We Reach the West Coast

Wednesday, March 13

The West Coast and Glacier Country 

It was time to leave Queenstown Wednesday morning, and as the bus pulled onto the road, Colin remarked on his tour guide mike, "There's soot to our right." I glanced over at the mountains, but didn't see any smoke rising. 

Then he said, "Sun's Out Over There."  SOOT. He likes his little jokes. Apparently it's a Kiwi expression.

To head northwest on the South Island we first had to backtrack through the Otago region to Cromwell, passing our favorite winery along the way, then turn north with stops along the way to end the day in Franz Josef. 

The hazy yellow highlighting shows the way. This map already had other routes marked on it, like the dark yellow from Dunedin to Queenstown we'd followed earlier in the week.

We passed some replicas of old gold miners' huts and a small mining town from the Otago gold rush that lasted about 50 years.

Just after our first pit stop by Lake Wanaka, we visited artist Scott Johnson. Once an engineer, Scott now creates metal sculptures for gardens, parks, and other mostly outdoor installations.

In his workshop, he showed us several large pieces, especially his dandelions, and talked about how he welds the metals together.  

He uses vinegar, lemon juice and rain water to speed up the rusting process for parts of the sculptures. 

This one was an attempt, he said, at a Lady of the Lake.

Scott's property looked like a great place to live, with extensive gardens - fruit trees and grapes, vegetables and flowers. Probably a lot of work, too. 

This bird sways in the wind and was my particular favorite.

Peeking through the grapevines.

Jerry, D'Ann, Veronica and Jennie clowning with the firepit Scott made.

Scott made the metal gateways at his driveway, too. With this view of the mountains, it was really an idyllic location for a home and studio. We all want to move to New Zealand. 

On the road again, we passed several beautiful lakes, like Lake Hawea, and crossed more braided rivers.

The water is brown in this river from the tannins. We did see some rivers that were chalky white from glacial runoff.

Our lunch stop at the Makarora Country Cafe was across the road from a herd of red deer, one of several we've seen on our travels. 

We learned a new kiwi term: cabinet food is what you can buy from a glass display case at a diner or cafe. We all chose some cabinet food for lunch, but it was a bit early for beer.

Monteith's is the local beer on the West Coast. The shovel in its logo represents the gold miners.

We've seen a lot of another Kiwi term: camper vans. That one seems more obviously useful than RV.

According to Colin, the West Coast of the South Island is sometimes abbreviated as the West Coast or just the Coast. People who live there are Coasters. Take that, California.

We recrossed the continental divide, this time at Haast Pass. 

Apparently Herr Haast was very important because everything in the area was named after him...

... including the Haast eagle. It was so huge it hunted the giant moa. Once the moa was hunted to extinction, the giant eagle also died out, but left behind legends of a giant tanifa (water spirit but sometimes in the air) from the sky that could fly down and steal a child away.

In a rainforest, it often rains, so waterfalls were plentiful in the western mountains. 

Mary found a sunny rock to light up her face. A dude crossing rocks behind her fell into the water. As one does.

Our intrepid bus driver and professional photographer Paul sets up another shot. 

Does everyone have multiple side gigs in New Zealand?

Colin provided repellent for the sand flies (namunamu) before we explored the river below Thunder Creek Falls. Apparently New Zealand doesn't suffer much from mosquitoes, but sun flies are nasty little biters.

To explain this plague on humanity, a Maori story goes that a goddess sent the sand flies to urge people to get back to work, instead of being distracted by the beautiful landscape.

We were often fascinated by common mosses and plants, since everything was so green and lush. 

For example, this simple hidey hole in a downed tree trunk was fascinating. Hobbit hole!

We've had some long bus rides ( I hadn't realized how BIG New Zealand actually is) so occasionally the guides offered up games to play. Wednesday's game was movie and TV theme songs. Mary and I were fastest to get Outlander, Doctor Who and Star Trek (2 notes). 

Eventually we reached the Tasman sea - named after Abel Tasman - who in 1642 found the islands that would become New Zealand.

Turning north, we entered Glacier Country. There are an estimated 2,900 glaciers in New Zealand, and we stopped in Franz Josef to check out this dramatic area.

As we neared our Rainforest Retreat, Paul took and extra lap around the town so Colin could set up a joke. I can't remember the setup, but it ended up with...

...Lawn moa

😄

At the Rainforest Retreat we checked into beautiful "treehouse" condo units. Mary and I were thrilled with ours until we walked out on our deck and discovered that our next door neighbors also had a hot tub!! Lucky for us, the next-door neighbors were the amazing Sandee and Ross.

Our tour friends were always up for happy hour when the day's bussing was over, and this day was no different. At least half the tour group filtered on to the bar patio, pulling up chairs, laughing and bothering everyone around us as noisy Americans do, until it was time to move inside for dinner. At which point we drank more wine and made even more noise. Sorry, other visitors. 

Only a few days left on this Franz Josef adventure.

- Christine