Queenstown, third time lucky, though we knew we had a parking space this time as we pre booked a campsite! As we had already traversed the southern scenic route we headed up State Highway 6, for 117 miles.
They are called State Highway’s but don’t expect dual carriageway or motorways in New Zealand… State Highways are single carriageways often with single lane bridges and plenty of slow vehicle bays (climbing lanes in UK terms). No-one hogs the outside lane, when they overtake, they move back in! Outside of the slow bays we have found a reluctance for drivers to overtake us unless we actually pull over and stop? The National speed limit is 100km/hr but we are limited to 90…. and at that everything rattles inside!
Lush green pastures with snow capped mountains as a back drop,
hawks gliding along the hedgerows,
birds dancing in the air…. our journey is amazing and we are so blessed.
Brunch stop was at Lumsden, the halfway point between Queenstown and Invercargill road and where it is crossed by the east-west road from Gore to Te Anau. If ever you are this way we highly recommend the Route 6 cafe/bar, a modern 1950’s themed Americana Cafe with a Kiwiana touch!
Queenstown has been referred to as the adventure capital of the world, the home of the bungy jump! It is a lively, bustling town with a wide range of outdoor shops jostling for space with bars and experience outlets! We don’t do bungy jumps, skydiving or white water rafting at home so we are less likely to do it on holiday! We do enjoy exploring a town, watching the world go by and meeting the locals.
Our journey west took us back along the SH6 towards Cromwell going up the west side of Lake Dunstan this time, to Wanaka, a mere 67km. The terms of our camper hire didn’t allow us to cross The Crown Range road! On leaving Queenstown we stopped off in Arrowtown this time.
A charming and quirky village steeped in gold rush history – it portrays two sides of the story. The adventurous Chinese who flocked to the area in 1874 in search of wealth and a better way of life. They were forced to live in huts along isolated gullies on the banks of Bush Creek at the edge of town. Many of the huts have been restored allowing us to see up-close the toil and modest living conditions they survived in.
A sad note…. Old Chinese miners longed to be buried in ancestral cemeteries where their spirits would find rest. Fund raising among wealthier Chinese enabled many old men to return home and provided for the dead to be exhumed. The last ship carrying nearly 500 bodies back to China sank off Hokianga in 1902. (Info courtesy of DOC board)
On the other side of the road is Buckingham Street, a preserved avenue where wealthy banks and merchants traded in the mid-1800s.
We continued on to Wanaka where we had a reservation at a vineyard!
Wanaka is a popular resort town set on the southern end of its namesake lake. On labour weekend it was thriving with visitors and when we arrived they were presenting prizes for the annual raft race! Some very soggy entrants!
We stayed in the garden of Aitken’s Folly, home of Ian Percy and Fiona Aitken and their daughter Izzy. Another couple who left the oil industry in Scotland to live their dream in New Zealand. This vineyard was completely started from scratch eleven years ago with just over three hectares of their five hectare site planted with three clone vines on American root stock.
The vineyard produces 75% pinot grapes and 25% Chardonnay making Pinot Noir, Pinot Rose and Chardonnay wines. Both Ian and Fiona are geologists and have been assisting other growers with information on the rock type, soil, etc!
Heading on from Wanaka we continued on route 6 along Lake Hawea and back on to Lake Wanaka before crossing McKerrow Range and the Haast Pass, enroute to Fox Glacier.
Fiona had told us it was going to rain on the west coast but she didn’t say anything about HOW windy it was going to be! Have to give Paul his dues here….. he kept Bess (the campervan) just about on his side of the road! The views however, were stunning….
The monument at Knight’s Point is to commemorate the opening of Haast Pass. Two teams worked on the road, one from the north and one from the south. They met just north of Haast on the coast. When it was decided to have a memorial, officials from the Ministry of Works said it would be named after an employee from the head office in the capital, Wellington. Construction workers had other ideas and informed the delegation that the area had already been named Knight’s Point. The officials inquired who “Knight” was and were informed that he was the surveyor’s dog. Knight’s Point was named after Norman McGeorge’s dog Knight! It had toilets – those composting, long dark holes that blow air round your nether regions!!
As the day progressed the weather deteriorated and the rain Fiona promised came in….. with a vengeance!
We drove on through Fox Glacier in the hope that the rain might ease by the time we got to Franz Josef.
Not a chance! The rain was biblical in nature, the restaurant where we had lunch full of drowned bikers and hikers and the forecast for more of the same. What to do….. We’ve hiked to a glacier before in Norway so rather than wait for the weather to clear we continued our journey up the west coast to Hokitika – through Whataroa, Hari Hari and Pukekura! After changing our wet clothes!!!
Hokitika was first settled in 1860, after the discovery of gold on the West Coast. It was an important river port, but many ships came to grief on the notorious ‘Hokitika Bar’ – a sandbar that shifts with every tide. Nowadays Hokitika is known as the Cool Little Town!! Big in to their driftwood….
That’s our time on the west coast finished. The scenery was awesome and some of those passes spectacular. I could post lots of pictures!!!! It’s been a mixed bag with the weather but that we can’t book, organise or influence, we just have to go with it! Heading back east and in to wine land next…..
H&P Adventures 