Invercargill Again

Our friends were going to Invercargill for the day, so we opted to stop over and say hello. 

With the rain holding off we visited Demolition World.  The work of a family-owned demolition company, the owners had spent decades collecting interesting artifacts from buildings they removed.  In some cases moving entire buildings via truck.  Equal parts strange and historic, it was definitely an experience.



















With some time to burn, we wandered through one of the parks/gardens, which are scattered about the city.



A tui having a bath.










The park map had a strange place called a “stumpery”.  Of course we had to investigate.



Surprisingly, it is exactly what it sounds like.  The stumps of dead or removed trees are deposited here.  Often in creative ways. It was invented in England as a way to improve storm-damaged areas.







Who wouldn’t want a giant stump bench?


With the roar of a gale-force wind, the day ended with a standard southern sunset.

Southern Lakes District

One of the most remote sections of highway in NZ is the Haast road.  Connecting Haast on the west coast to Wanaka in the east, it wasn’t complete until the late 20th century.  The lowest of the passes through the southern alps, Haast pass has a lookout track, which we decided to have a go at.  Last time we passed through here, the rain and clouds blocked any views.








With the divide and west coast in our review mirror, we continued on into the southern lakes district.


The dry landscape stands in stark contrast to the rainforest west of the divide. Here the prevailing winds combine with towering peaks to wring the moisture for the great ocean winds.









In the center of the lakes district are a series of fertile valleys, many with extensive fruit and wine farming.  Cromwell has a giant fruit statue as a subtle clue.


Queenstown is the largest city in the immediate area, and it is a tourism hub.  We avoid it as often as possible, but due to geography, we have been forced to take the 30+-minute slog through the pedestrian-and-tour-bus-clogged city center in order to reach the more remote inner ranges to the northwest.

Just outside the city, the main highway follows a river gorge towards Cromwell.  On the east bank, a narrow, winding road provides some peace and good views.




The new bridge.


The historic suspension bridge (about 100 years old).  Notice the bungee jumping platform at the center.






You may notice this scenery from the Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring.  This is the Anduin river that the fellowship floats down just prior to Boromir's betrayal.  They added two large statues to the sides via CGI.



With daylight left to burn, we drove up the Crown Range Road.  Being the highest paved road in NZ, we hoped for a interesting drive.

Here we are at about 1076 meters.










Our parking spot for lunch was pretty good too.

Down the West Coast, Part 2

By Jen.

While checking the map of my list of places to visit, I realized that we hadn’t been to Hokitika Gorge yet, so we set off for it. My coordinates to it seemed a bit off, and sure enough, when we arrived at the point, we were in a cattle farm on a road nicknamed “John Deere”. Upon another search for it, we discovered a more likely destination and set off for there with better success for it. Turns out it is a charming little gorge with mesmerizing water.

Continuing further south, we came across the twin glaciers again and thought we would make a go of it. First off was Franz Josef Glacier (pronounced as “glassyer” in NZ). This one we got to walk up the river valley, close to the terminal face.

Someone had hauled a chunk of ice quite a ways from the glacier.

A large, fallen rock wedged in front of a waterfall.

It is a fairly large glacier!

Unfortunately, Fox Glacier’s access road is still blocked by the landslide (aka slips here) that occurred during the first former cyclone. So, we didn’t really get any better view than what we saw last trip through here, which is sad as I think it is probably the more impressive glacier. I must say, it is a bit mind-bending to be looking at ice through a warm rainforest (although that day it was cold).

We made a stop at Ship Creek where there were 2 walks with interpretive panels. We learned that in 1867 a large piece of a ship’s hull washed up on these shores and rumors flew as to whose it was. Turns out it belonged to a ship that wrecked off the shores of Victoria, Australia, and washed across the Tasman sea to land there!

The beach stretches from here until Jackson bay (50 km), and sand continues reaches inland 10 km to the foot of the Southern Alps in the form of ancient dunes. This results in some of the nicest road sections in NZ!

The trees towering over all the others in this image are the tallest species in NZ, reaching up to 65m tall. Known as the kahikatea, they live up to 600 years old.

Sadly only 2% remain, as their fertile lowlands were cleared for farming and their wood for butter and cheese crates.