Monday, March 25, 2024

West Coast, Glaciers and Marlborough

 


To say the South Island's west coast is spectacular would be an understatement, and of course that is why we made it a priority in our first leg to drive through some of it at least.

Having left Arrowtown behind, we headed north west towards the Tasman Sea, where we would trace the coast north to Pukaiki when we'd turn back inland and head over the mountainous centre down to the flatter river plains made famous for the Marlborough wine growing region. Yes. I'll have some of that!

Then it would be off to Picton and the ferry across to Wellington for our last bit of New Zealand. 

Day 12  Wednesday, 19th March - Haast (Accommodation #6)

But first, back to where I left off last time, in Arrowtown.

We headed out of town and then immediately entered those spaghetti twisting roads that indicate you're going uphill at a rapid rate.

It wasn't long before the views were - as always - spectacular. And, of course, we had to stop to take photos pretty much every time. At one time we even saw a plane approaching the Queenstown airport. It reminded me of the film, Forrest Gump, when Forrest complained he had to go to see the president... again !?

What? we were going to stop.... again

And take more selfies of us with the most beautiful landscape behind us... again!?

Yup. That pretty much summed up the day.

Here are some of the better ones...






Looking back towards Picton and Queenstown

Some other gorgeous lake

Gorgeous gal in front of gorgeous lake

Panoramic view of one of the
Here, we went right down to the water's edge. So peaceful. 



Panoramic view 

Joyful to have such lovely weather too

And another

Beautiful


A river system higher up in the mountains

So many lovely spots






This was by a little stream with a waterfall. 



Driving along, we were a bit put out to read a simple, but clear sign....


ROAD CLOSED

REOPENS AT 5PM

Was this our road? Other cars seemed to be carrying regardless, so did we.

It turned out some works were being done to a bridge on the Haast Pass and so the road was indeed be closed but thanks to our many stops we actually got to the big red light with about twenty minutes to go.

Even waiting in the queue with the engine off there were things to see... "Trickle 1" - a lovely waterfall, and trickle 2 - a slightly smaller one.


By the trickles


Anyway, eventually the flow of cars from the other direction started (and at one point seemed would never stop) and, yes! the light turned green and we could complete are trip to the tiny hamlet of Haast.

We checked in our hotel. It was good to be able to have a room on the ground floor and park the car right outside the front door and it had a laundry. Much needed at this point.

First we popped out to one of the only two bars in town for fish and chips and a soda water.

Not the best, shall we say, but it hit a spot.



The sun would be setting soon and I was hoping to capture it as it had been such a blue sky day. So after our meal we headed back to the hotel to drive back to the beach. Harder than it sounds as not much seemed accessible from the roadside.

Eventually we found somewhere and parked the car along the road and stood near the beach waiting for the sun to go down,

It was a lovely sight but not so lovely were the hundreds of sand flies that appeared from nowhere and started to devour our exposed flesh. Poor Leb ran off as soon as the sun had touched the ocean surface, and I legged it too a few moments later.

Back to the room and I nipped to the other bar to get some change for the washing/drying machines and to do a big wash.

We slept well that night.










Day 13 Thursday, 20th March - Jackson Bay, then Franz Joseph Glacier (Accommodation #7)

After a good sleep and a long lie-in, we decided to head to Jackson Bay for "brunch" - fish and chips. The isolated spot has a fish restaurant that was recommended to me by Fiona O'Shea in the Human Sciences department at UWA. 

Jackson Bay is south of Maast, whereas we were going to be heading north to the the Franz Joseph glacier, but it seemed worth it and we would be there long.

The journey there was fraught with Google Map difficulties. Signal lost. Directions to Jackson Bay are fine, but it's BIG and the restaurant... very small.  I called them (good job I had a NZ SIM) and they said they were open but had a group of "old locals" coming at 12. If we could get there before then, fine.

So we did. And it was a lovely spot to visit even without the lovely fish. There were no crays, unfortuntely, as we'd come just out of season but the batter (a light tempura type of affair) was great and the fish itself (a "rig" I was told) was very nice, Not a big fan of antipodean chips, but Leb liked them. 












On the way back to Haast we stopped by a couple of gorgeous river views.






And then, back at Haast, it was a question of crossing the long bridge and then heading north.








Once we'd gone past that we stopped for a lovely little walk through woods over a swing bridge to "Munro Beach" which was lovely... but infested with those bloody sand flies again.












Walking around such places you are struck with how verdant and lush everything is. Each square millimeter of land exposed to some sunlight was occupied by some plant, or fungi, taking full advantage. 


