To Punakaiki, Pancake Rocks; Franz Josef Glacier; Fox Glacier & Queenstown

[to be fleshed out - sadly, Blooger has draft bulletted lists with levels, but posts all levels the same]


February 20, 2010
To Punakaiki, Punakaiki Pancake Rocks

• an almost total overland drive, leaving the Tasman Sea at Nelson, and not reaching it again until just to the north of our desitnation
• the drive is over modest ranges of hills, thorugh broad river valleys with beautiful vistas, and the occasional one-lane bridge
• but an easy drive, even though long
• we hit the Tasman Sea again just north of our desination, Punakaiki
• the coast hereis quite rugged, lots of weathered rocks, with beaches in between, and lots of opportunity for spectacular photographs; it was one of these stops that led to a stupid incident
• the dangers of having become accustomed to driving on the left, and after w while not remaining totally conscious of the differences from driving on the right (particularly habits)
• we'd stopped at in a layby at a scenic view of the shore and ocean, and when we finished taking pictures I realized that I had stopped right at the front of the layby, on the right of the road, and directly ahead was a blind curve to the left
• meaning, if I just pulled out and crossed over to the left side of the road, I would have no warning of a vehicle coming around the curve
• the solution, back up in the layby to give myself more room
• there was no other vehicle in the layby as we got into the car, started the car, put it into reverse I checked the rearview mirror one more time by looking up and to my right, except in a left hand drive car, the rearview mirror is up and to the left!
• not more than 10 feet behind me a camper van had pulled in, which I duly hit, at probably not more than 5 km/hr
• said bad words!
• the camper was a rental, one of a company that calls its inevitably beat up Toyota vans "Spaceships" and instead of numbers, gives them spacey names, this one was "Jet"
• it was driven by a young Belgian couple, and while there was a crease in my rear bumper shell, their van was so beat up that it was hard to tell what, if any damage I might have caused
• there were paint scratches, but no paint from the van on our car, one of the headlight plastic covers was cracked, but had condensation inside it, and anyways was far higher up than the damage on my bumper
• but, the young couple were most distraught
• they had not bought the extra collison coverage, and the deal with Spaceships was that you had to report even the most minor accident, at which point Spaceships would charge NZ$1000 to your credit card, and sort everything out when you returned the vehicle, maybe
• I assured them that the insurance I had would cover any damage to their vehicle, and gave them a business card with all my contact information and wrote on it that I would be responsibe for any charges made to them as a result of this incident
• we then drove on into Punakaiki, the next place with telephones, as they needed a landline, while I called Hertz from our cellphone
• interesting difference in approach from the two rental companies
• Spaceships response to their report was ok, we'll charge $1000 to your card of record
• Hertz's response was, without asking anything about insurance coverage or not, "Is anyone injured, do you need assistance?" Sometimes it is worth dealing with the high-priced spread
• the Hertz person I spoke to was in the next Hertz centre down the coast, Greymouth, and even though next day was Sunday, said she would come into the office and would meet me there to fill out an accident report, and to assure the other party, that, as clearly this was my fault, the Hertz insurance would cover any damage to their vehicle
• all that out of the way, we, and the couple I had hit, went to enjoy the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks, a unique, and even today not totally understood coastal formation
• rock columns, weathered away by wind and sea, that look like stacks of pancakes
• geologists speculate that these were formed by layers of sedimentation, with some events (and there would have to be 20 to 30 of these) between sedimentation, that sealed a layer of no more than a few inches
• it is the events that would do this that are still not understood
• there are also coves in which waves crash and rise many metres up the walls, and other, intriguing rock formations
• we spent several hours walking around, before moving on to our overnight stay
• this was the Punakaiki Resort, and again, the address and instructions we had were not too clear
• the GPS directed us down one very narrow lane, direction the ocean, ending in soft sand, little turning around room, and nothing that looked like a resort
• asked directions, got told it was a few miles down the road; sure enough, there it was
• Punakaiki Resort is a "green" facility, solar panels for electricity and water heating, and we checked into our very funky unit, with all of it's energy conserving features, like, unless someone is actually in the room, there is no air conditioning or power except to the in unit fridge. Neat!
• Punakaiki has the fast food joint near the Rocks, or the restaurant at the Resort; we went for the latter; a very pleasant walk to the dining room through a garden with water falls and one tunnel under the main highway, and a very good meal
• back to our room, to watch an amazing sunset from the balcony

