Back to Chapter Twenty Two - Moreton Bay Anchorages

Chapter Twenty Three Eileen sees Snow

On to Chapter Twenty Four- The Melbourne Cup

Up until 2009 Eileen had never seen snow; well apart from at 30,000 feet.

We were sitting on our boat in the main channel between Russell Island and Karragarra Island down the southern end of Moreton Bay. My cousin Lynn and her husband Greg were visiting for the weekend. (see Chapter 22). Lynn had bought a newspaper, and in it was an ad, "$415 return airfares to Christchurch including 7 day car hire".

"Wow!"

It actually took a week or two of reading the ad several times before I made the phone call and made the booking. We did upgrade the 'car' to a motorhome. We plan to use a motorhome around northern Europe next year, ("The swap is already organized thanks.") so we thought it might be a good idea to practice driving one on the left hand side of the road from the right hand side of the car that we are familiar with in Australia, before we try European conditions. We had hired a car from L.A. to Grand Canyon and Las Vegas in 2005, but the wide streets & highways there would have been a bit different to what we might expect exploring Europe's cities and rural areas.

Our experience upon arrival at Christchurch Airport is already written down as a Magazine article on this site, so I'm not going to repeat it here. We caught a shuttle van at about midnight and were taken about 400m to the Sudima Hotel where we went to sleep immediately.

We woke at about 7am and turned on TV for the morning local news and learned that it was likely to snow on Mount Hutt today. This was only about 100km away. We should be able to get there and tick the only box we had on our first day.

Breakfast first, and it was excellent. Then a 200m walk to Backpacker Campervans to collect our motorhome. Someone was thinking. To have all these facilities so close together. What a great idea.

I did the paperwork thing, watched the briefing video, bought the detailed map book (invaluable), watched and learnt how to put snow chains on, got reminded to put diesel in it and not petrol, and drove our furniture removal van --- oops, sorry, motorhome back to the front of the Sudima.

Eileen was impressed. So was I. It was a VW. Not a Bug though. It was over 6m long. We could stand upright in it, walk around in it, and step through from the driving cabin with ease. It had a shower and toilet too.

Our first stop was the supermarket. Well actually it was several side streets, as I tried to read the street directory to get to the supermarket with, "You can't miss it." ringing in my ears, and Eileen saying, "I'm not holding it upside down." Soon the fridge was full, the larder was full, the wine cellar was full, and we were of on a snow chase.

The first thing we noticed as we left the city was that the traffic disappeared and we were instantly in the country. Oh, the other thing we learnt from morning TV was that New Zealand could expect gale force winds for the next week. This must be a regular occurrence as we noticed the hedges of trees along most of the fences on the side of the road, and in the paddocks. Then we saw snow on the mountains in the distance. Yee ha! We're nearly there already.

With the van acting more like a sailboat under full sail than a road vehicle, we arrived at the turnoff to Mount Hutt and started the climb.

There were no other cars.

The road was gravel, but good gravel. The wind got windier, and the road got windier, with low cliffs on one side and a drop off on the other. Then there were power lines down on the edge of the road. Hmm, not good, but we kept going. We couldn't turn around anyway.

We came to a level clearing with what looked like a gatekeeper's kiosk that was closed. Beside it was a steel structure with a sign securely bolted to it, "Closed".

The sign wasn't across the road blocking it (I only figured out why later). Then a car went straight on through. I drove around in circles for a bit and then decided to go just a little bit further up the mountain.

Well the road got narrower, the cliffs got higher, the drop off got deeper, the wind got windier still, and it was now raining. We crossed an area where the drop off was on both sides of the road and the wind was forcibly moving the van even at almost a walking speed. I had had enough. I wanted to turn around but I couldn't. The road wasn't wide enough. Eventually we came to a section where I could do 7 point turn and head back down the mountain. No snow for this day; just a beautiful rainbow curving down to the patchwork of farms hundreds of metres below. Oh the sign was bolted so it didn't blow away.

We spent the night at the camping ground beside Rakaia River. I parked so our view out of the rear and RHS windows was of Mount Hutt and the river. Glorious!

The photos of here are all taken through the windows from the inside. It was too wet and cold and windy to get out.

At about 7pm when Eileen had a shower, the water was pulsing, and not in a good way. We noticed the interior lights flickering, and there was a clicking sound coming from inside the van somewhere. I knew from experience that our 'house' battery was in a bad way. We turned everything electrical off, and went to bed with a grandstand view of a snow topped Mount Hutt still bright in the moonlight out through the window.

Apparently it rained most of the night. Next morning the peaceful Rakaia River was a raging torrent and a lot higher than it had been the previous evening. This didn't bother us as we drove out onto the road and headed for the nearby town of Methven to see about our house battery. The mechanic put a load tester on it and pronounced it officially dead. However they had no replacement. After a few phone calls they located one that would suit at a town not too far away, and in the direction we were going.

Lake Tekapo was freezing; the town and the lake. The wind was gale force. Inside the van was warm. Outside the wind was coming off snow. Before we found the service station to collect our new battery we found an historic church. We braved getting out of the van to have a look despite the church being right beside the lake. It was well worth the effort.

