Snow and the rainy West

We're in Australia now, but here is one of the last blogs from New Zealand!

The morning we left Queenstown, it snowed. We couldn’t believe it! And we were going to be camping for the final 7 nights in New Zealand. We were aware it’d be colder than anywhere else we were going on this trip, but we definitely didn’t pack for snow and freezing temperatures. The weather always turned when we were due to camp! Anyway we set off, the way we were due to go was right over the Southern alps, but when we turned onto the road, the warning sign was up saying there was snow on the road you needed to have snow chains, which we didn’t have. So after still having to climb a fairly steep hill in the car, we managed to find a good place to turn around and we had to scrap that idea and take a different route. We had to go the longer way which was a little annoying, the drive over the mountains would have been spectacular, but we had some nice scenery along the way and we made it to Wanaka. It was a very cold day and even with two warm jumpers and a raincoat, I was still cold. It snowed and sleeted on and off all day. We sat in the TV lounge at the campsite to try and warm up a little bit. We didn’t really warm up but we just decided to go into town and wander around, see Lake Wanaka. We parked by the lake which was surrounded by snowy mountains, but when we stepped out the car it was blowing an absolute gale, a freezing cold gale. So we sort of hurriedly walked around town, and just went in the supermarket to get some final supplies for the final leg! We went back to the campsite, had some dinner, and spent a while contemplating whether we’d get away with sleeping in the TV lounge that evening.. I got my sleeping bag to take in anyway to try and get warm, and headed down there after we’d eaten. One of the people who owned the place was getting the log burner going, (which was bliss), but he saw my sleeping bag and we figured he may be inclined to come back and check if we were sleeping in there later on. Shortly after we’d settled in, a nice Belgian guy came in and we ended up getting chatty with him and we pretty much chatted all evening. He was biking in New Zealand for 3 months and had some interesting stories to tell about his travels on a bike! We decided on just sleeping in the car at about 11pm.

Lake Wanaka

It was a very cold night, and the car froze over, as did the condensation on the inside, the chilly night we had in Yosemite didn’t compare! But actually despite that, we did both manage to remain reasonably warm. We both slept in until 10am which was the latest we have slept in this whole trip! And I only awoke because the I was sweltering, for once the sun was out and blazing through the car straight onto the bit I was sleeping. It felt like a greenhouse in there with a jumper on and wrapped in a thermal sleeping bag. That was too much heat to handle despite having been freezing the previous day! We needed the extra sleep. We got ourselves ready for the day eventually, and set out to drive to Mount Cook. It was going to be a fairly long drive, but that was all I’d planned for the day so it didn’t matter that we were late setting off. It was a nice day so we were lucky with that, but it didn’t last for too long, the further we got, the cloudier it became. We got to the turning for the final 50km on the journey, and we stopped at a view point over  Lake Pukaki which was lovely. But there was a big grey cloud lingering over the highest peaks of the mountains, so we decided that it wasn’t going to be worth the extra petrol to get to Mount Cook and not be able to see the thing. We figured the view we were getting over the lake and of the snowy mountains wouldn’t get much better with the clouds looming, so we turned back. Again, the driving took up most of the day and it was pretty much time for dinner when we got back.

It was another cold night but it didn’t freeze. It was a lovely sunny morning, but we had to leave for Fox Glacier, arriving by lunchtime. The drive was incredible, starting off surrounded by mountains and driving along side a piercing blue lake, along creeks and passing waterfalls, and then into thick forest clad mountains, up and down hills, tightly curling roads, that was one of the best drives of the trip. We got to the camp site and chose our parking spot for where we’d be sleeping in the car again! And then we drove out to see the glacier. It was only a few miles from town, we parked up and then it was a short walk to the terminal face, (which crossed a creek that didn’t have big enough stepping stones so got wet feet)! It was really fascinating seeing a glacier, and seeing all the points it had once been years ago. It was fairly small compared to what I had imagined, it didn’t stand very tall and didn’t look like there was a lot of it left! But it was really cool seeing something that has existed since the ice age. After that we drove to a lake which was supposed to have reflections of Mount Cook in it. It was a nice lake but it was a typically cloudy day and we couldn’t see Mount Cook, so we resided in the camp site again for the evening.

Franz Josef Glacier

Next morning was still pretty cloudy, so we never got to see Mount Cook at all in the end! We left for Hokitika, stopping by Franz Josef Glacier on the way. This glacier was a more impressive, standing tall against the mountains surrounding it, and equally as fascinating. Natural history in front of our eyes. We carried on and made it to Hokitika, the campsite we were in was very nice. We went into town and had some lunch, then went into the National Kiwi Centre as it was our final chance to see a Kiwi whilst in New Zealand! It was a nicely run little place. We saw lots of native creatures, some eels, and then went into the kiwi house. We had to be totally quiet, and they are so light sensitive it is very dark in there, but we were lucky to see both kiwis feeding from their bowls close to the window! They are incredible animals, very cute, and very interesting. They are a ‘biological wonder’, crossed between a mammal and a bird. They are about the size of a small chicken and have long beaks with nostrils in the end which they poke straight into the ground like a tent peg in search for food! We watched them for ages. Then we were lucky again to be around for the eel’s feeding time. We went up and the lady feeding them gave us a talk and then let us feed them ourselves! They are meat eaters and come right out the water to get to the food! I had no idea how interesting they were. They breed in a trench somewhere 6000km from New Zealand. Born about 3mm long, after nearly 20 years, growing a couple of inches per year, they make their way to New Zealand where they are fully protected but you are permitted to feed eels if you see them in a lake. When put into the sanctuary, they remain there for up to 100 years! They are all blind, and it is only females than live on past 20 or so. They begin to change shape and stop eating when they are ready to breed. They are then released, and they travel the 6000km back to the trench to give birth, and then they die. Most of the eels in the tank were over 50 years old, one of which was over 100 years and had a large bend in her back from arthritis, but they will be keeping an eye on her for when she begins to change as she’ll be next to leave. After that we went back to the camp site which was sat next to a beach with black sand, so we had a wander on that. There were signs saying the blue penguins bred in the area so we decided we’d go back again at dusk, in the hope of seeing some more penguins! There was a little farmyard on site so we had a look round that too, saw a pig, goats, alpacas, etc! By the evening there were weka birds wandering around everywhere, they are a bit similar to kiwis, but there were some cats roaming about aswell, hopefully none were successful in catching a weka. Once we had dinner and it was getting dark, we headed back to the beach. We waited about half an hour and it was almost pitch black before we decided that there wasn’t going to be any, even if there were some that came a little later, we wouldn’t have seen them anyway. So we headed across the road to a glow worm dell instead, which was absolutely amazing! There were thousands of them, just a short walk from the road. I’ve never seen anything like it, they were beautiful. It was like looking at a starry sky. That was a fascinating day, much like the one we had in Dunedin.

Beach in Hokitika

Me feeding eels