March 30

Awake to a brisk cool morning, some of the higher mountains have a small fresh coating of snow. The air is clear and the sun is out without clouds. Bags out at 7:30 and we leave at 8:30 for a short drive to Arrowtown and some morning shopping. We had a brief introduction to the town during our off road adventure yesterday. Many old buildings, some conservation and some with period facades, dating back to the gold rush days of the late 1800’s. A good display of gold nuggets that were mined here are on display.  The Chinese were part of the miner population but and were moved by Euro settlers to the edge of town so there is a Chinese village.  The small mining villages depended on Queentown for supplies. After our stop at Arrow Town we are heading to see Mt. Cook the highest peak in New Zealand at ~12,000 feet. Initially we follow the Kawarau River and past the winery and bungee jumping place we saw the previous day.  There are man-made lakes in the area that provide water supply for the hydroelectric power and irrigation. We pass along one of the lakes, Lake Dunstan, which is the water supply for the Frazer Dam Hydro Station. There is a long manmade canal that joins the lakes; NZ gets 90% of its power from hydro and most from here.  We are passing through various mountain valleys, and do a quick stop at Jones Fruit Farm stand, for ice cream blended with some of their fruits. We see strange fruits we don’t recognize; the owner has planted a large rose garden with trellises and all manner of shrubs and statues.  The surrounding area is scrub and arid with wineries growing everywhere. Irrigation is imperative and it reminds us a lot of California. This is also big station sheep ranch country and we see the large shearing sheds that produce wool from thousands of sheep.  Our travels continue through the Pisa and Dunstan mountain ranges until we reach the tiny town of Omarama for lunch and some local shopping and browsing an antique shop and collectables.  We have found many American made memorabilia.  In Queenstown we found china plates from Minerva, Ohio. After lunch and a short drive we arrive alongside Lake Hawea and start to get our first look at Mt. Cook. The guide tells us this is a natural glacier lake, however the size is vast and symmetrical as it covers the valley floor for miles.  Alas, it is dammed and would not likely look like this without the dam.  Along the way all the water is a milky aquamarine blue, very striking set against the amber dry foliage and yellow mountains.  The range with Mt Cook is very dramatic, rising up from the valley floor.  The Tasman glacier can be seen in the lower valley from a distance.  Other, smaller glaciers hang from the tops of the mountains.  Mt Cook aka Aoraki is very striking with its pyramidal shape, snowcapped and sided with glacier. The mountains joining it from the side are a solid wall of peaks with glaciers hanging down.  Like most places around the world, NZ’s glaciers are all receding expected to be lost in 10 years.  Wonder what that will do to the water supply so dependent on it.  This is a National Park and the park lodge is called the Hermitage.  Very modern with lots of angles and levels and glass.  We visit the Visitor Center and there is info on native people, Sir Edmond Hilary who climbed Mt Cook several times, and the local flora and fauna.  There are beautiful stained glass windows and as in the hotel there are windows opening to the valley and Aoraki and other peaks.  It’s a beautiful clear sunny day and the mountain is completely exposed.  We know how lucky we are to see the area in clear weather.  Chuck walks the Kea Point Trail that goes up the valley to the mountain.  There are no threatening beasts here other than the Kea bird who steals shiny objects from the tourists. We sit on the open veranda overlooking the mountain watching the sun set.  Dinner at the hotel with a buffet meal.  We can see the mountain clearly from our seats. Darkness falls and the valley is so quiet.  The sky is clear with lots of stars and the temps drop.  They are in fall here so the days of warmth will be ending.  Long day time for sleep.

