Arthur's Pass

I took a detour today as I was going to head in to Christchurch. As it happened it had been snowing last night and I decided to head into the mountains. I was blessed with some amazing views whilst starting out on the East side.

The Snow capped mountains of the east side






Lake at top of Arthur's Pass


As I worked my way over there were some pretty hard roads to climb. There is one part of the pass where they have put a rock-slide bridge in place so that an avalanches don't hit the road and just fall down into the valley below

Mueller Hut

This has to be the highlight of my holiday so far. Emma, Steve and myself were discussing going to the Mueller hut on top of the mountain (Herbert?) Last night and decided that if the weather was good that we would go for a 1 day hike. The trail is a 3.5 hour trail but most people stay the night at the hut and then come down the next day. We decided to do the whole thing in a day!

Obviously I was excited in the morning. I was up at 6:30 am!! Unheard of until now! We took off at around 8:30am and took our time. Me being the less fit one was really setting the pace. Steve hung around with me and Emma blazed ahead like an experienced mountain goat! I must admit I was envious that she could go so quickly.

The trail started out fairly shallow and I thought that was going to be the kind of trail all the way. Bzzz!! Wrong!! It turned into a fairly steep climb (by steep I mean 60 degrees incline!). We were traversing up the steps and over rock faces. To be honest I couldn't believe I was doing this but Steve encouraged me and I felt quite comfortable.

One of my thoughts whilst doing this was a recollection of the lord of the rings. During 'The Two Towers' I believe, there was a scene where Gollum is leading Frodo and Sam up the Misty Mountain (on the steps). I basically felt that I was retracing their footsteps. Bloody steep and along way to fall!!

Above Clouds on the Mueller climb


Anyway after stopping at various points to take photos it was amazing. Everything below looked like toys (even my van!!). Actually the hotel below in the distance looked like a piece of Lego. At this point we were probably only 1/3 of the way up! We were still below the cloud line!!

A bit more climbing and we ascended into the clouds. Talk about a nice cooling! It was just what I needed as I had obviously sweated it out at the lower elevation. The view was sporadic as the clouds came and went. I recall seeing the mountains besides us and we were at the same altitude as their peaks!! Yep I was up there with the Gods!



After more climbing up things got a bit steeper and knarly. We ended up bouldering and then the final push was up a scree slope. Not the most encouraging of sights. Its also marked as an avalanche warning area!! Since the conditions were dry and we were in good form we pressed on to the summit. Obviously traversing the scree opposed to just going up the fall-line.

After making it to the top I shook Steve's hand and gave him some of my chocolate (he'd been good enough to share his raisins with me on the way up). We took a load of photos of various Glaciers and managed to get a good look at Mt Cook. Talk about a high mountain!! We were also blessed with conditions that allowed us to see all the glaciers on the back of the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers.

Looking out over the back side of Fox/Frans Josef Glacier


After the views we made our way to the Hut where there was a supply of fresh water and somewhere to rest. That was another trek! It took another 20 minutes and it was over a load of large boulders!! We got there and were rewarded with amazing views. We could see the Mueller glacier along with lots of waterfalls. The most amazing thing that mesmerized me and Steve was that there were snow avalanches happening almost every 30 mins or so. You'd here the avalanche and then try to work out where it was. We caught some pretty cool ones and a few that looked like waterfalls.

It's pretty hard to tell the scale of things at altitude and there's a phenomenon called 'dwarfism'. Basically anything you look at you make it smaller in your mind than it actually is. It's a perspective thing and your mind just can't cope with the scale of things. It actually looked like one of the glaciers was almost a step away whereas in reality it was probably over a kilometre away!

Looking over the Valley from the summit of the Mueller Climb (1850m)


Looking over the Valley from the summit of the Mueller Climb (1850m)- Yes they are cars on the valley floor!!

On the way down I started to feel the burn in my legs! Its actually tougher going down than up and my quads really took a beating along with my toes (time for some new boots - no expense spared!). Suffice to say I made it down safely (with a load of moans and groans). Steve was kind enough to lend me one of his walking poles when we started and it was a god send on the way down. Another lesson learned - get some walking poles!

View of Mount Cook from the Mueller Hut


I'm congratulating myself for managing to do a 1000 metre ascent (3300ft) and a 1000 metre descent in 10 hours. The summit was 1850m and the base was 800m. Something to be proud of!

View of Mount Cook on the Way down


We did the customary Milo drinks after a tepid shower in the village! After a few days without a shower anything was a good thing.

Of course we had a really windy night and I didn't sleep too well due to my van being jostled around!!

Tasman Glacier & Mt Cook

Mount Herbert (from Hooker Valley - Mt Cook base)


Today the weather was drizzly (or at least it was in the morning) so I just hung around and got talking to some people. I ended up meeting a great English couple (Emma & Steve) who had been traveling for about 5 months (IIRC). Anyway we were talking about what we could do and apparently the weather for the afternoon was going to ease up. We decided to take a walk to the Tasman Glacier which was about a 4 hour round-trip.

After taking a fairly leisurely walk we got to the top where we saw the glacier in all its splendour. The glacier was covered in gravel (moraine?) but we could see the face where ice chunks had fallen off. The lake into which the glacier was thawing had mini icebergs floating in it. Really neat to see first hand. Of course Steve and I had to play skimming with pebbles. It gave us something to do to warm ourselves up!!

