New Zealand 1998

Friday, 6 February Waitangi Day

The Bottom Bus was due to collect me from outside the hostel at half past seven but did not appear. When the hostel office opened at eight, we (myself and Elena from England) complained to Angie, who looked none too pleased but after a bit of chasing around by phone, produced another bus at quarter past nine which sped us down the road to catch up with the original bus in time for morning tea at Nugget Point on the coast south of Balclutha. The driver apologised, he just forgot to collect us. I was last to board the bus and took a seat beside Kevin from Ardrishaig.

After a stop at Cannibal Bay for a close encounter with fur seals on the beach, we stopped for lunch at Owaka at quarter to one, outside the local store and hot food shop, with the driver Cameron extolling its many virtues but I noticed a cafe/bar further down the street and nipped in there for a quick beer. We were back on the road at quarter past one and continued with further short stops at Purakaunui Falls, Tahakopa Bay dunes and Tuatuka Bay before trying out an assault course near Tuatuka. I held the jackets. There were more stops at Waikawa (where the rain was heavy), Porpoise Bay and Curio Bay before we reached Invercargill at quarter past six.

I was dropped off at the youth hostel (several others were staying at an independent backpacker hostel nearer the centre) where I checked in for two nights, bought some food from the nearby shop and walked in the rain to the Waikiwi Tavern where I was collared by a couple of friendly drunks so I made my excuses and left after one pint (a real pint on this occasion, mostly it’s half litres).

Saturday, 7 February Invercargill

Still raining. I booked Te Anau for Monday night (every time I’ve passed through before, the hostel has been full) and then wandered downtown and tried my Link card in an ANZ hole in the wall. It had worked in Australia but this machine said — Sorry for the inconvenience, card not acceptable — so I used my VISA card instead, $300 in $20 bills fairly fills the wallet. I had tea and a sandwich in a baker’s cafe to pass the time before I could respectably go into a pub but I was still the first (and only for some time) customer. Four leisurely pints (half litres) in the Frog and Firkin then another wander in the rain then another couple in the Grand Hotel before dining on beef in black bean sauce, fried rice and China tea for $15 in the Canton on Dean Street and returning to the hostel to do some laundry.

Sunday, 8 February

The rain was off, in fact it was a fine day. I walked through the town and out the Bluff road for a view of Stewart Island and Bluff Hill, then back in to Queen’s Park, a very pleasant park with a tea room. Sunday licensing laws in New Zealand allow pubs to open for the primary purpose of serving food, drink is a secondary consideration, so any pub which doesn’t want to offer meals doesn’t open. I saw only three pubs (as opposed to hotels and there are few enough of them) though I think there used to be a fourth, possibly where there is now the Pack and Save car park. None of them were open so I had to resort to another tea-room to pass the time while waiting for the Bottom Bus for the next leg of the trip.

The bus picked up outside the Frog and Firkin (still not open) at quarter past six but then spent twenty minutes collecting more passengers at the backpackers in the town before making the forty minutes hop west for an overnight stop at Riverton, at the mouth of the Aparima River. I opted for the less expensive accommodation but stopped only long enough to dump my pack before going out with Kevin, Tubby (Mildura), Jens (Germany), and Lotte (Netherlands) in search of a pub.

We found one which had a liberal (when the local policeman was not around) interpretation of “dining” and spent a pleasant couple of hours. Tubby was involved in a project to raise the hull of a paddle steamer from the mud of the Murray River 140 km upstream from Mildura and made several attempts to find out how things were going. The result was a partial success, free of the mud but not quite floating. I went for a walk out to the river mouth before bed.

Monday, 9 February

It had been raining in the night and although it was now dry, there was still low cloud which made out trip up to the local lookout a bit of a non-event. We were on the road by half past eight and stopped at Tuatapere for morning tea and a look round the small museum. Then it was on for a brief stop at the Clifden Suspension Bridge before arriving at Manapouri at quarter past eleven. Time for a short walk from Pearl Harbour to Fraser’s Beach then on into Te Anau at quarter past twelve.

I went directly to the hostel, the office was unattended so I left my bag and went out for a wander along the lakeside before joining Lotte for tea and a baked potato in a cafe. Kevin came in and said that Jens was in the pub so we went along and found him winning on the slot machine. After a bit, I went off to book in to the hostel and do a bit of shopping, by which time the others had continued on to Queenstown. I dined on steak in Settler’s Steakhouse, and very good it was.

