The West Coast

Feeling better again we drove to the west coast, starting at Westport, where we took a detour out to Cape Foulwind where there is a seal colony. Although we were quite distracted by the crashing waves on the coast we did get to see some seals lazing on rocks at the bottom of the cliffs, complete with young seals playing in the rock pools.

From there we went on to Karamea for the night, using it as a base to go to the Oparara Basin the next day to see the limestone arches and caves. It took us a while to get there though, as we had to pull an unfortunate American out of a ditch on the way there. The road up to the arches is one of the New Zealand speciality dirt roads, steep, windy and narrow. The American met two other tourists on the road and slipped into the ditch as they passed each other. A few minutes after we arrived on the scene a couple of climbers drove up, later followed by a couple in a four wheel drive. With the mix of us providing a rope, knots agreed on between Sean and the climbers, and the power of the 4WD we got the car out without a single scratch!

The arches and caves were pretty cool. One of them is called Moria Gate Arch, so of course we went to see if the Mines of Moria were there too (no, they weren’t). However, as usual, we got a bit distracted from the arches by the water flowing under the arches. The Oparara River rose by over 400mm while we were looking at the arches. When we checked the whitewater guidebook later and it turned out that the river had gone from below the lowest run-able level to above the highest run-able level in just 20 minutes while we watched! It’s amazing how fast rivers can change in this country.

We found ourselves an interesting little campsite in Seddonville for the night. It’s a quiet area and we only found the campsite by following a few signposts. When we got there the place was deserted, everything was open, and there was a note on the door sending newcomers up to the local pub to check in. We found the landlady there and she just told us to make ourselves at home. We had to go looking for her the next morning to give her money for our lodgings she was so relaxed. Another great place to stay! Quite different to the regimental attitudes of some other campsites here.

Before we got back to Westport we stopped off in the ghost coalmining town of Denniston. It turned out to be a very interesting spot with plenty of information about the mines and all that went on while the town was flourishing as the largest producer of coal in New Zealand. Particularly interesting was the Denniston Incline, an engineering feat for its time, whereby the coal trucks were hauled up and down the side of the mountain at a gradient of one in one in places (which is really steep to you and me). There were a good few deaths caused by runaway trucks over the years. We had actually gone up there to do some mountain biking as there are a few good tracks around. We tried out an intermediate track, which was so hard it even pushed Sean’s limits, but it was fun, once I was happily back in the van and out of the rain!

After spending the night in Westport we continued our trip south, stopping in Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. By good luck we arrived just before high tide when the blowholes are at their most explosive. Some day I’ll get pics up on the web so you can see them! They’re well worth the visit.

Further south, we met up with John the Swede again in Hokitika, along with Malin, a Swedish girl visiting for a couple of weeks. Malin had never paddled before coming over, so with just a flat-water lesson from John under her belt we all set off to do the Lower Whitcombe from the normal get out down. Malin did so well we carried on to the Milltown Gorge section of the Lower Arahura. For the latter river we met up with some American friends we had paddled with in Murchison. They had arrived at the get on a bit before us and had started hiking further upstream. When they saw us arrive they got on the water above us. Although we went as slowly downstream as we could they never caught up with us and it was nearly dark when we got off the river. After waiting for them to arrive and doing the shuttle to pick up the cars left at the start we weren’t home for dinner until 11.10pm! Fortunately the campsite staff had left the kitchen open for us to cook our dinner, as there’s no hope of getting dinner out, or a take-away, that late at night anywhere in New Zealand bar the cities! It was a fun days paddling though, and Malin paddled really well. She was totally wrecked the next day though!

Mount Cook to Christchurch to Murchison

Feeling like being a bit touristy again for a while we hit the road from Queenstown towards Mount Cook. We thought it had been pretty cold the night before. That was confirmed by the fact that three centimetres of fresh snow had fallen on the higher mountains overnight. That’s quite unusual for the middle of February here, which is supposed to be a very hot month! It did make the views impressive though as we drove through the freshly snow dusted mountains towards Mount Cook. Mount Cook itself was beautiful surrounded by the other impressive mountains in the range.

We headed on from there and stayed in a really good campsite in Fairlie for the night – the Top 10 campsite, I’d highly recommend it! After a good nights sleep (not quite so cold this time) we drove on to Christchurch and found the two paddling shops that there are there, finally managing to stock up on airbags and various other things for paddling.

By that stage, JP and Liz had arrived in Murchison so we went back there to join them, with Alan and Aisling arriving later in the week. Over the next few days we had some runs on the Doctors Creek and Granity Creek sections of the Buller River, both pretty easy but really nice runs. All the paddling caught up with us by the end of the week resulting in Sean and I spending a day at the campsite nursing our colds after waving goodbye to the other Irish as they headed towards Auckland airport and home.

Queenstown again

When we got back to Queenstown I finally got myself back into a boat again and ran the Dog Leg section of the Kawarau River with the others. It’s a great run, with an easy enough shuttle, and a fantastic couple of big water rapids at the end. I started off following Sean down through the first one, but quickly decided to make my own way down after coming over a wave and seeing him heading straight for one of the crashing waves, just for the fun of it, and capsizing! I had a great run down it though, taking a more sensible route!

