Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Tramping

The journey South continued...As we came out of the Haast Pass (and the torrential rain) we caught our first glimpses of the Southern Alps. The three of us thought it looked alot like the Lake District though slightly more dramatic. The town of Wanaka lies on the edge of a lake bearing the same name with the mountains (snow-capped) as a stunning back drop. We stayed in 'The Purple Cow' youth hostel two streets up from the water front. This was the most up-market of the hostels we stayed in; we were sharing with one other girl, Birgit, the four person room had a kitchenette, sofa, TV and it's own bathroom. [Little aside: Birgit was from Germany and had been travelling in NZ for a couple of months but her journey was hampered when she twisted her ankle on a road whilst trying to hitch a lift. She said she lay in agony trying to wave at cars to stop & help her but lots drove past! Eventually a lady did stop & took her to the doctor; she then took Birgit home to stay with her for a week until she was more mobile! Isn't that kind! When we shared a room with her she was hobbling on crutches but hoping to make it to Queenstown in the next few days.]
We frequented an Irish pub in the evening and a couple of gift shops the following morning but then headed further south towards Arrowtown. This is the most like a quaint village we've come across and the highlight was definitely the tree-lined avenues and the hillside ablaze in the most gorgeous autumn colours I've ever seen. It used to be a gold-mining town and is infamous for its exploitation of Chinese settlers in the mid 19th. century. There is a reconstruction of some of the settlement buildings but I think we've been spoiled by English Heritage & the National Trust - some of the reconstruction was laughable!
It was only another 45 minute drive before we reached Queenstown and then the joy of negotiating the roadworks (it seemed the whole town's road system had been dug up!). Now, I must mention the roadworks. Sometimes they have cones, sometimes not. Sometimes they close the lane they're working on and re-direct the traffic, sometimes they just let the cars carry on driving over the surface - it seems to help them level it! Sometimes they warn you on the approach to the roadworks, sometimes not. On the way over the Haast Pass we drove for about 5km on road that had been dug up. We then approached 2 large machines digging up our side of the road and absolutely no way for us to know whether it was safe to overtake them on a bend where we couldn't see any oncoming traffic. Having negotiated this hurdle we arrived at traffic lights (though at this point there seemed to be no need for them as no work was taking place) where we sat for nearly ten minutes with no traffic coming the other way wondering if we would sit there all night. So, as you can imagine, Queenstown was nearly carnage.
The backpackers hostel was the most budget accomodation but we selected it because it had a spa. When we got to the spa there were alreday two American guys there who were settled in for the remainder of the afternoon with their bottles of beer. They had not drunk for a month (they decided they needed to detox after a particularly heavy spell in Auckland) and had decided to break their fast. They told us their surfing & fishing tales and about the bag fulls of mushrooms they'd picked from a forest that then turned out to be completely the wrong type! They had a bungee jump booked for the following day but the last thing we heard the next morning was that they'd missed their pick up and when the hostel owner had gone to get them up they were still out cold and their room stank of booze - it possibly had not been the best night to end the detox.
Anyway, the three of us headed for Glenorchy to do a days walk along the Dart-Rees track - a semi-circular, four day route with huts along the way. The drive out to Glenorchy was spectacular & we kept stopping to take photos. When we arrived we could see where they shot some of the footage for Lord of the Rings (one of the few places it's easy to identify & you don't need a guide book and alot of imagination!). There was another 15km to drive on unsealed road to Paradise before the track started. On a couple of occasions we stopped and thought we'd just better start walking because we didn't think the car would cross the ford but then a guy slowed down & reassured us that our car would definitely make it through & it was still quite a way to the start of the track. Well, we did make it there and the tramp was amazing. We saw about 12 people near the start of our walk who had started at the other end of the route and were just completing the track after their last night in one fo the huts. But after that we saw nobody and really did feel in the middle of nowhere. Part of the track wound along side the Dart river but the majority was through forest. We kept glimpsing snow covered mountains through the trees & wondered if we would actually make it to a clearing before it was time for us to turn back. Well, we did. And it was awesome. We just wished we had the time to carry on & complete the track because we know there are more treasures further in that will have to be seen to be believed.
The evening we could have really used a spa it was closed for cleaning but we compensated with a large meal out (absolutely no point in trying to cook with about 30 people in a kitchen that's not big enough to swing a cat - though it did have a cat which climbed all over food benches...) and Neil and Sarah continued on their hunt for a decent pint. We then returned to the hostel and, as you can imagine, slept very well. The final part of our adventure will have to wait for another day...

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