March 29

Awake to sunrise but threating sky as a weather front is moving in. Breakfast and then on to our optional off road adventure and into the land of the Hobbits and Wakatipu Basin. We are riding in Range Rovers and our driver Graham gives us a narrative as we drive along through the town. Our first stop is at an outlook above Queenstown as we await other vehicles to join our group. When everyone arrives, Graham talks to the entire group, (4 vehicles, ~25 people). His company has a photo album that shows different scenes from the Lord of the Rings. At this first stop he points out the hill and mountains that were used in the second movie. We drive on and turn onto a winding, narrow (1 lane) unpaved road that literally hangs above the gorge river and that takes us back to a winery, where we turn around and stop at a viewing point over the Kawarau river. The winery is getting ready for harvest and is squeezed in between the mountains and the river. It is a narrow stretch of land and the river is running about 200 feet below shear rock face cliffs. Another tour guide goes over the scenes that were filmed here, and fact that because of the heavy rains during the shooting of the film the river flood and hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment was lost in the river. At the same point we turn our attention to the opposite side of the road and wait to see a bungee jumper jump off the bridge over the river, originally used for car traffic. New Zealand is known for the bungee jumps and they and their customers are crazy. Next onto Arrowtown, this is an old gold town and we are driven in and through the Arrow River and joisted all around the vehicle before we stop for morning coffee and try our luck at gold panning. No big discoveries made, though Chuck finds a few flakes. The tour then takes us up a mountain trail that goes through Skipper Canyon toward an old gold mining town of Skipper. The trail basically has room for only one vehicle with sheer cliffs on the driver’s side on the way up/in. On the way back out we stop for photo opportunities and one last stop by a river before being dropped off at our hotel. All of this in just 4 hours. The Lord of the Ring Sites we saw on our adventure include White Mountains, Minas Trith, Pillars of the Kings, Gladden Fields, Ford of Bruinen, Wang attack, Exodus of Edoras, Willow, Vertical Limits and the Water Horse Locations. Rain held off until we got back to the hotel. Quick visit to the room and then back out into town to visit the bank, get lunch, do some shopping, and some downtime as the group is scheduled to go on a boat tour and visit to sheep farm for dinner. We board the TSS Earnslaw for a 35 minute cruise across Lake Wakatipu to the Mt. Walter station (farm), where we have a buffet dinner. The TSS Earnslaw is powered by a coal firing engine and built the same year as the Titanic.  It survived all the decommission of the coal powered steam boats and it now under historic preservation.  It takes a ton of coal a day and we able to watch the crew stoke the engine from above. After dinner our guide takes us to see their deer and feed them. There is a large 16 point buck in the herd.  The deer are raised for meat. Then we watch demonstration by a shepherd and his sheep dog round up sheep, and then he sheers a sheep for us. Back on to the TSS Earnslaw where they do a sing-a-long on the trip back to the Queenstown dock. A short walk to the hotel and then it is bedtime, for tomorrow we travel to Mt. Cook. Nighty-night.

March 28

Awoke to darkness, cool, no rain.  Breakfast at the hotel and onto the bus for an early start, crossing the southern end of the south island to Milford Sound.  We are out as the sun rises there is a lot of mist/fog but we can see pretty well.  We follow a semi circular route as there are no highways cutting across the mountains, passing through the small town of Te Anou.  There are mile after mile of sheep, deer and cattle and some edible crops.  The driver is from Christchurch and he is an experienced hiker in the area. He has had to take jobs out of NZ because gainful employment is difficult here.  He tells us the Maori people did not settle the South Island very much, mostly on the north with milder temps and easier living.   This side of the divide is dryer, we enter Fiordland National Park. There are great hiking trails and ‘experiences’ in the Park.  There are no beasties here, physical stamina and weather are the dangers.  We start to see higher mountains with wide glacier valleys.  The rivers are braided.  The mountains are jagged and over 11,000 feet in places.  They are measured as they lift from sea level, not plateau.  The highest mountain on in the world designated as sheer cliff sided, is located here. We enter a rainforest of mosses, lichens and palm like plants.  The Park area gets more rain than the Amazon.  They get snow and some glaciers still exist but they anticipate they will be gone in the next 10 years or so.  They have to deal with avalanches.  There are no super highways here and the roads (good quality) must follow the contour of the land.  The trees are tall and profuse, various species.  We climb to the continental divide and we must take a tunnel that is no more than rough dug rock with a single lane.  As we emerge the deep valley of high mountains faces us.  Most are in cloud and it is raining.  We have passed multiple waterfalls of all heights and volume.  The water rolls off the sheer granite drops of the mountains.  We come into Milford Sound that joins the Tasman Sea.  It’s misnamed by early settlers as a sound, it is actually a fjord. We board a boat that takes us into a narrow channel of incredibly high mountains with hundreds of waterfalls. The mountains rise directly from the water, there is still a lot of their depth underwater.  The clouds are lifting and we see more detail.  The water is so deep the captain follows the sides of the mountains just a few feet away.  He also takes us head on into big waterfalls.  The sides are covered with lush vegetation that can only be there by intertwining of root systems.  We sail to the end of the fjord to where it meets the open Tasman Sea.  We are as far south as we can be on this trip from Antarctica.  We float by a rock full of young male seals. They pose for the cameras.  The scenery is so striking and so different from other places we have been we can’t stop taking pictures.  We drive back the 4 hours to Queenstown in mostly sun, seeing mountains in open sun.  We watch the movie The Fastest Indian with Anthony Hopkins on the way back. The movie was about the New Zealander who set records at Bonneville race track.  He is from a town just a few miles from our location and partly filmed here.   We take advantage of the mild evening and walk around the tourist town.  Open air restaurants and little shops.  It’s Easter break week and very busy.  Back to the hotel, we have another early morning with a tour that takes us off road and shows us remote areas and places where Lord of the Ring was filmed.  Another day of adventure and seeing amazing things.   One of the travelers has developed motion sickness and having a hard time in the bus and on the boat.  Hope she feels better.  PS Got email from Seth, he stopped down to check on the house and a Hudson policeman stopped him and asked for his ID.  Glad to know they are on the job, we registered for them to drive by and they’re actually doing it!