8th May Thursday Te Anau to Milford Sound & back

The long white cloud that New Zealand is named for!

We booked a coach and cruise with Te Anau Top 10. There were only seven of us on the small coach. Our driver & guide, Reece, was very informative and full of help.

The weather was not good. It had been raining for the last 10 hours and was still raining.

The road to Milford Sound was originally built during the great depression by men with pick axes and wheelbarrows. The weather conditions were hash. No warmth, rain, and, near Homer Tunnel, no sun from April to October! The road was finally fully paved in 1991.

We stopped at Mirror Lake on the way to Homer Tunnel. Indeed it was beautiful to see and there was a mirror rainbow. There was a sign of Mirror Lake upside down so you could read the writing in the lake surface.

We stopped at Knobs Flat for toilet. The facility is closed at 3pm every day. Nobody knows why so early. The last tour bus does not leave Milford Sound till later.

You can track up Milford Sound in 4 days. The cheap way costs only NZ$300, where you would need to carry your own food and bedding and accommodation basic. Or, you can go the posh way. About NZ$1700, with a guide, hot shower and gourmet meals.

We stopped at a village called Homer, but it is now vacant. It shows the condition people lived in those days. The National Park is strict about villages along the Milford Sound. There is none. Not even a cafe insight.

We also stopped at the Chasm. This was rather a surprise. We could hear the roar of a waterfall. When we got nearer, it was a very spectacular sight. The water has bored big holes on the rocks. The holes are right through. Imagine a round sphere with holes through it.

We also saw lots of waterfalls. Most of these were temporary because of the rain. We saw a frozen one by Homer tunnel which showed how cold up it was up there.

We arrived at the cruise terminal – no cafe. Our boat was skippered by an Englishman called Darren. It was a small company, and it was not as crowded as those big ones.

Milford Sound was not a sound, but a fiord. It was first founded by a welsh man and named it after his beloved home town Milford Haven. The second founder, also a Welshman names it Milford Sound as Milford of the South. Captain Cook did not land here.

Darren the skipper bought the boat closed to several water falls. Richard was brave to go out and stood under the falls. He said it was like somebody with a fire host coming at you. Lots of water falling on to your head. We also had water from the fall collected for us to drink. The colour was a bit yellowish. An "alcohol free chardonnay" the captain called it. The second time under the falls, there were more people braving the shower. They were soaked. This time they took off their shoes and rolled up their trousers.

Lunch was sandwiches and pumpkin soup included in the tour.

7th May Wednesday Wanaka to Te Anau

We left Wanaka via Arrowtown.

We drove through a mountain range with nothing growing on it. It went like this forever. It was an enormous mountain. The last bit of the mountain was very steep as we descended. The bends & corners were windy and so steep.

We got to Queenstown; it has a lake called Wakatipu

With a length of 80 kilometres, it is New Zealand's longest lake, and, at 291 km², its third largest. It is at an altitude of 310 metres, towards the southern end of the Southern Alps. The general topography is a reversed "N" shape. The Dart River flows into the northern end, the lake then runs south for 30 kilometres before turning abruptly to the east. Twenty kilometres further along, it turns sharply to the south, reaching its southern end 30 kilometres further south, near Kingston.

The lake is drained by the Kawarau River, which flows out from the lake's Frankton Arm, 8km east of Queenstown. Queenstown is on the northern shore of the lake close to eastern end of its middle section. The lake is very deep, its floor being as low as 100 metres below sea level. It has a seiche of period 26.7 minutes which, in Queenstown Bay, causes the water level to rise and fall some 200 mm. as much as 12cm every five minutes.

No-one really knows why there is a seiche in the lake but the Maori belief is that the beating heart of a god is the cause

According to Maori legend, Lake Wakatipu was created when the mythical giant, Matau, stole the princess Manata from her father, a Maori chief. The chief asked his bravest soldier, Matakauri, to rescue his princess. Matakauri found the giant sleeping, the princess secured to him with rope. He tried to cut the rope but failed and Manata started crying. Her tears dissolved the rope and together they ran, chopped down scrub and bracken, surrounded Matau with the firewood, set it alight and burned him to death. The fire melted the snow on the mountains and the water filled the burned shape of the sleeping giant, creating the lake. The water level rises and falls and it is said this is caused by the giant's heart still beating.