After that run, Sean and I got on the road again heading towards Mount Cook. However, on the drive from the river towards Queenstown we decided the groaning from our brakes could be ignored no longer and had to be fixed. So, we booked the van into a garage and stayed in Frankton again that night. Frankton is just beside Queenstown and seems to be the more practical town, complete with supermarkets and other such shops. The campsite we were in was by the lake and overlooked by the Remarkables, an amazing mountain range that has a very surreal look. It felt like a giant cardboard cut out of mountains to me, but I was assured that they are real and are great for skiing in winter.

The next day we got up bright and early and got the van to the garage. By the time it was fixed I’d woken up enough to wish Sean a happy birthday. We got in touch with Alan, Aisling, Swede and Alaska as we figured they hadn’t moved from the get out of the Dog Leg since we finished the river the day before! There is a nice quiet free camping ground there with a long drop toilet and a ring of stones for your campfire. We found them there and decided to have another run on the Dog Leg, which again was great craic. We spent a good bit of time playing on a wave half way down the river too, which mainly involved rolling practise for me!

After that run, the boys decided they’d like to run the Citroen rapid, a bit further down stream so off we went. Aisling and I did the shuttle and waited patiently for them to arrive back. And waited some more. And then thought that if they didn’t arrive back by 8pm we’d start to worry quite a bit… Finally the Swede came running towards us from up the road. They’d completely missed the take out and nearly run another rapid, Retrospect, further down. Thankfully they made the last eddy before it and realised their mistake before running it! There’s more detail of the fun they had paddling back upstream and then beating their way through 50m of bush for an hour to get out to the road on Sean’s blog if you want to take a look. Anyway, Swede, Aisling and I hopped into the vehicles and started driving down to where the others were waiting. On the way I met a pretty nice looking Porsche with hands coming out the windows flagging me down. I was a bit confused but pulled in anyway and out hopped Sean with the biggest grin possible on his face, delighted with getting a spin in a Porsche and completely amazed that a Porsche owner had given him a lift while in his smelly wet paddling gear!

We packed up pretty quickly and made our plan for the evening, agreeing to stay at the Dog Leg get out. First, we drove the van back to the get on for Citroen and filled it up with wood that was lying around there as we’d used up most of the wood lying around at the Dog Leg already on our campfires. I had also got my first lesson in back woods cooking when we stayed there before when Sean and I cooked steak, spuds and veg in tinfoil on the fire. A new experience for me! Having gathered wood, we car pooled into Queenstown and got a good feed at Fergburger, a brilliant burger joint that is well worth the visit. Their burgers are heavy to lift there’s so much food in them! We followed that up by getting icecream in Lick a few doors up the road. They make their own icecream, putting out a different selection every day, and it is delicious! To finish the day off we went back to the campground and lit ourselves a campfire. Nice!

Sandflies

Sandflies are just little small flies that are nasty biting buggers! Apparently only the females bite, but there are plenty of them around. Sean has had very little bother with them but it seems my blood was much tastier than his. I had some big reactions to them on the North Island and finally found out that if you take Vitamin B your blood stops tasting as nice so you don’t get bitten as much. I am now a dedicated Vitamin B capsule taker!

Everyone warned us that the sandflies on the South Island, particularly the West Coast, were much worse than the ones on the North Island, so I was quite worried about the trip South. However, by the time we got there I’d finally built up a bit of immunity and learned not to scratch them. If you scratch at all they just get worse and worse, till you find yourself waking up in the night in mid scratch! Also, I wasn’t plagued by them much at all as we had the two other Irish girls, who hadn’t yet learned about vitamin B, with us down there. They were being bitten constantly and having the same reactions as I had before! Milford Sound is so full of sandflies you see people standing talking on the street waving them away constantly!

So, while they are not a reason not to come here, I would definitely advise a dose of vitamin B before you make the trip!

Milford Sound

Having had fun in Queenstown, we heard reports that Milford Sound was expecting rain, so off we went. Going there basically involves driving about 120 km down a cul de sac, a New Zealand speciality. They have several very popular tourist destinations on cul de sacs.

True to the predictions it was quite a bad day when we drove into Milford Sound, resulting in us not being impressed with the scenery at all, though you do have to go through an impressive tunnel that I think is about 1km long and only wide enough for one lane between its quite rugged walls. There’s a 15 minute wait for the traffic lights at either end. Even with the bad weather there hadn’t actually been much rain and we arrived to find out they had been predicting rain for the last few weeks and nearly none had arrived. This is quite unusual for a place that boasts that its annual rainfall is 6 metres.

So, after getting quite annoyed at the number of sandflies (I’ll explain more later) around we drove part of the way back out the road and stopped at Gunns Camp, a lovely little campsite pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It is right beside the Hollyford River, where the others had an interesting day paddling the next day while Liz and I went back to Te Anau, the nearest town, to buy groceries as it turned out none of us were really prepared to stay a few days away from civilisation! It did give us a much better impression of Milford Sound though as it was a much nicer day and the views really were quite remarkable.

