New Zealand Trip- Day 4

This morning, while laying in bed, we watched a pickup truck drive all the way across the wide river bed to the railroad tracks on the other side. He had to zig  all over the river bottom in search of crossings shallow enough for his truck. When we finally got up and opened the sliding van door we were met with a such a horde of sand flies ( giant gnat like things with huge teeth) trying to beat their way into our camper, that we high tailed it out of there without even making coffee first.

The plan for today is to go see the Tasman Glacier at Mount Cook National Park , stopping at interesting  places along the way. Rakia gorge is an easy first stop along the road with no hiking needed for the views.

The second stop is way down a  long, mostly gravel road, something like forty six  kilometers, to hike around on a small hill called Mt Sunday,  aka: “Andorras” ,  surrounded by huge mountains ( one was “Helms Deep”) and glacial rivers.

There were only a few people there ahead of us and we pretty much had the place to ourselves, with some cows and sheep wandering about for effect.

The Mt Sunday hill looked small until we started climbing  it which took about 40 minutes and it was quite windy at the top, making our pant legs flap and snap like sails. The surrounding mountains looked huge and seemed close, but it would actually take days to hike into them. The sun was warming our little spot on the hill and it was a beautiful place to spend time just sitting there taking it all in, watching the weather move around in the peaks.

On the way out, there was an entire herd of cows being moved down the road into a new pasture, using cattle dogs, pickups and people on foot. It was like swimming through cows as we drove slowly through.

We have noticed all the houses and farms have above ground water tanks and there are palm trees growing in all sorts of places, mixed in with eucalyptus and pine trees. It must not get very cold in the lower elevations of the South Island. Looking it up on a plant hardiness zone map  it seems to be mostly Zone 8, which  averages lows of -5 to -10C , or 12 to 20 degrees F, in the mountains and then zone 9 on all the coastal edges. I don’t think this takes into account the elevational changes in the big mountains though. In the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, we are in Zone 6b which gets a lot colder, with the average annual minimum being 0 to -5 degrees F, or about -17 to -21 degrees C.  which is why we don’t get palm trees or giant tree ferns at home.

Single lane bridges abound, in the wide river valleys, posted with signage as to who has the right of way. It seems to be that heading upstream you usually give way to folks heading downstream. You cannot always see if there are people coming at you or not from the far side, and you have to go on faith. Sometimes there are lay-by’s in the middle. We are glad we are here in the (just barely) off season. A whole line of tourists could make these bridges kind of scary. Right now all we have to avoid are the sheep…and a few cows.

As we drive further away from the mountain ranges and again head south, the terrain progresses into fairly level farm land, with alfalfa fields and newly planted Kumara (NZ sweet potatoes). We start to pass incredibly  large, aluminum piped,  irrigation setups and then some giant rubber lined ponds that seem to be for warming up and settling out the seriously cold mountain runoff. We are on the “dry” side of the mountains, although maybe since summer is just starting, it does not seem all that dry yet.

We arrive at Lake Tekaupo, with beautiful (although invasive) lupines blooming everywhere, gorgeous turquoise blue water, and snow capped mountains in the distance.

The Tasman Glacier is up ahead, further than it seems, because the mountains are so big in the distance. It looks like storms are brewing up in there but here, the water in the lake is intensely turquoise blue and the sun is shining.

Once we actually get all the way up the valley, the hike to the actual glacier turns out to be further than we are willing to go, especially since the clouds have gathered and it is now cold and rainy, so we don our rain gear and settle for climbing up a steep, stair step path for a view of the glacial pond and morraine dam at the closer end of the glacier. As with most glaciers these days it has been retreating for many years now and will soon be gone.

As we leave the Tasman valley, the glacier, and supposedly a view of Mt Cook, is completely socked in, but the sun slanting under the clouds lends even more color to the landscape around  lake Pukaki.

We settle for the night in nearby Twizel, ready for another day.

Tuesday Day 5

The hedges, the hedges. There are evergreen tree hedges everywhere (both leafy and needled) and about 30 feet tall, shaved on the sides to make them only a few feet wide. They are between every field and somebody has to go around trimming these things. It looks like a steady job.

We are now heading for the coast to check out the Moeraki Boulders. It is weird how sheep pastures have seaside views in New Zealand. There is so much coast and so few people that even ocean front property is farmland right down to the water. Sheep at the beach. I suppose if the water was warmer, people would flock there instead.

The boulders are ancient concretions that have been washed out of the sand dunes where they were buried eons ago. Some of them have cracked open revealing the different layers of stone.

Next we came to seals sunning themselves on the rocks. Lots of seals. And giant kelp swirling around.

Next, we have to drive through an actual town, Dunedin (pronounced doo NEE din) on our way to an Albatross colony and penguins. It is a city with the University of Otago, and a busy harbour and shipping port. We do not stop, although we get turned around on a road detour and end up at a castle accidentally. The gardens looked promising but it was closing time by then so we found our way back to the road.

Albatross are huge birds that look similar to seagulls and they fly right over your head very fast, so it was hard to get a good photo of one.

Albatross and gulls were flying around the lighthouse and zooming by right over our heads at this spot. We could see seals and dolphins and diving water birds down in the water and there were flowers blooming all around the cliffs.

It was getting late so we started south again  looking for a camp for the night.

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Wendy lee, writing at edgewisewoods.com