Queenstown to Christchurch

12 Queenstown to Christchurch (Fri. Feb. 13)

Well, today is Friday the 13th, hope everything goes according to plan. First thing this morning we pack onto the bus after breakfast and are on our way back to Christchurch. We started our tour of the South Island of New Zealand in Christchurch and we will end our time in New Zealand here.

It was cold last night and there is snow on top of the Miserables mountain range. As we leave Queenstown everyone is bundled up. I (Bob) for one dressed in shorts because we were going to head back north (the same as south in the northern hemisphere) and thought it would be warm - Not. Temperatures are in the mid 50 degrees and very windy.

We again pass the Remarkables, this time with snow, so I have to take more pictures.

Carmen's version:
We travel along Lake Hass with very expensive homes. We are now following the Neavus River, you cannot raft on it because there are pockets that you will never come out. It is aqua marine in color. Along the way we went by an old gold mining area. People have rebuilt the old gold mine town, including the Chinatown section. Some of the shelters are just tent covers build into the side of the rock walls on the edge of the river.

Shortly we are in Gibbston Valley and this is a big wine and fruit area. We stop at a fruit stand, for some people to buy fruit, use the facilities and to also view the large rose gardens. They have these neat coasters (about 6 x 11) that are made from huge, as yet, unopened pine cones then poly over one side. Very nice.

8:43 am we are following Lake Dunston. Soon we are passing through Taras. This is a Lord of the Rings area with a number of areas where they did filming. The race though the woods was part of the filmed scenes. (Sorry no photos of this area. Too many trees on the side of the road to get any pictures.)

We drive by Ravensdown where the golf course greens are fenced in to keep sheep get on the greens and eating the grass. (Go figure a hazard ends up being sheep or the fence around the green - Bob.)

By 9:15 am we are in the mountains with curvy roads and are approaching Lindis Pass, it is cloudy and at times raining, in the pass there are few trees and not very green. The road in the Pass also gets closed in the winter every so often because of the snow. There are a lot of sheep and cattle in this section of the drive. We are also noticing Lupins in bloom which is unusual because it is going into fall these usually bloom in the spring and summer. It is still cloudy and we are at the bottom of the pass. Oh, the pass is 965m high.

We are now traveling in the valley and the rivers are incredibly clear and we do not stop, but we are told the water from the river is very clean and you can actually drink it, of course like other waters it is tested periodically. Around 10 a.m, we drive along the Hurrarie River which has great fishing, according to Darryl our bus driver. In the town of Omarama they do a lot of gliding and we are still on our way to Mt. Cook.

We come to the one of four glacier lakes where hydro is generated, using the major lakes connected by man-made canals to produce electricity. Besides the hydro this area has a number of salmon farms. We go by one of the farms located right next to the road.

All four lakes are aqua marine in color from the silt of the glaciers (almost looks milky white in the photos). As we drive by Twixel, we are near the site of Middle Earth's largest battle, the Battle of Pelennor Fields in the Lord of the Rings movie. (However, we can not see the plains since we are several kilometers away.) Shortly though, we do stop at Lake Pukaki to see Mt. Cook across the lake, but because of the cloud cover - nothing. This is a glacier lake and it is really really cold. It is possible to go on a short tour to the Pelennor Fields from here, but the bus would leave and Bob would be on his own to get back to Christchurch, so no side trip - too bad.

By 11 a.m. we enter James MaKinsey Country - we are continuing on with mountains on both sides, lots of sheep/cattle, very barren and dry, pockets of trees. We are passing a star gazing observatory on Mt. John. We have just passed the Tokapu Training Army Camp.

Around 11:30 a.m. or so, we enter the town of Tekapo, on lake Takupo. There is a church on the lake edge name the Church of the Good Shephard; it a very small stone church. There is also a statue to a sheep dog next to the church which commemorates a dog.
We continue and head to Burcks Pass, we have trees and green grass now. Once we are on the other side of the pass and the scenery has changed to trees, grasses, flowers and cannot forget the sheep and cattle.

In the small town of Fairlie, they have a street called Peace Avenue for the soldiers who died in the different wars and along the street they have planted trees, if one of the trees dies they immediately replace it with another.

We are heading to Geraldine along this road is an old forest area with pine trees and still a sheep farming area along with some deer farms. We are now heading into the Cantebury Plans area to the Pacific Ocean (east side of New Zealand). We stop in Geraldine for lunch and afternoon around 1:30 p.m. continue traveling through the small towns and farming country with corn, corn and more corn, sheep and cows with the occasional deer farm. They use hedges to separate the fields.

Ash Burton, all farming and meat plant processing. Also have traffic lights, most of the small town we have pass through had no traffic lights.

We have seen a lot of Mag Pie birds, they are black and white, very pretty but so fast you can't get a picture of them.

Rakia River is a big Salmon fishing river.

3:25 p.m. we arrive in Christchurch and it still cloudy.

We are having a great time. Carmen