New Zealand October-November 2022 Trip report

[Grifdog22]

Just an update - New Zealand Air/United now have direct nonstop flights from JFK in New York to Auckland. Comes in just under 18 hours, but no missed connections! Would love to hear from anyone that takes one of those.

Will have more on our trip report shortly. Life got in the way...

 

[Grifdog22]

Franz Josef day

No need for a wake up song this morning-beautiful sun shining in from the bush outside our back porch and window. A hot cuppa expresso and off to another binge breakfast with clean clothes! After dinner last night we went on a quest for the southern cross. Beautiful night sky, but also a bright moon. We were able to find it – it’s also featured on the New Zealand flag – and beautiful. (I’ll post the picture of the Southern Cross when my laptop comes back to life).

 

[Grifdog22]

Franz Josef day, continued

This morning we headed out --with the addition of Franz Josef tour guides -- to walk the bush a bit on our way to the glacial melt below the Franz Josef glacier. This really felt like hiking in the bush!

Our trip was NZ spring, (November) so little to no bugs and comfortable temperatures.




And these trees were magnificent





As was the scenery once we were clear.

 

[Grifdog22]

Grifdog wandered away from the group a couple of times in search of a better view or picture…and then we hit theriverbed. Beautiful.


As we walked from the bush, by this massively eroded rock we are in the riverbed


Glacial melt which scours the edges of vegetation at high water...




This was a recurring theme and view that never ceased to take our breath away. The sight, the sound, the clean smell.


On slightly higher ground, the bush meets the riverbed...

 

[Grifdog22]

Grifdog has pictures from his cousin who was on this same spot about 14 years ago. At that time, the glacier was well around the bend and clearly visible and massive. Like almost all glaciers left on our planet, it melted and receded a lot. Between 2008 and April of 2021 it has receded 1.56km in length. It is hard to fathom seeing tropical rain forest bush and glaciers at the same place. Just knock me over with a stick!

and much closer to the glacier....

 

[Grifdog22]

Most of this day was an OYO day, including sightseeing. Originally the glacier activity center and hot pool were listed as prepaid amenities, but they were closed. Lunch also became an OYO thing. Mathmagicland stopped by the West Coast Wildlife Centre, which has a small food counter with a few sandwich options and gift shop. After eating lunch there, she walked all around town, which only took about an hour with stops for pictures of different buildings and in a couple of shops. She also explored the market, which is quite small yet has a little of everything including supplies for hiking.

 

[Grifdog22]

Mathmagicland spent the afternoon seeing more kiwis at the West Coast Wildlife Centre. There are also several Tuatara and some displays on glaciers. This place is small but mighty, working exclusively with rarest Rowi kiwi. Mathmagicland booked the backstage tour, which was very informative. She spent about an hour in their Kiwi natural walkthrough display before the tour, again no photos permitted, watching the most active pair of kiwis run around and forage in their area. It was fun and fascinating and a special treat to be able to spend this time with them. They were much easier to see and watch than the ones at the kiwi hatchery we visited in Rotorua as their viewing area is long and shallow, vs deep, so the kiwis could be seen at all times. Most people would come through, watch for 5 minutes or so, and then move on-- leaving Mathmagicland all alone with the kiwis for most of the time.

 

[Grifdog22]

Grifdog and DW had scheduled a helicopter tour to fly over Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, circle around Mount Cook (highest point in NZ) and land on Franz Josef to walk about. Regrettably, we were the only ones that signed up for this for the day, so it was cancelled, and we were able to move the reservation forward a bit to just do the flyover and landing on the Franz Josef glacier. Major kudos to the guides for assistance, as communication/cell service was spotty, so they jumped in to help. Fantastic flight, cut short by rolling bad weather, and we had just made it to the top when the flight was recalled. Nevertheless, simply stunning. Indeed, the sky was beautifully blue when we were at the top of Franz Josef – and as we turned we could see the dark skies rolling in. The pilot ducked us down low and booked to get away before the heavy winds hit, which happened about three-quarters of the way down. Total flight was only about 12 minutes, so they refunded part of the price. Grifdog is working on posting a link to a short video that shows the spectacular glacial top followed by a Ruh Roh dash back down. Really - the helicopter is the best way to fully appreciate the glaciers, but they are very noisy and disruptive to everyone else.