Tuesday, 10 February Milford Sound

The Kiwi Experience bus left for Milford about ten to ten and made brief stops at the Mirror Lakes, the Divide (where we picked up a dozen more passengers who had been walking the Routeburn Track), the Homer Tunnel and The Chasm (cataract) before arriving at Milford in time to catch the Milford Adventurer at 1235 for a visit to the underwater observatory and a sail out to the mouth of the Sound.

We were back at Milford about half past three and straight on to the bus but stops at the hotel and the lodge meant that we didn’t hit the road until four o’clock. A couple more passengers were collected at the Divide before we reached Te Anau at twenty to six, where I had a couple of beers before an early bed.

Wednesday, 11 February

An attempt to phone home failed, no answer. I bought a couple of useful maps at the Department of Conservation Visitor Centre, a guide to the Kepler Track and some insect repellent before heading for the Kepler Track at the nearest access, the flood control gates at the south end of Lake Te Anau. I turned south intending to go as far as Rainbow Reach but after an hour and a half, encountered a puddle, the passing of which would have meant wet feet so I turned short and went north to Dock Bay for lunch and a paddle.

I was back in town about four o’clock, time for a couple of beers then a pint (imperial) in the Radcliffe Cafe, before booking the bus to Queenstown on Friday and four nights in the hostel there.

Thursday, 12 February

Today, there was an answer when I phoned home, all is well. I’d intended to take the ferry across the lake for a walk on Mt. Luxmore but made the mistake of believing the weather forecast (wet) and stayed around town. I walked out to the “reservoir” shown on the map which turned out to be just a large tank, but there were reasonable views from the top over Te Anau and up the lake. I returned by the lake shore for a light lunch in Kepler’s Restaurant.

I spent the afternoon in the Mouse admiring the sun-dappled hills across the lake. The barman had come from Inverkeithing when he was twelve but had no trace of a Scottish accent. I forget what I did in the evening but it did not involve spending money.

Friday, 13 February

There was most of the day to fill before the bus for Queenstown so I pottered around, cashed a couple of travellers’ cheques and bought some Wright’s Tea Tree Oil soap, it looks remarkably like coal tar but smells a bit better. I went in to the Mouse for a couple of beers to numb the pain of buying a t-shirt but had several and then bought two t-shirts. Te Anau being a tourist trap, they were not cheap. Then a baked potato in the Pop Inn for a late lunch before picking up my pack from the hostel and heading for the bus.

I thought we were leaving early but we only went as far as the backpackers to pick up a couple of passengers and then returned to the departure point, leaving on time at quarter to six. There was nothing remarkable about the trip, the cloud broke as we went along and it was a fine evening as we passed up the side of Lake Wakatipu, arriving in Queenstown at twenty to eight.

There was no problem booking into the hostel, I dropped my pack and went for a wander around the town. While browsing in an outdoor equipment shop, I remarked that I would buy a map for Ben Lomond in the morning from the Department of Conservation shop as the price there was a dollar less, and they sold me the map at that price.....

Saturday, 14 February Ben Lomond

..... which meant that I was able to hit the road before eight, map in hand, and was half way up the hill before the DoC shop opened. My route started up One Mile Creek Walkway past the remains of the original Queenstown hydro electric station and town waterworks, just a few small ruins and bits of pipeline here and there, plus a brief encounter with the Gondola service road, currently closed while they are building a dry luge run. From the road, the Ben Lomond Walkway was a broad and east track to the summit. I’d estimated the distance at about four kilometres, the sign at the bottom said four hours, it took me two and three quarter hours. I must be getting fitter. It helped that it was after nine o’clock and a fair way up the hill before I got out of the shade and into the sun.

There was some thin high cloud which did not detract from the excellent views all round and I lingered for half an hour at the top before descending by the Ridge Track to reach the Gondola top station about one for tea and a sandwich. Since the access road was closed, there was no way of walking down without retracing my steps uphill for some distance so I took the easy option and paid $6 for the ten minute trip on the gondola, after writing a complaint on a comment card.

At the bottom, I decided further rehydration was necessary and made my way to Eichardt’s, to be disappointed by slow service in a quiet pub. I did some shopping on the way back to the hostel, and was somewhat discommoded to find the kitchen closed for cleaning – at quarter past four in the afternoon. However, it was open by the time I’d had a shower and I was able to stash my goodies and drink some tea.

I made my way to the DoC shop and stocked up on some useful maps before heading for McNeill’s Brewery Bar to sample the local produce. Both their Moonlight Real Ale (which isn’t really Real) and Classic Black were very pleasant, I decided that I had a slight preference for the Black.