February 21, 2010
Drive to Franz Josef Glacier & Walk to Glacier

• breakfast at Resort, then left, reasonably early, for drive southward along coast
• there was just enough  mist, and the light was low because sunrise was behind the Southern Alps to the East, and a coastal range of hills to make rock formations on the coast seem mustical and mysterious
• I'm beginning to believe this IS Middle Earth
• much of this drive was within sight of the ocean, but eventually truned inland, into the foothillls and then the Southern Alps
• the scenery was spectacular, the road acceptable, with the occasional one-lane bridge
• when we reached the town of Franz Josef we checked into our hotel, which was adequate, but basic, despite being the best accomodation in town; we are in mountain country, and the accomodation is appropriate to hikers, skiers, mountain climbers and the like
• also noticaeable is the noise from the helicopter pad directly across from our room, ferrying people onto the upper reaches of the glacier; but, they won't be flying by night, so, no worry
• we didn't realize until next morning that the flights start up awfully early, just as soon as there is enough light
• it is now early afternoon, time to drive to the parking area from which one can walk to the foot of the glacier
• the walk is on poorly groomed paths, over large rocks, basically the glacial moraine, for about 2 km
• the view is spectacular, high mountains on both sides, with waterfalls coming down
• one can only get so far to the foot of the glacier before running into warning signs and fences keeping us away from obvious danger
• but, there are people inside the fence, standing right at where an "under ice" river emerges from the glacier, with a fragile looking arch over it; if that collapses,a s it will, anyone there will be toast (if that's what you call someone swept away by an icy river)
• there are also legitimate ways of being on the glacier; it takes a while to recognize the ant-like creatures on the face of the ice, which is dirty,not white, as people with guides, roped together, walking on paths, which we learned have to be chopped out every day, as the glacier changes that much
• that's when you realize the scale of this thing, we walked in about 2 km, and the glacier itself stretches up to the peak for about another dozen km
• there are people walking around near the peak, because we can see helicopters landing and taking off, but they are not visible, even through a 400 mm telephoto lens
• this is one of those places where you realize that nature is mightier than humans
• also one realizes how much climate change is changing the world; Franz Josef glacier at one time, not more than 50 year ago, extended to where the present parking lot is!
• we hiked back out, drove back to our hotel, and explored Franz Josef town, which is basically only shops catering to tourists (although tourists who like good wine, as we found in tthe one grocery store)
• the for supper at the only restaurant in town, other than the hotel dining room; we sat outdoors, and as it cooled (we were in the mountains near a glacier) overhead propane heaters kept us comfortable during an (again) very good meal
• back to our room, with some wine, and some relaxing, before falling asleep in total quiet, and with clean mountain air
• tomorrow will be another long drive, to Queenstown