We arrived at our stay for the night, another ground floor flat where you could park your car right next to the door. We did a bit of shopping, buying some cheap stuff for brekkie and a bottle of red wine.

The Motel was nestled neatly under the foothills

Anyway, after check out we headed for the main focus of the hamlet - the Franz Joseph glacier.

To get there it was a short drive back over the bridge we'd crossed when arriving the night before and then turning left to climb the foothills of the mountains to the Franz Joseph car park, from where we were able to do a few easy walks.

The first, easiest, and perhaps most picturesque, is called "Peter's Pool".




Then, we were off to look at the glacier itself. 

Here's a sign you don't see every day!


The same verdant lush borders surround every walk.


And then, there it was... very spectacular.








Notice the final image on the right - a prediction of how much the glacier would recede by 2100. A prediction made only in 2010, but it's receded twice as much already.






Day 14 Friday, 21st March  - Pukaiki - Pancake Rocks (Accommodation #8)

From Franz Joseph we headed north up the coast to Pukaiki, stopping at several picturesque natural sights on the way.






Once we found our accommodation, the host told us not miss out on the walk to a wonderful beach from a path at the end of the block. 

After a few false turns we made it and yes, indeed, it was an amazing beach. Not the beach so much, but the bizarre rock formations that frame it.









Cave woman


Tiny mollusks make their home in little eroded pits in the rocks. 


Refreshed, we went back to finish last night's wine and start on a new one and a cheap, healthy meal in the communal kitchen.

We had a lovely time meeting a lovely young couple, originally from Cambridge, but now living in SW London. We were later joined by another couple from Bretagne.  

Next morning, before setting off, we said our goodbyes to the Cambridge couple, checked out, and went to see the famous "pancake rocks" site. So called because they are made up of many layers of  sedimentary sandstone in regular distinct stratigraphic layers that are reminiscent of a stack of pancakes.

When we arrived at the car park who would we see but the Cambridge couple again! Apparently they'd been given a lift by the host to save them a walk to catch their bus.

They had much more stuff than us and also went to see the pancake rocks, Now, at this point I had envisaged them as a single solitary rock in the middle of the beach. I thought we'd get down there and see the Cambridge couple sitting by it having a picnic!

Very wrong. The whole site is massive and takes a good 45 minutes to walk around.

Wonderful.








"Mermaid's Hair" - a kind of plankton
The trip to Pukaiki

Once we'd seen that, we were off again. Back inland this time, over the mountains to the flat flood plains on the other side.

Days 15 & 16 Saturday/Sunday, 22nd-23rd March- Blenheim Wine Tour  (Accommodation #9)

The wild birds are very friendly. We had to really encourage this Kea? to get out from under out car before we carried on.


The views change suddenly. Once minute it's green rolling hills, the next, it's relatively arid and flat with field after field of vines as far as the eye could see.

Soon enough, we arrived at Blenheim - for two nights. 


Once settled, we headed off for a stroll through the quirky little town. It had a clock in the middle that chimed every 15 minutes in the traditional way.



We headed for the oldest pub in Blenheim, a characterful German-style pub, but oddly called called Dodson Street. (Dupel Strasse might have been more appropriate)




They had a full flavored pale al with an ABV of just 2.5% to wash down goulash soup with sauerkraut and apfelstrudel for pudding.


The pub had a sign I'd last seen in the old Waggon & Horses in Old Kerkby.


The next day we woke up a bit late but got read for 10 am for our pick up for a wine tour of the Marlborough district. We love doing this in the Swan Valley and Margaret River. It's a great way to relax and have a few glasses of wine without worries and usually you get to have a bit of a laugh with the others on the tour with you.

Oddly, for this one, our tour guide turned up with no-one in the bus and with no-one else joining us. So we had an exclusive guide, 
 

First stop was Lawson's Dry Hills, run by the widow of the owner who died a few years back.

Funny, every subsequent wine seemed better than the one before.





The next one, Wither Hills was even grander and clearly had been even more successful.

Our tour guide was greeted with a lot of warmth and friendship there. 

"Darling!" They exclaimed and gave her a hug.

It's just me. Here name is Darlene, and she is from the Philippines. We had lots of good chats of the state of her country as well as the wine industry in New Zealand. 





\
The thing that really impressed me about this winery was that, out front, they had one row of vines for all the grape varietals they used and some they don't.
 







After that it was Claire Valley for lunch. We opted for a lovely platter for two full of delicious local produce.



Forgive me if the story starts to get a bit hazy here but, appropriately we ended up at a winery called "Forrest" that is run by two doctors - one PhD in neuroscience and another GP.

There you go. Can't be that bad for you then. 

Cheers!!!!




Thanks, Darlene




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