Tasman Glacier


Later in the evening the clouds had lifted and Steve & Emma introduced me to Milo (a horlicks / chocolate drink which is very popular in NZ & Australia). It was very welcome after a walk and a cooling evening. We also got lucky and managed to see Mt Herbert since the clouds had lifted. It was a bit spooky because you could read a book by the moonlight. I guess that's due to all the snow and mountains reflecting the moonlight.

Twizel & beyond

Today I made my way inland to a place called Twizel (pronounced twyzel). This is a small town at the fork of a junction that either takes you to Christchurch or Mt Cook. I opted for Mount Cook! Once on the road, I made my way along lake Pukaki. I have to admit I was absolutely stunned by the colour of the lake. It's a deep turquoise which really shows when the sun is behind the clouds! Apparently there's a suspension in the water that makes it that colour and its due to the run-off from the Glaciers. After stopping to take some photos a familiar bus turned in to the same parking lot as me. It was a couple I met at monkey island a week or so ago and they recognised my car (how could you miss it!). They gave me some advice on where to camp and I took them up on it.

Lake Pukaki


I found Hooker Valley DOC campsite (Department Of Conservation) and parked up. I have to admit this is the best DOC campsite I've come across. It had a cooking area in a hut with running water and sinks. It also had flushing toilets and sinks in the restrooms. Luxury by comparison to some if the others I've seen!!

Dunedin & Aramoana

Today I spent the day driving up the Aromoana peninsula after driving through Dunedin. I mistakenly took a road as a scenic drive (the 86) and ended up driving along the coast. Actually it was quite scary as the road is about 2ft higher than the water line and the whole area seems to be a shipping area with a dredged channel. What's really scary is that you can see all the channel markers as you drive and in my case I could see a large Chinese container ship in the channels dwarfing me on the road.

After my accidental detour I went back through Dunedin. I must admit after being in the country so much I didn't much care for a large, old industrial city and made my way through it as fast as possible.

I made my way up the coast and stopped at shag point. I managed to se some seals but as far as the penguins were concerned there was shag all!!

Summer Hill & Cannibal Bay

Today I carried on north up the east coast. I stopped at a point called Summer Hill. What an amazing view. The beaches are golden the rolling hills a vibrant green and the sky a perfect blue! I got talking to a couple who were riding a Harley Road King (2 up). They were local folk from Invercargil and the friendliest people you could meet. Anyway after talking to Tony & Gladys they mentioned that they were having lunch at a good restaurant in Wangaloa and invited me to join them. I got there a bit after them (since they had a faster vehicle!) and ended up having lunch and a beer with them. As it happens the place was busy and they were under-staffed so Tony & Gladys were still waiting to be served when I arrived. Eventually I got my blue cod & chips! Wonderful, especially with a beer!!

Driving North Through the Catlins


After lunch I carried on and ended up at Cannibal Bay which is a remote beach. I drove about 8kms on a gravel road (I was feeling adventurous after my big lunch) and was rewarded by seeing a sea-lion coming out of the sea!! It looked like a young one and wasn't phased at all by me or the couple of kids playing near by. Actually it let us get quite close to it before getting defensive (when one of the kids hit a ball with their cricket bat!!).

Cannibal Beach - a Sea Lion


Later that night I looked for somewhere to stay and ended up staying in a Wetlands park. Needless to say I ended up in the middle of nowhere with only one other van. It was pretty scary to be honest. That night I got a taste of freezing conditions as a freezing fog had descended on the place. Not particularly pleasant but I managed to weather it out in my sub-zero sleeping bag!

Curio Bay & Slope Point

Sat 14-apr:

Today was spent driving to Slope Point which is the southern most point in the Southern Island of NZ. It's a pretty tough drive! I also ended up helping a German couple push their van back on to the gravel road. Apparently a bus had sped past and forced them off the road into a ditch. They were unable to get traction due to the verge being grassy and slippery. Anyway we managed to rock the car free!

After being at the most southern point I made my way north (duh!!). I ended up in Curio Bay which is a neat little peninsula. The campsite is like a corn maze with little alcoves for camper vans. It make it feel a bit more cozy and private. It also works as a great wind block. I'd advise anyone in this part of the country to stay here for those reasons.

Most Southern Point of the South Island


In Curio I managed to spot a yellow eyed penguin. They live in the bushes which are a good 25 metres away from the ocean. What's really cool is that I managed to see them at dusk (which is when you're most likely to see them). They're pretty hard to see since they blend into the rocks really well. Since I was at a long distance (they're protected) I couldn't get a good photo unfortunately.

Also I managed to spot a load of dolphins the following morning. They were swimming on the other side of the Peninsula. There must have been at least 20 of them and you just get a glimpse of their fins initially. I got my binoculars out and you can see them breaking through the water. Really cool to see them in the wild.

Later on I went down to the beach to see the petrified forest. You get to see wood preserved in rock including the wood grain and sometimes the stump of a tree. It must have been a really fast fossilization to keep them that well preserved. Maybe a volcanic eruption with a fast pyroclastic flow instantly turning the trees to charcoal? Any geologists out there care to answer this question?