The third leg of our New Zealand journey had us drive from Queenstown, over the mountains to the area rich with Glaciers, national parks, adventure sports, rainforests, limestone cliffs, rivers and the wild ocean. Part I of our NZ travel was the beautiful turquoise Lakes and Mt Cook trail (https://rohinarora.com/2024/02/08/new-zealand-south-island-twizel-mt-cook-and-the-lakes/) . Part II was the charming Queenstown and drives from there (https://rohinarora.com/2024/02/14/queenstown-what-a-lovely-city/). I have already written about those in my earlier blogs, the links of which I have shared here.
Drive to the Glacier Country
As we drove towards Wanaka, I didn’t realise that soon the car would be driving on the highest main road in New Zealand. It is known as the Crown Range. We kept going up and up and it certainly wasn’t a straightforward drive. It was all about hairpin bends and breathtaking views. As a driver I couldn’t enjoy the views as I had to concentrate the maximum and to make sure that if we were slowing down then we needed to give pass to the cars behind us. There were not many places to stop on the way. The topography and scenery had changed from ‘charming’ to ‘rustic’ as you drive on the ‘crown range.’ It must be real tough to drive here during winter with snow and frost. As you pass through Cardrona you also pass the ‘Bra Fence.’ I really don’t know why people would go and decorate the Bra’s on a fence but it looked fascinating. Not many know how this trend started and there have been disagreements over it within the community but the fence remains with the Bra’s.
We had already been to Arrowtown but had taken a different route. We didn’t enter Wanaka town but proceeded towards Fox Glacier. Wanaka also is known to be a very scenic town with lots to do and many tourists spend a few days here. Looking at the map I realised that ‘as the crow flies’ the distance between Mt Cook and Fox Glacier wasn’t much but as the terrain was mountainous one had to drive all the way round taking hours. We had travelled to Mt Cook from Twizel on first part of our journey and it seemed as if we had left the region way way behind. But on the map it appeared to b e just a jump over the mountain. We didn’t jump over the mountain though we had all the plans of being on top of the mountain as we had a booking for next morning to land on the Glacier and do a glacier walk.
The Franz Josef Glacier Township
We were not staying at Fox Glacier town but 30 minutes ahead at Franz Josef Glacier township. The stop at Fox Glacier was just for lunch. Obviously we were in the midst of glacier region and this also meant that much of the tourists were here for some adventure or the other. Our motel (Aspen Court Franz Josef) was very nice with large spacious rooms and adequate car parking. There were some restaurants just a short walk away and it so happened that the Sky Diving I had booked – their office was right across. Though for actual sky diving we had to drive to a air strip which was 20 minutes away. The sky-dive was the same evening so evening went by quickly as I took part in the thrilling sky dive and rest of the family watched me prepare for it with instructors and then waved to me as the flight took off. Then they came and fetched me from the spot I landed while video graphing my parachute landing. My adventure of Sky-diving is in this blog : (https://rohinarora.com/2024/01/10/sky-diving-in-new-zealand/).
These kind of small towns have a very relaxed look about them. Normally there is a lot of activity in the mornings as people go for adventure sports & sightseeing and you can see lot of vehicle activity. After 5 PM everyone disappears. People can be found in pubs/restaurants or their motels. Many busloads come from other towns like Wanaka and Queenstown for adventure sports and they go back in the evening. Most residents are associated with adventure sport companies so they retire early to be ready on time the next morning.
With no pollution and the weather being nice and crisp it was fun to go for an after dinner walk and look at the clear beautiful stars which were shining brightly. Though there were no stars early next morning, it was a lovely walk in the green environment as it was cool and the sky was so clear. I walked to the residential area at the foothills of the mountains enjoying the calmness of the place. Unfortunately the sky didn’t stay very clear for long and the mountains got covered with clouds. This resulted in cancellation of our Heli flight and glacier walk. It wasn’t raining and it was a fine day but as the glacier itself was covered with clouds – helicopters didn’t take off. We did manage to see the glacier from far as we took a hike to the glacier view point. We had hoped that flights would now take off with some clouds dispersing but they didn’t. So we decided to move to our next destination instead of wasting time staring at the clouds. It would have been fun landing and walking on this glorious glacier.
We would have chosen to stay at the charming seaside town of Hokitika but a relative who is a NZ expert advised us to stay at Greymouth. From Franz Josef to Hokitika was a 2 hour drive and it was a good place to stop as it had a very nice city centre near the sea. It was a very pretty town with added advantage of being on the sea shore. We shopped a bit here and then had lunch here. It was nice to sit by the sea and see the ocean going wild. The weather was great. Hokitika must have been much more livelier with more to do in the evening rather than sedate Greymouth but the latter had the advantage of having a lovely touristy spot nearby. It was then time to go to Greymouth and check into another nice motel called the Alpine Rose motel. It was very near the highway and the owner was a lady who was a real chatterbox. The advantage of her being a chatterbox was that she gave us all the information about the town and things to do.
Greymouth and Pancake rocks of Punakaiki
The Western part of Southern island reminded me a lot of Iceland. Greymouth was a small town and the motel owner recommended a few restaurants to us for Lunch. We went to a micro brewery for Lunch and after relaxing a bit we took off to watch the Pancake Rocks and blowholes at Punakaiki. This would be around an hour drive along the coastal road from where we were staying. Before we could see the Pancake rocks, it was the Pancake cafe which greeted us. It was quite crowded. Not being in a mood to have heavy pancakes we entered the park which had been designed to view the pancake rocks and blowholes. The park itself was very pretty and had some very interesting trees. The park was very green and if you are lucky then you can spot a kiwi or two.
The Pancake Rocks are a heavily eroded limestone formation where the sea bursts through several vertical blowholes during incoming swells, particularly at high tide. They are millions of years old. I am told that this kind of rock formation is unique here and is different from other kind of erosions which we saw in Iceland or Portugal. What actually was impressive was how beautifully they created this park which would take you to many viewpoints through walking paths. It took us more than an hour to enter from one side and then exit from the other after taking a full round. As it was all cliff area it had a lot of slopes and steps. New Zealand doesn’t charge you for admiring nature and you can donate voluntarily so there were no entry charges.
At 7 PM we reached back and the city centre of Greymouth was like a ghost town. I am sure some restaurants must be open but even if they were – they would shut down pretty early. Some pubs remain open but only to serve liquor. Luckily we found a Chinese place and got the dinner packed.
Drive back to Christchurch via Arthur’s pass
We had breakfast in the room next morning and left for Christchurch after that. The route through the scenic Arthur’s pass takes you from West coast to the East coast. It takes 4-5 hours though distance was around 270 km. We didn’t stop much on the way mainly because it was raining till we crossed the Arthur’s pass. In this rain with the fog hanging low it was again an interesting drive. There is another route called the Lewis pass route but that is much longer. Once again it was an up and down winding motor drive with a lot of view points. There were signs of many skiing centres along the way and these must be busy during the winter months. There were national parks, conservation centres, lakes and mountains through the way. Many people stay at Arthur’s pass and then do their hiking, skiing or visits to national parks from there. Accommodation is limited in this area.
We had spent around 11-12 days in South Island and it was time to catch the early morning flight next morning from Christchurch to Delhi via Melbourne. It had been a great holiday and with each travel we experience and learn so much. The entire country of New Zealand had ‘sporty’ and ‘outdoor’ written all over it. A child is as enthusiastic about adventure sports just as an old man. It is indeed one of the most beautiful countries that one can visit with great choice of places one could visit. Driving was the best way to explore the country and I would recommend this highly to anyone who visits New Zealand.
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