 

[Grifdog22]

Just as we almost reached the top, with a beautiful blue sky in front of us, we were recalled due to bad weather. We turned around and saw the dark skies rolling in...the edge of which was in the last picture above.



These guys are a LOT bigger than it looks from the riverbed!

Hopefully later I'll be able to post a link to a short video on the return dash, which shows this flowing out into the Tasman sea!

 

[Grifdog22]

Both Grifdog and Mathmagicland ate (at different times) at the Alice May restaurant. No reservations taken. We all had nice meals and saw most of the group also come or go at this restaurant as well. The Blue Ice was also visited by some, who also reported an excellent nosh. We ended with another night of a late night wakeup for stargazing after the storm cleared. It was almost too amazing to sleep through the night!

 

[Mathmagicland]

Day 11 – Do You Wanaka?

Today was going to be a travel day for us, the long bus ride from Franz Josef to Queenstown. No worries, the guides have some stops planned along the way. And, we will be going through some amazingly beautiful scenery along the way! We never tired of looking out the windows at New Zealand!! We were told that this was “the most scenic drive in New Zealand” as we drove on to Wanaka. Frankly, we think it was very hard to decide WHICH bus ride was the best. People often complain about travel by motor coach in these trips— in other trips we have taken. We have been on dull bus rides when they had to have movies playing in the bus or loud music to distract us. You do not need that here. We never tired of looking out the windows at New Zealand!!

First up, a surprise photo stop, which will be a first for an AbD New Zealand group as the skies were too overcast for the group before ours. Our local guide, Victoria, knew of a spot less than a half hour from Franz Josef, where a Scenic Viewpoint is under construction. We carefully walked along the almost-completed walkway to views of Fox Glacier and…Aoraki / Mount Cook, the highest mountain in NZ, and almost always shrouded in clouds. However, this day the skies were clear enough that we could see it. Victoria said this was a rare sighting, so we appreciated this special opportunity.

Fox Glacier & Aoraki / Mt Cook



Fox Glacier


At the same spot, New Zealand put a “sun dial” locator tool. You could align the scope to a particular area, and you knew what you were looking at! It was exceedingly cool!





New Zealand has quite a few one-lane bridges. During this drive, we crossed over the Haast River, which has the longest one-lane bridge in NZ, at 737 meters/half a mile. Fortunately, there were pull out sections, so that periodically you could pull over to let oncoming traffic pass—-and, unlike in this country, people ACTUALLY used them to give a chance for other people to pass! Lots of polite and courteous people!



Our next stop – Mount Aspiring National Park, part of Te Wahipounamu, the Southwest New Zealand World Heritage Area, a UNESCO natural heritage site with acres of old-grown flora and fauna. We took a short hike to the Thunder Creek Falls. Not everyone chose to go on these hikes/side trips, but most did.











Continued in next post –

 

[Mathmagicland]

Day 11 – continued -

We then drove a bit farther, to the Blue Pools at the Makarora River. This was a bit longer stop, about an hour, with time to hike over two bridges to the Blue Pools. It was still a bit cooler, yet more than few folks were swimming in the pools. Their beautiful blue color comes from pure glacial water that feeds in from a river gorge. There is a limit to the number of people who can be on each bridge at one time, so they have clever signs to illustrate this.





Grifdog went wading up to his knees or so in the blue pools and watched his toes turned blue. As he worked his way out, another traveler with our group stripped to his undies and dived in, and three brave young folks jumped from the bridge into the water (no signs prohibiting this). Folks this is glacial melt - not for the faint of heart.



The bridge from where the folks jumped -



This gorge feeds the glacial melt into the Blue pools





Look closely at the center of this photo for those brave bridge jumpers….