With our new house battery charging away merrily we were off snow chasing again. This time we would try Mount Cook, the highest mountain in Australasia. I reckon the Kiwis only claim that as a bit of one-upmanship because it's higher than Mount Kosciusko, the highest mountain in Australia.

The wind had not abated one iota. The road though mainly flat, was meandering between hills and had many changes of direction. If we were motoring into the wind, with my foot flat to the floor we could only do 80kph. With the wind behind us I had to ease of the pedal to stop exceeding the 100kph speed limit. The landscape had changed entirely. Up until now we had seen mainly green pastures. Now the grass was brown and often the ground was very rocky.

At the southern end of Lake Pukaki we stopped in a large car park to admire the shore of the lake and the ominous clouds at the northern end where they screened Mount Cook from view. We also managed a look inside the souvenir shop. Then it was off alongside the lake for the 50km drive to the other end of the valley of which the lake was a part. The lake dries up part of the way along, to become a delta of mountain streams.

We stopped at the Mount Cook (Aoraki) accommodation and tourist information centre. We would not get a close up of snow here either. It was all on the mountain tops. We were advised to check out the Tasman Glacier. This involved a 10 minute drive on a road that as I write this, I see in our road atlas the words, "Rental Vehicles Prohibited". The gravel road had been fine. We were advised not to stop at the snow avalanche which had stopped right beside one piece of the road, and we didn't. This snow was very dirty anyway.

It was a short, steep climb to the viewing point for the glacier. I also took a detour to the Blue Lakes. It wasn't worth it. The glacier wasn't that impressive either. Global warming had caused it to disappear up around the bend. There were some icebergs floating on the lake, but after having been to Antarctica they were fairly ordinary.

Well Eileen still hadn't had the snow experience she expected, so we drove on again towards Queenstown where we had been guaranteed satisfaction. We parked beside another creek that evening, with another glorious view of mountains and snow. If you notice the camp fire beside the van, we didn't make it. It was already there. We had an excellent gas stove.

Next day we passed several interesting places with things to see and do, but we were still on a mission. We did stop at a bungy jumping place though. We just watched. New Zealand has more relaxed laws regarding litigation than Australia. The duty of care is more on the individual so activities like this are more common. I think it's a good idea. Far too many adventure attractions in Australia have closed due to fear of the operators being sued in the event of a mishap, or exorbitant public liability insurance premiums.

Queenstown reminded me of Ushuaia in Argentina. The house design was different, but the snow clad mountains surrounding the city, and the huge lake (The Beagle Channel at Ushuaia) gave the same feel. We followed the signs to Coronet Peaks. It wasn't much of a climb until we saw snow beside the road, and it was snowing light feathery flakes. In case this was as good as it got we got out so Eileen could experience it. We needn't have worried. Around the next bend was more snow and it was snowing harder. We were now winding our way up further. At the next bens were several cars fitting snow chains. The sign read, "Snow chain fitting area for 2wd vehicles." I just wish it also had read, "Now!"

During the briefing and snow chain fitting instruction in Christchurch, I had been told not to fit the snow chains unless there was 5cm of snow. There wasn't on the road. There probably was beside the road, but the road was just wet. Or so I thought. It turned out it was icy too.

With slipping tyres we struggled further upwards. There was nowhere to stop now to fit the chains. We approached the summit where the chalet was when another vehicle came to a slipping halt in front of us. So did we. We were sort of blocking part of the road. I hopped out and immediately fell to the ground on one knee as my foot went out from under me on the icy road. Cautiously getting to my feet I retrieved the snow chains from their bag and laid them out behind the rear driving wheels. I am not the only stupid Queenslander to try to get a motorhome to the top of Coronet Peaks while it is actually snowing sans snow chains. A couple of blokes with quad bikes came alongside and gave me a hand to complete the fitting. This was part of their daily job. Then they guided us to one of the crowded car parks and showed us a place where we could park. I was amazed at how efficient the snow chains were.

We caught the shuttle bus back up to the chalet. There was an important ski event happening. I don't know exactly what it was but we were told it was nearly as important as the Olympic Games. We had some lunch and watched everyone in their ski equipment milling about and discussing all things skiing. We were dressed in our sailing wet weather gear so we didn't look too much out of place. Our problem was footwear. Eileen had on the gumboots which did look a little out of place, but at least she had adequate tread on the bottom to get about on the snow. I didn't. I had my deck shoes on. They might be good on a wet boat deck, but they were useless on ice and snow. We swapped so I could go for a walk too.

We had a good look at everything and everyone and when we were ready to leave it started snowing harder. We got a lift back to the motorhome with a couple we had met. Eileen then decided it was time to do her snow angel. I don't know where this came from. It may have been in a movie. Anyway she stood with her back to a snow bank, fell backwards on to it, and then waved her arms and legs in the snow. Voila; a snow angel. I got it all on video.

We then proceeded to drive back down the mountain. The snow was heavier still and everywhere but where the windscreen wipers reached was covered in snow. Eileen videoed that too. The only part where snow chains were required was right at the top, but as we clattered down the road I couldn't see a pull over place to take them off. 4wds didn't need them and I seemed to be holding up a queue of them before I found a place to get off the road.

