New Zealand: Queenstown and Doubtful Sound

Day 31: 11 December: Fox Glacier - Queenstown

Better weather this morning so we went up to where you could walk up to the base of the glacier to do the walk up. Arthur went all the way up, but still stiff from yesterday, on seeing how steep and treacherous the last bit of the path looked, I bailed. 

It had been an interesting walk, taking in fast flowing streams with stepping stones across, and one bit where there had been a landslip at some point and there were warning notices saying not to stop anywhere along where the landslip had been. There was a waterfall uphill of the path with a huge rock balanced right on the edge in what appeared to me to be a very precarious fashion, and it seemed possible that if it dislodged, it could easily roll down onto the path we were on. No doubt it had been there for millions of years and there was virtually no chance of it, but it still made me nervous.

On the way back to the car park, who should we run into but the couple from San Francisco. They had been booked on a later heli-hike which had been cancelled due to weather, but they were going to try and re-book it. We were able to pass on some advice - take warm/waterproof gear and go to the bathroom before you board the helicopter!

Haast Pass

It was a very long drive to Queenstown, the longest of the whole trip – four and a half hours, including the Haast Pass, where there had been a landslip quite recently. Lea had told us that when that happened, it took out a camper van with a couple of people in it. Nobody noticed they were missing until the following Monday when one of the people failed to turn up to work. A search was mounted and they found the base of the camper van and one of the bodies, but the rest of the van and the other body are still buried down there somewhere.

Meanwhile, there are, according to Lea, people abseiling on the cliff face, watching for any signs it could go again, while on the road, which is the main and possibly only route from where we were to Queenstown, there is a traffic control which lets one car through the dangerous area at a time, so if it did go again, only one carload of people would die. 

Haast Pass

The road is closed every night from 6pm when the abseilers and traffic control people finish work.

We didn’t see the abseilers, but did go through the traffic controls, a little nervously. Then we stopped for lunch in Haast Township. Not a lot there, really, but a nice enough lunch.

Once past that hazard, it was another scenic drive, with fields full of lupins, which seem to grow by the side of the highway quite prolifically. I think they’re pretty but wonder if the locals think they are weeds.

We made a few stops, to do a five minute nature walk near a waterfall, and to visit another where the river bank was covered with pebbles and people had piled them up on top of each other like in a Zen garden.

Descending from the mountain pass towards Queenstown there are some really spectacular views. It was bittersweet arriving into Queenstown. It looked like a really lovely place, but it was the last place on our itinerary, so it means the holiday is nearly over.

Views approaching Queenstown

Queenstown

We were staying at Queenstown House, a boutique hotel. We were met by Rebecca, who is a member of staff rather than the owner. The owner, Louise, was out of town and we would meet her another day. We were staying in the Admiral Room. There was a view across town to the lake and the mountains in the distance. Only slightly spoiled by a rooftop obscuring some of it. We could see the steam ship which sails across the lake every day belching black smoke from its funnel.

View from Queenstown House

The smoky steamer

We were just in time for pre-dinner drinks and met some of the other guests. There was Donna and Chris from Australia, who were staying over before setting out on a marathon hike which would last several days. For the next few nights they would be staying in huts provided along the hiking trails. These vary in facilities and some are quite basic. As it’s not possible to predict how many people will rock up there on any given night, it’s possible some people will have to sleep on the floor. 

The other couple were Dale and Cathy from Minnesota. He had a false arm and she was part Canadian.

There are some serious hills in Queenstown, and our accommodation was at the top of one of them. According to Rebecca, it takes four minutes to walk down it and six minutes to walk up. We walked down it, and went to eat in The Beautiful Kitchen, one of Rebecca’s recommended places. The food was good. Arthur wasn’t sure whether to have the risotto this time given that on the two other occasions he’d had risotto he had disliked it. He pondered this aloud to the waitress, who said that the risotto was her personal favourite meal, and that she would cry if he didn’t like it. Luckily, he liked it.

We went for a walk around and found a bar called Pog Mahones, an Irish pub, which, they boast, was actually built in Ireland and shipped over stone by stone and rebuilt in Queenstown.

Then it was time to make the six minute slog up the serious hill and go to bed.

Day 32: 12 December:  Queenstown – Doubtful Sound

At breakfast, we met even more people – a couple who were going on a Lord of the Rings tour. We met Donna and Chris again, and they were kind enough to give us some bug repellent after we’d been discussing how much the bitey insects love me, and the merits of various brands of anti-insect stuff. 

Apparently, if you REALLY don’t want anything to bite you, such as in malaria infested areas, the stuff to use is “Deet”, but only when you’re really desperate as it isn’t very good for you. Eating vegemite or marmite is supposed to put them off as well.

It took two hours to drive to where our overnight cruise excursion started, around the shore of a lake, past mountains and signs to “The Remarkables Ski Area”. 

The vegetation in the fields began to resemble breeding colonies of tribbles. A sign said we were in a red tussock conservation area, so I guess that’s what the tribble plant was.