From the distance you can see snow capped mountain ranges all the way to Te Anau.

Richard took a detour and went by Manapouri, another gigantic lake (28km long and a max depth of 444m) and New Zealand's second deepest. The "Lord of the Rings" filmed the "Dead Marshes" here.

We also found the track to the river Waiau River. It is the outflow of Lake Te Anau, flowing from it into Lake Manapouri, 10 Km to the south, The river doubled as the River Anduin at the end of the first The Lord of the Rings film, The Fellowship of the Ring, for the scenes where the Uruk-hai chase the Fellowship along the river banks.

The river was deep, clear and fast flowing. We walked across a wooden swing bridge – it was shaky and a bit scary.

Richard tried (once again) his rod out but could not get to the fish. They were big trout. But he enjoyed himself. My mother and I stayed in the campervan and watched DVD.

We arrived at Te Anau, yet another lake. This time it's the second –largest lake in New Zealand (after Lake Taupo) and is 65Km long and up to 270m deep.

There were lots of motor homes at the campsite. Most of them, like us, will be travelling to Milford Sound in the morning. We are all looking forward to the trip.

6th May Tuesday Franz Josef to Wanaka

We, like all tourists, flocked to Franz Josef Glacier. It was a disappointment. We could not get any closer than to watch the glacier from the opposite bank of the river, about 1000m asway from the glacier face. It was an enormous piece of ice, covering the base and valley of the mountain. In the old days, it was even bigger, covering the entire road leading to the Glacier.

The weather was a bit cold, so we were all dressed up like a cotton wool. My mum was not keen of wearing too many layers (like most people in the tropics, they do not understand the word "cold"). We took a photo of her to show she is not fat.

We then drove to Fox Glacier. This time we could go closer to the glacier. We took about 30 minutes hike to the base. It was spectacular, more if I may says so compared to Franz Josef. Vertical wall of mountain on one side made this an interesting view.
We then came along SH6, and came across a salmon farm. The idea was to get some salmon for dinner. The set up with its own shop, a viewing pond and restaurant was great, but we cannot find a good piece of salmon to take home. At the viewing pond, there were many big fish, about 30lbs?

One observation. Richard waved to almost every on-coming camper van, no matter their sizes. We found that those smaller camper van drivers had an attitude not to be like the bigger camper van driver. They seldom waved back. In particular I mean those from Wicked, Juicy, Escape and Spaceships.

We had tomatoes soup at Bruce Bay. The scenery was as exquisite as the soup. The sea was lovely. Imagine after these NZ coasts, there will be nothing until South Poles.

We stopped at Knight Point lookout. From here you can see jagged coast line with high cliff. There were pieces of cliff being washed over to sea. So, we get these stumps like cliff all along the coast line.

We drove to Haast. We had to cross a long single lane bridge over River Haast. The view again was great. Sea on the right and big wide river on the left.

From Haast to Wanaka, the drive was so exquisite. I am not sure I want to describe it, just in case I am not doing its justice. You would have to come and see for yourself. Richard had some good photos.

We came past the Makarora River; this is the start of Lake Wanaka. This lake is so big and deep. About 42 Km long and depth of more than 300m (980 ft).

There is another lake – Lake Hawea (35 Km long and 392m deep). The two lakes divided by a 8km wide pass. We came into Wanaka, then drove across the mountain and came to the entrance of Lake Hawea. It was just so stunning, lakes surrounded by snow capped mountains.

A tip, Shania Twain's estate is for sale, she and her husband are splitting up and they paid millions of dollars for a ranch in Wanaka. This is a place I would like to live too.

We arrived at our campsite, dazed from the scenery and very tired. Fish and chips for supper. The fish was called blue cod. It was yummy. The chips were better than England. Shame.

5th May Monday Hokitika to Franz Josef

In Hokitika, spoke to Michael in the morning, ensured us that the orchid and our home were fine...

Booked a 2.30 pm doctor appointment for my mum and me.