We did the walking tour of Queenstown thing but Eileen got sick of that soon. We were still in our wet weather gear because it was cold and rainy so that was a bit cumbersome. Also Eileen couldn't find souvenir shops, just ski equipment shops, which were not much use to her or me, so having ticked the only box we had for this holiday we thought we would try to get to Milford Sound.

The town of Te Anau is about 120km from Milford Sound, but because of the windy road along the edge of Fiordland National Park it takes about three hors to get there. It was going to take us a lot longer than that --- like forever. The road was closed because of an avalanche. It was too rainy to bother hiring an aeroplane, so we found another river to camp beside and decided to wait until morning to see what we could do. We had stuck our nose in the driveway of a van park but it looked boring compared to the places we had parked the previous two nights, and the place we eventually chose tonight. We weren't sure whether we were breaking any laws by not camping in a van park, but we had seen, "No overnight camping" signs at various places, so we figured it must be allowed in places that didn't have them.

Two problems with not using van parks. We had run out of fresh water, and we hadn't been able to charge our camera batteries. Both issues were resolved next morning. We filled the water tanks at a service station where we also got fuel, and I charged the batteries at the Te Anau Photocentre; thanks Richard.

However there was no joy about the road to Milford Sound, so after a pleasant drive around town, and an obligatory look in the souvenir shops, we headed back to Queenstown. I can't remember why we thought of staying in a motel in Queenstown, but after checking out a couple, none of them seemed as much fun as camping beside rivers and mountains and stuff.

Our next overnight parking spot was another beauty beside Lake Wanaka. The first place we stopped was a bit too good. We were fairly close to the drop off down into the lake and the wind was at its gale force best. For peace of mind we moved back a hundred metres to where there was another spot, a better spot, a wider spot, where we could sleep without wondering if we were going to topple into the lake. We had heard by now that vehicles had been known to blow off Mount Hutt where we had been a few days ago. Once again the view out of the windows was of water, mountains, and snow.

Next day we stopped at the west coast town of Haast and had a look around their tourist information centre before heading for glacier country. Fox Glacier was first, but once again, if you have been to Antarctica, this was pretty ordinary. Franz Joseph Glacier was next and it was no better. If you've never seen a glacier, by all means go there, but I was underwhelmed.

We were both overwhelmed however with Hokitika, a town on the coast a few hours north of the glaciers. What a quaint little town? And the shops were amazing. Gold and jewellery shops. There is a gold town nearby. There were several greenstone factories. It is called jade in Asia. Craftspeople form the greenstone into jewellery and spiritual talismans including the traditional Maori tiki. There was a glassblowing factory, art galleries, and shops selling Paua shell jewellery.

Somewhere along the west coast road I tried whitebait. Bait doesn't sound as though it would be fit for human consumption, but whitebait is considered a delicacy by many locals. I actually had difficulty getting any. Apparently the season was soon to start so there wasn't much about from the previous season. I found a cafe that had whitebait sandwiches on the menu. The filling was fried like a fritter or omelette. The taste is a bit hard to describe. It didn't taste like fish and I enjoyed it ok.

This close to the shore of the Tasman Sea the wind must be gale force most of the time. Trees on the beach side of the road were bent and gnarled like many bonsai trainers shape their trees to look windswept. We found a picnic area and settled in for our last night in the van expecting to be blown about more than ever. It was the calmest night we had.

Our last day on the road saw us headed over Arthur's Pass on the way to Christchurch. You might notice I haven't discussed sheep yet. New Zealand is famous for its sheep and the New Zealand people are just as famous for being the butt of unsavory jokes about sheep. We did see many in paddocks everywhere. However there are more sheep in Australia, so I'm leaving all the jokes alone.

Unless they were mountain sheep though we didn't expect to see many around Arthur's Pass. Just like the country between Wanaka and Haast, this is mountainous rainforest country. In one place that hugged a cliff, they must have gotten so sick of rock falls closing the road they have constructed a concrete slipway over a section, and the traffic travels underneath it. One hundred metres further on they have done the same thing for a waterfall. And not much further on from that they have blasted and excavated the side of the mountain back so that rockslides don't affect the road. These mountains must be very unstable. Loose rocks are plainly visible all over the mountain sides, and the slips must have been so bad at certain times that the slopes have been denuded of trees and any other vegetation.

We arrived back at the Sudima Hotel in Christchurch early enough in the afternoon to have a good rest. However I wanted to have a look at the nearby Antarctic Centre building first. While Eileen had a sleep I returned our motorhome. I was happy. They were happy. No dramas there, so I took the short walk to see what they had that would jolt my memories of my visit of Antarctica. I was given a preview of what I would see and experience inside, and maybe because I was a bit tired, I decided that like most attractions, there is nothing like actually being there, and returned to our room to get some sleep before our 7am flight.

Back to Chapter Twenty Two - Moreton Bay Anchorages

Back to the Introduction

On to Chapter Twenty Four - The Melbourne Cup