An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
As promised, it was raining when we awoke, as it had been all night. We had a little breakfast and enjoyed some more edifying conversation with Colin. We then called an audible and packed up, checked out and hit the road, as this was just not the place to sit around waiting for the weather to clear.
The first hour or so was through some pretty tropical rainforest looking surroundings, with towering mountains rising up on both sides of us. We also saw several high, cascading waterfalls coming from way up on the mountainsides, which was not surprising as it was raining torrentially practically the whole time. As we came upon Haast Pass, the annoying noises that our used-up rental car had been making got particularly annoying so we pulled over and found that one of the tires had gone completely flat. Fortunately, the rain had tapered off; unfortunately, our cell phone was out of range. Amazingly, though, the jack worked, the spare had air, and 20 minutes or so later we were back on our way.
As we descended the mountains, the predicted weather patterns held true and it began to clear. Soon, we were in a valley of basically bare mountains on both sides and the sun began to make itself known, a phenomenon we thought we’d never again see. We then saw part of a huge rainbow, which we stopped and took some pictures of. We kept driving, and it kept getting bigger, and soon we could see the whole enormous arc, with one end settling into the mountains and the other ending in the huge blue lake that was now alongside us. (and, no, down here it wasn’t VIBGYOR). We took several more photos (rainbows can be captured on film, can’t they?) and marvelled as it just got clearer and larger.
Finally, we left the rainbow behind and entered the Land Of Infinite Photo Opportunities. Around every bend in the road was another unbelieveable view of towering, sheer mountain ranges with valleys disappearing endlessly in their midst, with large lakes of the deepest blue at their base and greenish rolling hills everywhere else. Oh, the weather was clear and cool, and the sky was crystal blue with clouds that moved about rapidly and changed the lighting and shadows on the mountains with every moment. We had been forewarned that today’s drive would be one of the most memorable of the trip, and we certainly weren’t disappointed!
We rolled into Wanaka, and found (after taking some more pictures of the beautiful lake upon which it sits) The White House, the restaurant recommended to us by Frank at Lake Moeraki. We were the only ones in the little Morroccan-Mediterranean styled place, so we chatted with the entertaining Peter (the owner/chef) as we waited and as we ate. Wow, just the meal we’d been longing for! Pesto, olives, bruschetta, sun-dried tomatoes, perfectly grilled calamari and chicken, veggies and rice, all followed by a baklava that was delicious and unlike any we’d ever had (it included sesame seeds, spice-flavored honey, nuts, fresh phyllo and sliced apple) and a chocolate/coconut torte in a chocolate cookie crust that we will be remembering for a long, long while. We talked some more with Peter, then left to drive to Queenstown in time to exchange our car.
The hour or so drive was, of course, spectacularly scenic and pastoral (and, also of course, as with the rest of the day (and trip) we saw about one car every 10 minutes). We saw many trees in their full fall glory, and even drove through the Valley of the Towering Irredescent Golden Trees (they were poplars, we believe), as well as shades of brilliant orange and deep burgundy. We arrived into Aspen, uh, we mean Queenstown and found Budget, where we exchanged the dilapidated (which they claimed was less than 18 months old) Commodore for a new Ford Explorer. Judging from Darlene the Manager’s weary listening to our ventilating, this wasn’t the first time she’d heard it all. Milton then went to hunt down some local produce and Wendy found us two cute polar fleece scarves (the high/low today here were 55/40!).
This town is great!! Every other shop is either an outdoors-equipment (and that’s a pretty broad category here) emporium or an outfitter advertising bungee jumping (which was invented here), jet boat rides, rafting, scenic helicopter and plane flights, ski trips, and a bunch of stuff we’ve never even heard of. We’ll stroll around more tomorrow.
We drove the 10 minutes to Nugget Point, a lovely resort set on a hillside overlooking the Shotover River. Not only were we a day early, but since we learned that we can fly to Milford or Doubtful Sound from here, we cancelled our two nights at Te Anau and saved ourselves about 7 more hours of driving. Thus, we now have 6 consecutive nights here, which is like a year in the same place to normal people. And this is the right place to move into, too — we’re in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with a washer/dryer, full kitchen, and view up the valley and overlooking the river.
We settled in, unpacked (!), read some and caught up on our emails.