Sunday, 15 February TSS Earnslaw

The hostel manager was very helpful in outlining my options for travel to Kingston for tomorrow – there is no longer a NZRRS service bus to Invercargill (nor even an InterCity bus which is now the company name) but the Mount Cook line run a bus if there are sufficient passengers (which the lady at their office assured me there weren’t), and Southern Air have a connection to Invercargill airport which serves intermediate points so I booked for that before heading for the Earnslaw.

’Twas a very pleasant 45 minute sail on TSS Earnslaw across to Walter Peak sheep station where some folk went ashore for the tourist view of sheep farming. I, of course, was there for the sail and remained aboard. The souvenir shop had a very limited stock (I was struggling to spend $20), the lass behind the counter thought an informative booklet would be a good idea, she was unaware that just such a booklet was available ten years ago. Another passenger aboard, Mr McInnes from Helensburgh had worked on Waverley in the early days of preservation.

When we returned to Queenstown, I found a cafe for lunch, “today’s hot special” ($6.50) was a pizza like bread filled with a creamy vegetable and ham mix. It wasn’t too bad. By now it was fairly warm so I walked in a desultory manner towards Frankton but after a mile or so decided it was too hot and sat in the shade to write some postcards.

Back at the hostel, I extended my stay by a couple of days and booked an open ticket through to Picton ($143), with the first leg to Wanaka on Thursday. Then it was back to McNeill’s for a second opinion on their beers. I still think they are good.

Monday, 16 February The Kingston Flyer

The Invercargill bus was a 14 seat minibus with baggage trailer; we had about ten passengers by the time we had completed the circuit of hotel pick-up points. There was another chap got off at the Kingston road end, I saw him a bit later photographing the simmering Flyer but then he vanished.

It was a good trip on the Flyer, 14 kilometres up to Fairlight where the engine was turned on a triangle, then back. I met a couple from Forfar, he used to be managing director of a shipyard (I didn’t ask which one). There was once coach load of tourists on the way up and a different lot on the way back.

The crew deserted the train when we got back to Kingston – I had hoped to photograph them turning the engine – so I went off up the Shirtfront Track to a lookout above the village and half an hour later was well placed to watch the engine move onto the turntable – a fortuitous circumstance as I already have ground level photographs of the engine on the turntable from my last visit in 1988.

Having admired the view for a while, I returned to the village and spent an hour killing time in the station/pub with a mince and cheese pie and a couple of pints before returning to the main road to be picked up by the bus. Back in Queenstown, I cashed a couple of travellers’ cheques on the way to the hostel, where I arranged my accommodation for Wanaka before accidentally walking into the Happy (2-)Hour at Eichardt’s (service was somewhat better than yesterday) and rounding off the evening with beef in black bean sauce in the Hong Kong restaurant (and I won’t mention the last pint in McNeill’s).

Tuesday, 17 February Arrowtown

I caught a bus at quarter past nine and, with a brief stop to admire Lake Hayes, we arrived in Arrowtown at quarter to ten. This was once a thriving gold mining settlement and now capitalises on that to make a living from tourism. I paid it scant attention as I headed into the hills on the Sawpit Gully Track. This goes up one gully, round behind German Hill and back down Sawpit Gully. Not a long walk but the views from German Hill (or rather the knoll at the end of the spur) are good and there are some signs in Sawpit Gully of the mining which once went on.

The day was warm and I took my time, but was still back in Arrowtown just after one o’clock. I lunched on baked potato and beer in the Royal Oak, then had another beer in the New Orleans to kill time before catching the return bus at quarter past three. The return route was via Arrow Point with a brief stop to admire the Shotover River, but still took just half an hour.

To pass the evening, I revisited Eichardt’s Happy Hour, dined on Singapore noodles and had a nightcap in the Cigar Bar, where there was an excellent choice of cigars but no compulsion to buy.

Wednesday, 18 February

Just for a change, I took my time getting up and it was half past nine when I left the hostel and wandered up Queenstown Hill to the east of the town to admire the view. I continued east in the hope of finding a way down to Frankton but was baulked by impenetrable bush which seemed to be mostly briar. I was reduced to returning on a power line service road, where I had some difficulty persuading a calf that it should remain with its family rather than running ahead of me. Shortly after I got past that, I reached a housing estate where I was able to descend across the main road to the lochside and returned to Queenstown about half past two by the Frankton Walkway.

After a late lunch of tea and muffin, I had a couple of beers on the way back to the hostel for a shower before dining on beef fillet in walnut sauce followed by yoghurt and lemon cake with fruit and cream in a rather pretentious small restaurant Pot au Feu. The food was very good though tending to “nouvelle cuisine”. Then it was a last visit to McNeill’s.