Magic in the South Island
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2003
1
8
11
Trip End
Dec 16, 2003
Christchurch, Greymouth, Makarora, Queenstown and Dunedin, New Zealand
Saturday, December 6, 2003
Tranz Alpine Express from Christchurch to Greymouth
The South Island did cheer up! We caught the Tranz Alpine Express from Christchurch to Greymouth early the following morning. The train travels through the mountain ranges from the East coast to the West coast of the South Island. The landscape is stunning with snow capped peaks reflecting the sun, blue Alpine rivers flowing through large valleys and rolling green hills. I must admit that I was still recovering from Friday night's party in Sydney and slept the majority of the journey. Michael, however, was eagerly up at the front of the train taking pictures from the open viewing carriage. He came back nearly blue with icy fingers but satisfied that he had at least 20 shots of the mountains. We arrived in Greymouth, an old gold rush town that was a little too quiet. The only excitement in Greymouth was our hostel called Noah's Ark. Each of the rooms in the hostel has an animal theme and we were staying in the Penguin pen. Everything had a penguin on it from the bed covers, walls and doors - very cool! Oh we did go gold panning and managed to obtain a little gold from our efforts. I am not sure that we would be able to make a career out of it!
The Magic Bus and Franz Josef
We joined the Magic Bus, an equivalent to the Backpacker's bus in Oz and the Kiwi Experience. The bus is an easy way for us to quickly move around South Island and see as much as possible. The bus was full and we set off to Franz Josef, home to one of the numerous glaciers in New Zealand. The Franz Josef is one of the fastest receding glaciers and moves 5mm a day. We arrived in Franz Josef as the heaven's opened so our planned helicopter trip to the top of the glacier was put off. We decided to try out the half day hike up the glacier.
Michael's version of events..............
Off we traipsed to the office to get kitted out with boots and climbing spikes. Franz Josef glacier is famous for the way it comes right down from the mountains into tropical rainforest, setting up a beautiful scene of contrasts. After a 30 minute bus trip where we passed various 'The Glacier reached here in ? signposts and another 30 minute walk down the valley we finally hit ice. We hadn't realised the glacier is in such flux, as it advances and recedes up to 10m a year. Every day the guides have to be up bright and early to change routes and carve steps into the ice as the lower slopes change that much overnight. A few days before we got there a huge ice cave had finally collapsed and new crevices we climbed through couldn't have been traversed just a few days earlier. We enjoyed a great hour or two on the ice, the ice spikes that we strapped onto our ice walking boots really gave us the grip to errr get to grips with the glacier, and we got some great pics getting up to mischief. It really is an experience up there, you feel really pioneering climbing up the ice, until that is you hit the previous group of 30 tourists on the way down. By the time we got back to where we were staying we really felt we'd had a good work out. As we got up the following morning we couldn't help but laugh as various backpackers left early to go on the same trip, but in the middle of an absolute downpour?Visibility was about as far as the end of your nose (no, not my nose, a standard nose). We darted quickly to the bus and Soph managed to jump on the bus leaving Michael (yet again) to deal with her backpack in the pouring rain, getting soaked in the process. Oh well, well trained in suffering after this long?
Because of the mountains all around the weather was very localised and once we had headed up the Haast pass over to the Western side of the Southern Alps the sun was out and we were set up for a perfect day in Makarora. The whole area is named after Mr. Haast, who was a very sneaky explorer. An Austrian, he got to this area a few months AFTER an Englishman whose name is forgotten. He disposed of the evidence the Englishman had left that he had been there (British flags etc) and raced back to civilization whereas the Englishman took his time and properly charted the entire mountain area. So it's not the (Queen) Victoria glacier but the (Emperor) Franz Josef glacier, and the Haast pass through the mountains, the Haast falls, the Haast rivers, lakes, streets, forests and even towns, streets and buildings. The completely forgotten Englishman must have been gutted.