February 22, 2010
Fox Glacier, Drive to Queenstown

• After breakfast at the hotel, we took the short (roughly 15 km) drive to Fox glacier
• there are two ways of seeing Fox glacier
• drive some ways towards glacier along the Fox River, park, and then walk to the foot of the glacier much like at Franz Josef
• or, drive beyond the Fox River, doen a narrow road to a parking area, from which you can walk to the Fox River, with a number of views of the glacier aolng the way
• we took the latter, the walk was pleasant, through theusual rain forest, down to the river
• at several points the glacier is viewable in its entirety through gaps in the forest
• once at the Fox River, the glacier is around abend in the valley, so not actually visible
• there is a supension bridge across the river to the road into the glacier; one could cross, and walk in and to the glacier foot
• we chose not to do this, walked back to opur car, and continued towards Queenstown
• the route is mostly inland, through valleys and mountain passes, over rivers with the by now usual 0ne-lane bridges (two lane bridges come as a surprise)
• the views are often very pretty going towards spectacular
• eventually the route does go along the Tasman coast for perhaps 20 km, but on a faily high cliff top, with a couple of stops from which there are spectacular views
• at Haast the route turns inland again, followig the Haast River into the mountains to where the landsborough River flows into it
• this confluence offeres some spectacular views, as as one can see down three wide river valleys and into the surrounding mountains
• At this point the Haast River, and the route turn sharply south
• the views of the river and the mountains can only be decribed as spectacular, and only the very narrow road and lack of frequent off-road parking keeps you making progress, otherwise you'd stop every few hundred metres to take phots
• there are enough points at which one can stop that I'm grateful for digital cameras, with which you can take many dozens of photos without worrying about the cost of film, developing, etc.
• eventually the route reaches Lake Wanaka, the source of the Haast River, and follows its eastern shore for a dozen or so km, at which point the road "jigs" over to follow the western shore of Lake Hawea (which drains into Lake Wanaka) for about the same distance
• the views of both lakes and their mountain shores are again worth stopping as frequently as possible
• we are seeing this in Summer, and the mountains are mostly beige, brown, and alot of green; I can only imagine the scene in the Winter, when the mountains would be snow-covered (and shutter at the thought of driving these roads in snow!)
• leaving Lake Hawea the route follows the Hawea River for a while and then takes a substantial jog eastward, the south again, before turning westward again, thus avoiding a substatial mountain range, the Crown Range
• there is actually a road across this range, Crown Range Road, but our instructions from our travel agent warned us against taking this as it is a) very dangerous even in summer, and b) taking it voids your rental car insurance
• needless to say, the GPS wanted to direct us along this road (and absent of contrary information we would probably have followed it); after all, a road to a GPS is a road, and this one would make the drive substantially shorter (by at least 50 km)! Another confirmation that one ought to have more information available than just the GPS map.
• much of the southward part of this jog is along Lake Dunstan, and the westward part follows the Kawarau River which flows out of this lake, and down towards Lake Wakatipu on which Queenstown is located
• much of this part of the route is through a deep gorge in which the river runs
• apparently this was gold mining territory in the 19th century; the gold has been exhausted, but at least one mine has been taken over by entrepreneurs who extact gold from passing travellers
• at the "Gold Fields Mining Centre" there is a mining exhibit, but most of  all it is an opportunity for "extreme" water sports
• Queenstown is known as the sports capital of New Zealand, particularly extreme sports
• at this mining centre one can get dressed up in inflatable flotation suits (you end up looking soemwhat like the Michelin man), put on a helmet, and then
• jump of a clif, about 40 ft into the river
• swing out over the river on a rope, let go at the top of the swing, fall into the river
• slide down a slide that ends about 25 feet above river, fall into the river
• run out hanging onto a pulley on an overhead cable over the river, let go, fall into the river
• in all cases, a jet boat comes along and picks people out of the river, and returns them to shore for then ext bit of fun
• we passed, but enjoyed the show!
• then on for the remainder of the run into Queenstown, through the town centre, to our hotel, the Heritage Queenstown, which is located somewhat on the outskirts
• our room overlooked the lake, and the mountains on the other shore, and we watched the sunset while sipping wine
• had supper at the hotel, settled in, and planned tomorrow, for which we have the day free, but are booked for an evening dinner cruise down the lake to a sheep station, Walter Peak

A note on Internet access in New Zealand

• New Zeland hotels, like in manyother places, hasve decided that wireless Internet, which is relatively inexpensive to provide in rooms, can be a profit centre
• like everywhere else, often the inexpensive hotels offer free internet, and then as one goes up in scale and expense, they begin to charge more, often ridiculaous amounts, such as $15 per hour
• and yes, they use the model of charging for connect time, which makes no sense, instead of bandwidth use, which would make sense, as that is an actual use of a resource (ok simply being connected does tie up a port on a router, but those, once paid for, cost nothing on a time basis)
• so far this trip I have been using either free access in theplaces we have stayed, or simply forgone use, particularly when the cost was ridiculous
• in Auckland, the hotel charged too much, but there was an open wireless router nearby enough that I used it to connect
• you wouldn't want to do banking on that kind of connection, but it's good enough to check e-mail, particularly as my e-mail log in uses SSL, ie passwords and ID are encrypted
• here, the Heritage Hotel wanted NZ$25 for 24 hours, which is on the edge of unreasonable, so I searched for other available networks, and found one at a Best Western Hotel, down the hill from us, with the same signal strength as inour hotel, for $5 per 24 hours
• as both were payable through credit card, not to the hotel, and were by the same ISP, it was a no-brainer
• even Conde Nast Traveller, a very up-scale travel magazine continually rails against the stupidity of expensive hotels then nickel and diming (actually 10 and 20 dollaring) guests on Internet access, while the cheap hotels provide it free, or at nominal cost
• I suppose the principle is that guests who want Internet access are business travellers (and at one time they probably were) and so since their employers paid the cost, it didn't matter what you charged
• but that is less and less true, today even recreational travellers want net access, want to check e-mail, and use social networks while on the road