Skippers Canyon: The Bus Ride

We moved on to Queenstown, where we stayed at the Black Sheep ("Backpackers' Resort"), obviously inhibiting the much younger clientele there. We were in what I think must have been the bridal suite, since it had a double bed and a TV. Anyhow, we did an administrative day, a day walking around Q-town, and then a couple touristic days. The first of these was doing the jet boat ride on the Shotover, the upper Shotover, to be precise, Skippers Canyon. Staff at the Black Sheep recommended this, adding that the bus ride was no less exciting that the jet boat ride itself. They were right.

Less hearty souls stop here, just outside the Queenstown city limits, to take the
more popular Shotover Jet

Not us; we took the Skippers Canyon bus up and over the pass, 6-8 miles (it
seemed like more) of the worst, most exposed mountain road we have ever been on

Built during the 1860s gold rush, and not much changed since then

Thus, after the pass

Vicki demonstrates the "drop, cover, hold" procedure during the bus ride

Finally, the river again in view

Thus

And our jet boat, waiting for us

I foolishly figured the jet boat ride would take us down river, and we wouldn't
have to endure the ride back out of the canyon, over the pass, and so on; not so...

Ringwaifs

The Glenorchy area is rich in LOTR sites, and, although we've seen them all before, we had to see them again, especially as we are this time equipped with GPS, and we're a little surer of looking at the right things.

Orthanc here

Orthanc viewshed

Nice scenery even if not in LOTR

Ford en route to Lothlorien

Sort of like Lothlorien

Ditto; southern (Gondwana) beech trees; most of Fiordland is a beech climax (as
opposed to seral) forest

Moving on down the lake to a cove on the 12-mile something or other...

The cliff from which Frodo and Sam witness the ambush of the Men of Harad
(and their oliphants) by Captain Faramir's Rangers of Gondor

Where Sam and Smeagol discussed recipes for coney stew

On The Routeburn, Again, 2014

I guess we have spent more time on the Routeburn than on any of the other Great Walks: partly because our major traverse was in bad weather, and we keep going back to see what we missed. Anyhow, this day, out of Kinloch, we walked from the east-side portal up to the Flats Hut, a beautiful and not too demanding day-hike.

As I said, so many of the walks begin with a bridge...

Going along a river up a canyon...

More great pools and even beaches

Thus

Did I mention the waterfalls?

Mountains and glaciers?

We went only as far as the Flats Hut

Commons area

Dorm area; typically the huts will sleep a couple/three dozen
or more; reservations required...

Cooking area

There are four such huts on the Routeburn, all along typically
manicured Kiwi trails; well, the Routeburn gets a bit less
manicured at its higher elevations...

A beach

Purple Gondwanaland mushroom

And returning to the bridge

On The Greenstone Track

So after Wanaka we drove down through Queenstown and back up the elbow of Lake Wakatipa, through Glenorchy, and then beyond still to Kinloch, other side, where we spent three nights at the Kinloch Lodge. It is a nice base either for serious walking or merely for day hikes, as in our case. One walk we took was out on the Greenstone, not one of the "Great Walks," but pretty great nonetheless, we thought. "Greenstone" in that it was one of the Maori's routes to the greenstone, that is, the jade of the Fiordlands.

Kinloch Lodge

At the northern end of Lake Wakatipa

One of scores of beautiful pools on the Greenstone River

The Walks always seem to start with a bridge

The Caples, just before its confluence with the Greenstone;
clearest streams and rivers anywhere...

Along the Greenstone

Ditto

Ditto again

And again

Higher peaks around

Ditto

On the road back to Kinloch

Rob Roy Glacier, 2014

We did the Rob Roy Glacier tramp on a beautiful day, just as we did five years ago. Somehow, the trail seemed less demanding, but in 2009 we were carrying packs in preparation for our more substantial tramps on the Milford, the Routeburn, and the Kepler "Great Walks." I'd still rate the Rob Roy as one of the great day hikes.

As often happens, it starts with a bridge...

A river of glacial flour crashing down a deep, narrow canyon

Standard, beautifully manicured DOC trail; not a single piece of litter, nor a single
cigarette butt...

A favorite overhang

A favorite sign

Standard 1,000 foot New Zealand waterfall

A bit of Rob Roy Glacier

Detail; with a copter flying over

Subsidiary glaciers coming in at right angles

Even a panoramic view can hardly do it justice

Ditto

Us at Rob Roy