The place we had to check in at was called Pearl Harbour. To get to the actual cruise boat we had to catch a catamaran across a lake to a place called Deep Cove, where we had to wait for a bus to take us the rest of the way. There was a visitors’ centre there with a display of information about the nearby underground power station, which, it is said, produces 10% of New Zealand’s Power. 

There was also information about the nature in the area, including the legend of the sand flies, which are the annoying bitey insects around here, rather than mosquitoes. According to the legend, the Maori gods which created the fjords feared that humans would come along and ruin their handiwork, so they created the sand flies to keep the humans out. It’s largely worked, as we were to hear on the cruise. Fjordland is mostly national park and nobody actually lives there. 

Also learned that it is only the female sand flies which bite. The males are vegetarian but the females need to drink blood before laying their eggs.

The bus arrived to take us across the pass to the cruise boat. There is just the one road, and it is not connected to any other roads at all, so any vehicles which are going to use it have to be brought to it on a barge. It is the most Westerly road in the country and also the steepest one that coaches can use. The bus driver gave an entertaining commentary – New Zealand, he said, is described by some as “Scotland on steroids”. Several photo stops including a view over Doubtful Sound, where we were to be sailing.

First glimpse of Doubtful Sound

The boat, The Navigator, was waiting at the dock. It’s the largest of only about four boats with permission to operate overnighters in the sound. It can accommodate 70 passengers but on this trip there were just 40. The other cruises accommodate much smaller numbers, no more than 16.

There was a safety briefing, then we were shown to our cabins, and then went back upstairs for coffee and muffins. There was an observation lounge where you could view the charts and look at the progress the boat was making on the GPS.

The crew included Carol, the Nature Guide, who gave a running commentary about the area and the things we were seeing around us.

Firstly, the crew located a good spot to anchor for a while and allow people to take part in a choice of afternoon activities. You could go out in a kayak, or you could go out in the tender boat with Carol for a closer look at the shoreline. We played safe and chose to go on the tender boat. It was an interesting excursion where we saw a beautiful waterfall, an ancient beech tree with ferns growing on it; the ferns had leaves which were one cell thick. Some good photo opportunities – views of The Navigator surrounded by the people in the colourful kayaks.

The Navigator

Waterfall in Doubtful Sound

Arthur enjoying the scenery

Rata (New Zealand Christmas tree) Blossom

We learned that there is a poisonous shrub. All parts of it are deadly except for the juice of the ripe berries. It was responsible for the demise of lots of cattle and sheep, and even a circus elephant which was being transported across the country by train, and was picking at the shrub as the train went by. When they reached their destination, they found the elephant dead. Sad story. More worrying was the tale that a number of people became very ill on the North Island and were hospitalised. There didn’t seem to be any link between them and the doctors couldn’t figure out what was causing this mysterious illness. Finally, they worked out that the link was a batch of honey which had been made from the flowers of this shrub. How you stop bees from making honey from poisonous plants, I don’t know, so it’s a little worrying.

Also an idea for a murder mystery perhaps. The killer keeps bees and cultivates poisonous plants and gives the honey to the people he wants to bump off.

We also learned why most of the indigenous flowers in New Zealand are white. Because they evolved away from the bees and butterflies that usually pollenate things, and for thousands of years, the principal agent for pollination was moths. So the plants evolved flowers that could easily be seen at night.

Afterwards, there was an option to swim off the back of the boat, but only a handful of hardy souls opted to do that. It was far too cold for most of us. Then they served soup before we sailed out to the Tasman Sea. There we saw big waves crashing on the rocks, a penguin, and lots more seals chilling out on the rocks.

Penguin

Back to calmer waters for the buffet supper. The smoked salmon was especially delicious. After supper there was a slide show about the local wildlife and the area in general.

There were some lovely views as the sun went down, but it was too cloudy to see the night sky, sadly.

Evening View of Doubtful Sound

Woken by the sound of dripping water in the cabin. Had I left the tap on? Was the boat sinking? Concluded eventually that it was rain on the windows, and therefore I was not going to drown or get told off by Arthur in the morning, so went back to sleep. Only to be woken at 6.30am by the anchor being raised. This meant it was time to get up as breakfast was going to be served at 7 and for a limited time; and they had told us that they would be coming in to change the beds early, to get ready for the next boat load of people.

Once we’d had our buffet breakfast, we sailed for Hall Arm, which is a beautiful spot. 

There is a mountain there which has a geological fault down its side which can be clearly seen.

They did something called “The Sound of Silence”, where they turned the boat’s engines off and allowed it to come to a complete stop, and told everyone to stay still, not to talk and even to put the cameras away, so we could all listen to the silence for a bit. This is something people in the modern world rarely get to do. Of course, it wasn’t absolute silence – you could hear birds and the rushing waterfalls – but no human made noises. Arthur quickly got bored with this – doing nothing is not his style!

The Captain of The Navigator

Back to the wharf and the bus back over the road that’s not connected to any other road and the boat across the lake, but without the running commentary that we’d had coming out.