Before the appointment we drove to a nearby lake for a few hours. More waving of my fishing rod at the water and no response from the fish. The ducks came and we fed them with some bread.

The lake, Lake Kaniere, was used to provide electricity and water to Hokitika in the past. The scenery is, once again stunning. No wind, so the water was like mirror. Snow capped mountains in the distance. I could have live here!

Then to the doctors (It was a virus infection and we do not get any sympathy. We came out NZ$200 poorer and not any better. The doctor did give us the name of the medicine and we were better after a few days) and onto Franz Josef for the night. More lovely lakes as we drove past.

4th May Sunday Arthurs Pass to Hokitika

Carried on with a round trip back to the West coast, this time we travelled via Arthurs Pass which is to the South of Lewis Pass.

When we left Ashley Gorge, going towards Oxford, the mountain range was in front of us – snow capped and all! The view was just simply stunning – a row of mountains all covered with snow!

There was a farmers market in Oxford but we didn’t stop, there were a few stalls but nothing interesting unfortunately.

That was generally the case with all the small towns and villages in New Zealand – two rows of shops down the main through road, at the most twenty shops. But very few of the chain shops, certainly unlike the UK where every street has a Boots, a WH Smith, Specsavers etc, etc.

We stopped at the supermarket for grocery and fuel. Groceries were not cheap. Lamb and beef were reasonable. Chicken were expensive. Fuel, especially diesel was 1.56 (40p)a litre. And the New Zealanders were complaining.

Before we left Oxford, Richard and I went for a walk along the river with his fishing rod.

Arthur Pass was interesting; you get to drive very close to the mountains. They were high. We stopped by Pearson Lake. Richard tried his rod again for brown trout. But we fished and saw nothing.

We came along a viaduct, but before we drove across, we went up to the lookout point to take a look. It was scary. The viaduct is called Dead Man Drive, indeed it was. The road was not flat, it was very steep going downhill.

We stopped by a hotel called Hotel Otira. It was run by an Englishman from the up north. It was the worst hotel ever I visited. The coffee was cold and it took forever and the state of the hotel was bad!

Along the way to our camp site at Hokitika, we could see the glacier in front of us. The view again was stunning. From our campsite we could see Arthur Pass on our left and the Tasman Sea on our right. We later went for a walk into town and on the beach. We were very tired. Richard with his driving and us with our cold and cough.

3rd May Saturday Westport to Ashley Gorge via the Lewis Pass

A very cold night but woke to the snow capped mountains out the back window and frost on the lawn. They were snow capped for the first time this season and the view out the back window of the camper van was excellent.

Jo-Ann and her Mum both have colds, so there's lots of noisy coughing and spluttering. Jo-Ann has a slight fever and was shivering during the night even though we had the heater on all night.

We drove to the East coast via Lewis Pass. The views were of snow capped mountains everywhere, huge rivers and forests with their leaves turning autumn colours.

It was almost sensory overload.

The whole drive was about 200km long and, for ¾'s of that our jaws were dropping and we could only say "Wow". It got better with each turn of the road.

And better

It started to rain so we diverted to a campsite in Ashley Gorge near Oxford for the night.

Jo-Ann and I went fishing in the river in the morning before we left, no fish seen but a lovely river.

2nd May Friday Havelock to Westport

We travelled to Westport on the west coast of the island via Renwick (near Blenheim) and St. Arnaud. Until lunch time the sun was out and the drive alongside the vineyards was beautiful.

St. Arnaud is where the Nelson Lakes National Park starts including L.ake Rotoiti and Late Rotoroa (not Rotarua).

We stopped for lunch at Lake Rotoiti, where it was drizzling. I went fishing in the lake for a while, didn't catch anything but saw some huge eels – one was easily 5ft long and as thick as my forearm (they are protected so I couldn't even try to catch one )

Then drove to Westport, through the Buller Gorge area, always following the Buller River. Again, there were the most amazing views and twisty roads.

Stayed in Top 10 in Westport which was the worst one we had stayed in. The hair dryer didn't work and the whole place looked like an old army barracks. But the water was hot and the late evening view of the mountain range was great.