NZ has a program for kids to encourage them to learn about nature and explore numerous parks & sites across NZ. The kids could earn badges towards rewards for each visit. We saw this sign post for the program at the end of the Blue Pools hike, proof that we’d made it all the way there.




And, one last view of Mount Aspiring National Park as we leave and head to lunch.





Continued in the next post –

 

[Mathmagicland]

Day 11 continued –

It was time for our lunch stop. We had lunch at the Makarora Country Café, a small place that had very good soup, sandwiches, and salads. The Guides opened a tab at the register, and we could go through the line selecting whatever we wanted to eat. There was a large eating area with tables both inside and outside.

Uniformly, all the side cafes and stops for food we had were fabulous! The problem was that there were too many choices— and the desserts were particularly great. GrifdogDW says she never missed an opportunity for dessert— sometimes instead of lunch! But hey—vacation, right?


After lunch, we continued our drive down the coast, with scenery, with scenery remaining spectacular— bright sunshine, blue water and clean fresh air!










The guides had a couple of fun activities for us on the bus, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. First one - we each got a sheet of paper and a pen. Kira or Victoria had us draw a circle, then pass the paper to the next person behind or ahead of us. We were then told to draw something else – legs, feet, head, beak, etc,, each time passing the paper to the next person. At the end, we had our own papers back with the funniest group of kiwi drawings ever!

We also did Disney Songs Bingo; Kira would play a song from a Disney company movie, attraction, TV show, etc, We’d mark our cards as we recognized where the song was from. Prizes were NZ flag stickers.

We made photo stops at Lake Wanaka lookout and Lake Hawea lookout. We were able to get off the bus & take a few pictures.



Continued in next post -

 

[Mathmagicland]

Day 11 continued -

Mid-afternoon, we arrived at Wanaka. We had about an hour in town, to walk around the shops or along the beach. The guides treated us to some very delicious ice cream. If looking for native fibers, this location has some very nice wool/possum items, from socks to capes at reasonable prices.




The week before we were there, it had rained for several days, and the water levels in the lake were very high. Here is a picture of one of the Lake Wanaka piers, with some kids standing on the end of the pier which is under water.




We again deviated from the published plan. From here the next hour’s drive was supposed to be on the highest highway in New Zealand, known as the Crown Range, which is often impassable in winter. It was open but we took the faster, low route into Queenstown instead. The scenery was still very good, but Crown Range is spectacular.

As we continued towards Queenstown, we saw the Bungee Bridge we will be biking across the next day. Looked pretty high to us!



We arrived at our hotel, the Hotel St Moritz Queenstown, where we had a group dinner that evening. We were expecting a light meal—pizza. But beware! We started with a couple of pizzas for the group —thinking that’s all. Then more, then more, then salad— pasta, and then more. And Grifdog’s DW still fit in dessert! “So many desserts, so little time!”

Our rooms face the lake, with fabulous views of the Remarkables mountains, used as the backdrop for several scenes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.



Truly a beautiful drive today! Tomorrow we’ve got jet boats and horses.

 

[Grifdog22]

Day 11 continued -

Mid-afternoon, we arrived at Wanaka. We had about an hour in town, to walk around the shops or along the beach. The guides treated us to some very delicious ice cream. If looking for native fibers, this location has some very nice wool/possum items, from socks to capes at reasonable prices.


View attachment 740096

The week before we were there, it had rained for several days, and the water levels in the lake were very high. Here is a picture of one of the Lake Wanaka piers, with some kids standing on the end of the pier which is under water.


View attachment 740097

We again deviated from the published plan. From here the next hour’s drive was supposed to be on the highest highway in New Zealand, known as the Crown Range, which is often impassable in winter. It was open but we took the faster, low route into Queenstown instead. The scenery was still very good, but Crown Range is spectacular.

As we continued towards Queenstown, we saw the Bungee Bridge we will be biking across the next day. Looked pretty high to us!

