Westport - Buller Gorge - Inangahua

Cape Foulwind near Westport - and foul it was too - cold southerly blowing on a hot summers day. But the beach cliffs looked ok, and the lighthouse gets a reasonable 6/10

On to the Buller Gorge (because the town of Westport was just another small town). This is an awesome stretch of road about 35km of winding road beside the Buller River - a real man's river! Stayed at a roadside area half way through and the sandflies drove me mad - until I found the chigger repellant and wiped in on the ceiling flyscreens - that got me thru the night.

At Inangahua there is a hall with a history of the 1968 earthquake displayed in photos and newspaper clippings - very sobering reading - apparently an 8 on the Richter Scale. Also showed this old b/w pic of the Buller Gorge and my own at the same spot follows ...

And here's how the road was shifted. There were stories of how during the quake the bed was being slammed from one wall to the next and back again, (it struck at 5:30am) and a bloke who leaned his rifle up against the wall the night before, and next morning his rifle was in two rooms - the wall having shifted.

 

Punakaiki

Just a couple of shots of this place - once again, a well worn tourist spot. If we could just chase away the tourists on fine days and leave the place for kiwis to enjoy...

Ross

Well not much happened between Franz Josef and Ross - just mile after mile of rainforest. But at Ross I found an old goldmine and had a look inside - not much holding up the roof tho.

Hokitika was a nice relief - first sign of real civilisation after leaving Wanaka. I watched some glassblowing here too - fascinating. Here's the town clock....

And clever driftwood on the beach

 
That night I drove into the famous resort city of ..... Barrytown! Stayed by the beach and in the morning got the proof of the big metropolis - the local school. That's about all there was.

Glaciers

First time for me at a glacier - Fox Glacier was an impressive sight. You could hear the ice cracking at the terminus, but I didn't see any big lumps fall away. It moves about half a metre each day.

On the way back out I came across this beautiful blue pool with green algae growing in it.

Between Fox and Franz Josef I managed to get a snap of Mt Cook....

And on to Franz Josef - wasn't able to get so close to this one, and a long walk in the hot sun from the carpark. I priced helicopter flights $135 for 17minutes, or $400 for a two hour walk on the glacier. The choppers do brisk business here - counted 5 in the air at one time and always one overhead. Very expensive place - everything has lots of freight charge to get here, so diesel is $1.85 per litre compared with $1.49 in Waimate, and going to the hotpools here will set you back $23!!!

Haast

The township of Haast was smaller than I expected, but the river valley was, well, vaaast.

Back into tourist mode here and battling with all the other vans to get a park at the various stops along the way...

Here's the beautiful Blue Pools where brown trout are common. Aparently they float in water that is so clear they seem to be hanging in midair. None there today tho.

Stayed at the DOC camp at Lake Paringa with this enormous tree right overhead - hoping it wasn't going to drop a branch on me during the night!

A nice little bush walk to the Thunder Creek waterfall. Not much water coming off it, but it hasn't rained on me for weeks now.

Lake Hawea

Sorry for the speed in posting this stuff all at the same time - it's all due to a trauma I suffered as a spoolboy.. well actually what happens is I am finding lots of areas where I can't get Vodafone internet coverage - so when I get it working again I am a few days behind and have to catch up.

I basically bypassed Wanaka - with all its tourists it is not a very relaxing place to be, so I turned NW, and headed into the unknown. Wow, what a find Lake Hawea is - in my mind the prettiest of all the lakes, but that might just be due to the fabulous reflections I got driving along its shores...

Really struggling with this net connection .. but here's a pic of a bush walk I did up behind the DOC campsite above the lake...

Benmore Dam and back thru Lindis Pass

Here's the Benmore Dam on my way back south again after stargazing at Lake Tekapo. I think this is the biggest earthfill dam in NZ. Once again it's got that azure blue water filling it from glacial origins.

And on the way back again thru the Lindis Pass, this time a bit more sun so a couple more shots of this stunning landscape. Almost no trees to be seen through here.

Central Otago

Ok I'm still having some issues regarding the layout so this post is being made with a different browser. Let's see how Firefox goes...

Motored down to Alexandra and after a quick stop to see the cricket ground at Molynieux Park, I managed to find my way to this slope site overlooking Alexandra. The flying was pretty lumpy and rough  probably due to thermal turbulence off the town and the fluted slope face. (see rocky humps at top of slope!) But the view was superb.

Here's the old town of Clyde. The mainstreet has been preserved in that yesteryear look.

And of course, the Clyde Dam is nearby - quite a spectacular site at the end of Lake Dunstan

Next day I went back to Cromwell to go goldpanning in the Bannockburn sluicing area. You can see from this pic just how much sluicing went on. The Kawarau River can't be seen but it is between the sluicings and the belt of trees in a bit of a gorge.

Parked overnight at a lovely spot on the lakeside just upstream of the dam along with a dozen or so other vanners. Got woken in the morning at sparrow-fart by the local rowing skiffs being launched for their early training - dedication.

                                                         Here's Lake Dunstan -

I decided at this point to make a run for it from Cromwell all the way back up to Tekapo - a drive of 200km - instead of heading off to the West Coast - just so I could catch some astonomy at Mt John observatory while the moon wasn't too bright. It was a long day's drive in the old girl, but with frquent stops I made it ok.
Here's the Lindis Pass along the way...

And made it to Tekapo for this pic from Mt John overlooking the town. The lake colour is from suspended solids in glacial meltwater that feeds the lake. Aquamarine!

That night the sky was beautiful and clear and it vindicated my rushed trip north. The Milky Way was bursting out all over the sky and my binoculars were pressed into use looking at globular clusters of 47 Tuc and Omega Centauri, and some fabulous open clusters that I hadn't seen before - especially one looking northwards that I must find the name of. Also a nice open cluster at the bottom of the Diamond Cross which I hadn't seen before. I tried a bit of astro photography with the Nikon, but I really haven't got the gear that is needed to pull it off.

Only problem now is that I have to go all the way back to Wanaka to get to the West Coast, but I think it was worth it.

Kingston and Lake Wakitipu

I arrived at Fairlight just as the Kingston Flyer was pulling in and got some shots of them turning the engine around on the triangle. Followed it back to Kingston and got some more shots - here it is on the turntable being ready for the next days' trip. And cleaning out the firebox. The driver was a Maori bloke maybe in his 30's and I was astonished to see the fireman was just a teenager. Stayed that night on the edge of Lake Wakitipu and the next morning I headed off towards Cromwell.

Te Anau - Milford

From Manapouri to Milford there is absoloutely no freedom camping allowed. So I had to stay at the nearest DOC camp - 25km past Te Anau!!! Madness. I met a tourist couple who were fined the $200 so I didn't try it on. Here's a nice shot of Lake Manapouri anyway. For some reason, this post got all screwed up and I can't fix it :-( And Te Anau is just up the road - all very tourist oriented and no shortage of them too. From Te Anau to Milford is a 240km round trip with no fuel available on the way. For this reason I decided to park-up at my chosen DOC Camp and take a bus trip/combined cruise on the sound instead of driving myself. This turned out to be a brilliant way to see everything, especially the different sights and tracks along the Milford road which, in my view were better than the Sound itself. True! I thought Mitre Peak would have been higher than it appears for some reason. Here's the Mirror Lake. And a lovely big field of tussock ... The Chasm, was just a short walk off the Milford road where the Cleddau River cuts down through a hole in the rock. Lake Te Anau... And the multi-coloured stones along the water's edge of the lake...