Meanwhile, the others did the Falls Creek section of the Hollyford twice, with the river gods claiming Aislings paddle on the first trip. Later that evening the boys did the Moraine Creek section further down. It’s a great river in that most of it is beside the road, a rare thing in this country, so it can be scouted and you can also get out easily if you want! Sean and I got the bikes out also and cycled further down the road to see the Humbolt Falls, a very impressive high waterfall.

The next day, after the boys ran the Moraine Creek section again, we headed back to Queenstown.

Paddling at last! Hokitika to Queenstown

We made our way to Hokitika to catch up with Alan, an Irish paddler we first met in Uganda (and then on the ferry to France last September when we told him we were going to NZ – some day we’ll meet up in Ireland!). While waiting for him to get back from a river we went mountain biking around the town. They were so late back from the river, they passed on paddling the next day, so Sean and I set off to do the Lower Kakapotiha with “Andy England”. The trip was pretty good but there was so little water it was quite scrapey. We spent most of the trip waiting for a gorge with a swingbridge at the start which was the signal for the hard part – turns out that the swingbridge has been gone for years! I managed to get my boat pinned on a drop but it came out easily enough in the end, basically by Sean walking across the river and pulling it out, despite Andy’s efforts at climbing the steep hill on the far side to set up complicated rope systems. T’was a fun day on the river none the less. The next day we joined Alan and the other Irish in having a lazy Sunday at the campsite.

On Monday we decided to move on, so drove down to the Waiho River, which flows directly out of the Fox Glacier. It was very very very cold and at the level it was at it was flowing really quickly down a channel with nearly no eddies along its entire length, complete with actual huge lumps of ice floating downstream! Just to make it more difficult the water is all grey too so stoppers are quite hard to see. Aisling and I both skirted one hole and then went straight into another one at one stage. The cold water got to us and it seems we both lost the ability to roll and swam. It turns out that the river was also quite shallow too so I banged my knee trying to get to the bank! My advice is as follows:

1: Don’t get on glacier rivers – they’re freezing!

2: If you are silly enough to get on, don’t capsize.

3: If you do capsize keep trying to roll up all the way down the river if you have to!

The next day we carried on down to Wanaka. On the way we stopped to ogle the Gates of Haast and the Blue Pools, both pretty crowded with tourists – so much for the south island feeling remote! We found a campsite with a swimming pool and slides, so livened the place up a bit with our shrieks when playing there before going to bed and again first thing in the morning! We finally dragged ourselves away from them and set off to Queenstown, stopping to paddle the Roaring Meg section of the Kawarau River along the way. It was fun, loads of whirlpools and boils all the way down. A company in Queenstown runs river sledging trips on that section of the river too and a group overtook us just above the main drop. It was funny to watch them just floating down through the middle of the hole, most without a clue what they were doing.

We followed that up by a day wandering around Queenstown. Queenstown is hailed as a party town and fantastic location for all outdoor activities. It's also known as beng very expensive - probably because all the outdoor activities are quite costly (which we avoided). We decided to give the party town a test run and got ourselves dolled up on Friday night. The pubs were busy but we found them and the town in general very lacking in atmosphere that night. The streets were nearly empty. So, to sum up Queenstown - lots of outdoor shops and plenty of people around during the day, lots to spend your money on, but not much going on.

The Karawau River just out the road from Queenstown is quite another matter though! I’ve already told you about the Roaring Meg Section, but there’s plenty more, including the Dog Leg Section, going underneath a bungy jump in one place, which the lads did before our big night out. I was taking a break from all this strenuous paddling (?) and decided to cycle the shuttle instead. At this stage there were 8 of us travelling around together, 6 Irish: Sean and I, Alan and three other outdoor instructors, Aisling, John and Liz, together with John from Alaska and another John from Sweden. As there were so many Johns they became known as JP, Alaska and Swede respectively. So, when they finished the Dog Leg section Swede and Alaska were going to carry on downstream to run the Nevis Bluff section, quite a gnarly bit of water. We busily set up rescue in various places, holding token ropes and paddles along with our cameras that were the only thing we were going to use in reality. Both boys made it through fine though showing us how it should be done, and both feeling quite happy before our big night out!

On the other side of Queenstown is the Shotover Gorge, a river that has a bungy jump and canyon swing on it and is rafted and jet boated! Despite all this activity the dirt road down to the get on is dreadful and rental cars are prohibited from going on it! So eventually we got down to the put in and were surrounded by rafters arriving by bus, mountain bike and helicopter. I kindly did the shuttle again and rattled my way back up to the main road. To collect the other cars Sean and Swede mountain biked down the dirt road, taking 21 minutes to bike down (Sean says he would have been much faster if he didn’t have to wait for the Swede, Swede says it was terrifying) and 22 minutes to drive back up again. It might be a good river but I don’t think we’ll be taking the van back down that road again!