View attachment 740095

We arrived at our hotel, the Hotel St Moritz Queenstown, where we had a group dinner that evening. We were expecting a light meal—pizza. But beware! We started with a couple of pizzas for the group —thinking that’s all. Then more, then more, then salad— pasta, and then more. And Grifdog’s DW still fit in dessert! “So many desserts, so little time!”

Our rooms face the lake, with fabulous views of the Remarkables mountains, used as the backdrop for several scenes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

View attachment 740099

Truly a beautiful drive today! Tomorrow we’ve got jet boats and horses.

That really was a fabulous day. I am so sorry about their floods and earthquakes since we left. I still want to go back, the trip was like an appetizer, and it makes me hungry for more!

 

[Grifdog22]

Wednesday November 9, 2022 ABD Day 12

Rise and shine to another beautiful day with temperate weather as we prepare to jolt our senses on adrenaline. Queenstown is on lake Wakatipu, a very large inland lake on the South Island. It is the third largest lake in New Zealand and shaped like a lightning bolt.


Early morning from the hotel room looking at Queenstown



Wakatipu Lake



The Dart and Rees rivers flow into this lake from each end, and we will be exploring the Dart river on a jet boat. The lake is actually one giant (remember that word) trench carved by the glaciers, with “The Remarkables” as the mountain range that rises from the lake. There is no ocean here, and the water flows from the lake in the middle of the lightning bolt near Queenstown into the Kawarau. The water level rises and falls in the lake about 10 centimetres every 25 minutes or so. The Māori explain this from a legend of a battle with the giant Matau who stole a princess and bride from the tribe, and was defeated in a battle and set aflame. The fire created a trench which filled with water from the heat, but the giant never died; he was just badly wounded. The legend is that the rising and falling of the water is from his slow heartbeat as he sleeps and we await his return.


continued

 

[Grifdog22]

Wednesday November 9, 2022 ABD Day 12 continued



GIANT is a word that gets used a lot here. We jumped on the coach and took off from Queenstown to the other end of the lake, which is about 50 miles away. Half the crew was going horseback riding while the other half went jet boat exploring in the morning. In the afternoon we switched activities. There were no alternative activities offered, so if you were not participating, or did not meet the weight requirements, you could hang out and watch or go back to Queenstown.








Once again, the mountain scenery enroute was “remarkable.” (Sorry).




continued

 

[Grifdog22]

Wednesday November 9, 2022 ABD Day 12 continued

We had left the Remarkables and were now at the doorstep of Mount Aspiring National Park. We dropped off the horseback riding folks and headed to the Jet Boat on the Dart River, which was our morning activity.

 

[Grifdog22]

Wednesday November 9, 2022 ABD Day 12 continued

The jet boat ride was exhilarating and spectacular. This is a nearly half-day adventure, like everything on this trip, was not just a ride.






Reportedly running at about 30 mph here with four inches of water




We were regularly stopping along the braided river to hear of the culture and history, with the best narrative yet on Te Wahipounamu – its ancient forests and towering mountains. This river is glacial melt from the Southern Alps and the Dart Glacier in the heart of Mount Aspiring National Park. The views were stunning at every turn. These turns were taken at high speed, and sometimes in only a few inches of water. Spins, sprays and exploring were the watchwords of the afternoon.









continued

 

[Grifdog22]

Wednesday November 9, 2022 ABD Day 12 continued

We were granted a brief shore leave to explore a massive gravel bar deep in the ancient landscape, undisturbed for thousands of years. The Grifdog with his full gear ran to the far end, took some photos and hustled back while the more sane in our crew explored the waterway around the landing site.




Note the slide and the wide braided river


And the adventure continued up the river! For LOTR fans, Gandalf peak...










The local guide here, as with all the places we visited in New Zealand was well-versed, passionate about his locale, and a regular firehose of details. We returned, bright eyed, and red faced, from this extraordinary adventures. After congratulating ourselves on our fine boat passengering skills, we were hustled back on over from Glenorchy for the horses.