Anyway Makarora is high in the central Southern Alps and is in a valley on the river Makarora on the edges of the Mt. Aspering National Park. Stunningly beautiful (again see photos) in the pristine alpine setting with the sun out. Apparently various Lord of the Rings scenes were set around here, including a few background shots of the Elves?Rivendale settlement or something. Anyway, definitely worthy of being on film. We considered taking a scenic flight over various locations for the film but instead decided to hit the water in a jet-boat. Jet-boats were a New-Zealand invention for rivers such as river Makarora, propulsion is via jets of water that is sucked in at the front and ejected out the back at high pressure and can be directed very efficiently to alter course - thus eliminating the need for motors and rudders etc. They need only 6-8 cm (2.5-3 inches) of water clearance, which suited this area with its wide glacial melt rivers full of rubble and shingle not being very deep. We zoomed along and held on for dear life struggling to breathe with the wind in our faces up through the national park. Very cool, definitely on the wish list for when I have too much money and want an expensive toy, when at full speed they can also do 360 degree turns in less than a boat length (about 3m). As you can imagine this soaked us every time, and the guide had great fun getting us wet. He had much more fun, bizarrely, soaking the sheep on the banks and making them run for cover, poor sheep looked terrified as the growling mechanical contraption hurtling towards them spun in violent circles and got them drenched. Of course this was nothing up to the glee we all felt as we managed to soak 4 girls trying to get a sunbathing session in on the banks, hee hee, what fun.
We enjoyed a 'Magic Bus?barbie that night, which was an excuse for the guide to buy kegs of beer in. Bev the driver/guide had a very good time, as did the rest of us boys, as we had a 50L keg between only 8 people, and I hate to think how many pints per each that must have been, I escaped relatively unscathed but apparently things went on until 530am. You'd think they were all students and not relatively mature late 20-s ?mid-50's adults?Quite a few genuine groans of pain when all and sundry had to drag themselves up to be on the road for just before 8.
Today's stops were at Puzzle Land ?where we struggled in vain to get round the kiddies maze (how embarrassing), Wanaka ?exclusive ski resort to the rich and famous (well, Shania Twain anyway), and then 2 days in the self-proclaimed 'Capital-of-Crazy?Queenstown where bungy was born and which is home to much more extreme things now. The original 43m high bungy jump from a beautiful bridge is only for the middle-aged, what with the 134m Ben Nevis bungy, the Ledge and the Para-Bungy. The Ben Nevis is the highest fixed bungy in the world, and is just a piece of wire between two cliffs you can only reach via a very flimsy cable-car-like pod. You get onto a 3m round disc with no solid ground around you for a 100m and fling yourself 134m down to the river. So you are flinging yourself 134m down suspended from a big rubber cable, attached to a fragile looking steel cable. Yes, you can imagine, Soph wasn't overly keen, but to be fair neither was I. The Ledge is a running bungy, rather than one where you stand on something like a a bridge and fall off. You have to race towards the edge of the cliff and jump forwards over the cliff and then you swing in all directions. Apparently it's the hardest one to force yourself to do. The Para-bungy is the latest-and-greatest where you are strapped to a big paragliding canopy and pulled by a speed-boat on Lake Wanaka (between Wanaka and Queenstown). Everyone has seen those crazy people doing this at the beach, where the canopy gets dragged higher and higher as the boat speeds up. 200m+ up the assistant lets go and you bungy bounce vertically down to Lake Wanaka while being pulled at high speed horizontally across Lake Wanaka. Of course I would participated in all these activities if only Soph had joined me, ...no really!! But no, wasn't to be, and we decided in typical decadent, bourgeois style to go on the extended wine tour. Hardly a shabby alternative, but I'll let Soph update you on that one next time?when she recovers from the Pinot Noir / Chardonnay induced hangover that is.
Its me again (Soph)
Queenstown is fabulous, surrounded by mountains with an enormous lake front. We stayed in Deco's Backpackers which much to my unamusement lay at what must surely be one of the steepest streets in New Zeleand! The only consellation being once you reach the hostel, red in the face, is that the view from the garden is spectacular! As detailed by the other half above, we made it round the local vineyards, tried out the Piont Noir and champagnes before egging each other on to go and jump A.J Hacketts original bungy - didnt happen.
We did eventually leave Queenstown and headed back to Christchurch. While there we made a special effort to hunt down some Kiwi's, the feathered kind. Strangely enough there is an exhibition off the main square in town which is home to 2 Kiwis, a male and female. The exhibition has a room that has been set up to imitate the Kiwis habitat. The birds are large and brown with long beaks that hunt out bugs. They only appear at night and seem to be incredibly shy. We were taken into the dark room where you gradually begin to see the shadowy shapes of the birds pottering.
We are off to the North Island tomorrow.....
