28th November 2009
There was a big surprise for us this morning - overnight the rain had cleared and it looked like a beautiful day was in store. Jumping out of the campervan shortly after 7am, to be presented with views like this, views that were completely hidden in the rain and cloud of the previous evening.
As it turned out, we hadn’t really done much of the Haast Pass the previous evening, all we had done to get to the campsite was follow the river, so all the climbing up to the high point of the 563m pass was to be done today, through the Gates of Haast (it really is called that) and past the Fantail and Thunder Creek falls along the way. The vegetation is thick rainforest around this area, hardly surprising given the amount of rain they get in this region.
As we approached Wanaka, the vegetation changed with the rainforest gradually giving way to a much drier landscape with very few plants. We made our way alongside Lake Wanaka to reach Wanaka itself, and here they get so little rain (comparatively) that they even had sprinklers running!
It was now time for a restock of supplies at the supermarket, the first proper food store since we left Christchurch 6 days ago, and then down to park up by the edge of Lake Wanaka for sausage, bacon, eggs and beans sat outside in the glorious sunshine with the lake next to us and the snow-capped peaks beyond. What better place for lunch?
After managing to tear ourselves away from the view, we took the Crown Range Road heading towards Queenstown across the mountains. Once at the top we had fantastic panoramic views across to the opposite hills, with Queenstown in the distance. We were so high here that we were looking down onto aircraft flying into Queenstown!
Instead of heading straight for Queenstown we decided instead to stop off for the night in Arrowtown, a smaller gold mining town not too far outside Queenstown. It’s a relatively small place with just one camping ground so we parked up here and went for wander into the town.
It has one main street with a number of different unique shops on it, and not too far from here is the old Chinese Settlement, the place that the Chinese goldminders lived when the moved here in the 1800s. Some of the dwellings have been restored so you can see how they once looked. The miners generally lived in quite cramped conditions and encountered a good deal of racism when they first arrived, although they had been invited by the state, something for which the New Zealand government has since apologised.
From here we walked up to the cemetary and war memorial which offered a good view down onto the very neat streets of Arrowtown.
It was then back to the campsite to sit out in the sun with a beer and watch the moon come up and the sun go down. A very pleasant way to spend an evening.
