not perfect (the song play list, while to our tastes is rather limited in that after only 12 days we have gone through the selection list at least 3 times, and they do advertise their service a bit too much) it has been a real help. It is as if we were on a bus tour with frequent commentary about local sights but with us determining where we stop and for how long! We both really like it and make sure it is playing pretty much all the time we are on the road. I have learned though that we have to be very attentive in that when they mention that we are near sights of interest we may only have about 30 seconds before the local sign appears and the decision to turn must be made. I know, we easily could turn around when we miss a turn-off but that assumes wide shoulders or other facilities to allow such a turn and I must say that here those are luxuries that are few and far between!


The other item is about the currency. I first experienced not having pennies when I went to Australia a few years ago and liked the idea immensely. Here they have taken it one step further and have got rid of the 5 cent piece too! As a result all they have are the following coins: 10₵, 20₵, 50₵, $1 and $2, with the former looking like a large penny as it is copper based. Even though prices may be in cents they round up or down as required. Another related item is that GST is always included in the price, although it is itemised on the receipt. No shock when you get the final bill because it is now whatever percentage higher than what the price sticker showed! I love it!

Anyway, we reviewed what we wanted to do for the day and decided to make the trip back west to Mount Cook. But, as we also try to do, we took an irregular route trying to follow what is locally called the Vanished World Trail which is supposed to have some fossil locations along it. Since the trail was designed to be traveled in the opposite direction to the one we took we missed the proper road and instead took the next one that did eventually meet up with the one we wanted. As a result in only saw two notable sites: the Anatini Fossil Whale Site and the Elephant Rocks site. The former apparently was a location used for the filming a scene for the movie The Lion and the Wardrobe. We located the fossils, protected under a plastic protective cover. The other location is nearby and just consists of some erosional structures of the same limestone as at the fossil site.

From there we connected with Highway 83. This took us by the Waitaki and Aviemore hydroelectric dam facilities on the Waitaki River. There are apparently 8 such facilities on this river system and produce a significant proportion of New Zealand’s power. A unique feature of the river is its turquoise blue colour.

Just past Twizel we took the turn and headed north to Mount Cook. Soon we came to the shore of Lake Putaki and what a view! The turquoise water with the Mount Cook range in all their glory in the background! Upon arriving at the small village servicing the park we enjoyed the information centre and then had lunch at the cafe.

After lunch we took a drive to the see the Tasman Glacier, the largest of all of New Zealand’s mountain glaciers. A gravel road took us to the base of the terminal moraine. We made the mistake of taking the trail that said “View of Glacier”, which goes up to the top of the series of terminal moraines instead of the one that would have taken us to the shore of the glacier lake at the base of the glacier. This choice resulted in trying to climb the very steep and long trail. Janice wasn’t able to make it to the top, especially since it was quite rough near the top. But since I am part mountain goat I did and quickly realised our folly. But I got several good pictures of the glacier, the lake and numerous ice burgs that had calved off of the glacier.

Once we made it back to the car we then drove back toward the east coast finally settling down for the night in the town of Ashburton.