Thursday, March 16, 2023

Routeburn, 2023, Part One

The Routeburn is one of New Zealand's "Great Walks," traversing the mountains from Milford Road on the west to near Glenorchy, at the top of Lake Wakatipu, on the east. It takes in parts of both Fiordlands and Mt. Aspiring national parks. We did the whole trek (NZ: "tramp") in 2009, and have done bits of it on each of our subsequent visits to New Zealand. Many times. (Just enter "Routeburn" in the search box for previous posts.) This year we wanted one more great walk, and the eastside hike to the Routeburn Flats hut, if long (30,000 steps for us) is at least gentle and extraordinarily scenic. We drove out to the trailhead the day before and overnighted there.

Very helpful wall-sized map of the region; on an outside wall of
the (now very upscale) General Store in Glenorchy 

Relevant detail

On the bridge over the river Dart, looking north into Mt. Aspiring NP;
AKA the River Isen...Isengard and Orthanc stood not far from here

And northwest

A bit of Mt. Earnslaw (?)

Behind the camper: where we're going

I love watching a sheep dog maneuvering a thousand sheep around
a field...

Our destination is the Flat (well) beneath the falls 

Gorgeous big glass wall with the area topo on it...10x30...

And away we go

Obligatory swing bridge photo

Part of the beauty of this area is the clarity of the
water...and it jade hues...the Greenstone Track is
nearby, the traditional Maori route to the jadeite
deposits...pounamu


We've done tons of NZ trails...this is the first explanation
of the three blazes we've seen...perhaps an indication of
heavy tourist use, but no less wonderful

Some of the Lothlorien scenes from LOTR were filmed near
these environs

Great potential hiding place for hobbits hoping to evade the Nazgul

Trees vs. rock, episode #1,429; tree always wins

Pretty rock, nonetheless

Green everything

Lower stretch of a waterfall a bridge passes over

Upper bit; it was signed "Bridalveil Falls"; Bridalveil
Falls #1,279


Wednesday, March 15, 2023

On To Queenstown

Having satisfied ourselves of so many things agricultural and pastoral, and retail, we drove on, very leisurely, to Queenstown, overnighting at the Crown Ridge overlook and then at the AJ Hackett bungy HQ on the Kawarau River. We spent a further night at the Lakeview holiday park in Queenstown, and then moved on to our final NZ adventure for this campaign, a day on the Routeburn track...next post.

South of Wanaka, as one ascends the Crown range,
is Cardrona, home of the famous bra fence, now known
as Bradrona; about which I have posted before...

Sunset through our windshield, at the Crown Ridge overlook...

Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown in the distance

AJ Hackett was the originator of bungy and related
crazy things, and his first site was the old Kawarau
bridge, now a certified NZ historic site; the bungy center
too is there and permits overnight parking by self-
contained campers; the center, about which I have
blogged before, seemed a shadow of its former self...
still recovering from COVID, I'd guess

Before checking in at the holiday park, we stopped in Frankton,
where most of Queenstown's growth of the past decade seems to 
have been...especially retail and new housing; in the distant past,
2009. it was little more than the intersection between the main
highway and the road to the airport; in the background are the
Remarkables, the mountain range that is Queenstown's famous
scenic backdrop

Next morning, after a night of moisture, from our campsite...
the Remarkables, like other mountains, are always better to
look at with a little snow


The alpenglow, a few nights later, isn't bad either


In old Queenstown, it's not unusual to hear voices above...the shrieks
and screams of passengers getting their money's worth of thrills aboard
the tandem parasails launched from the Skyline center


Saturday, March 11, 2023

Wanaka Agricultural And Pastoral Show, 2

Continuing our day of enlightenment and amusement at the Wanaka A&P...[not shown because we saw only one day's offerings...the Grand Parade, the Jack Russell races, the shearing contests, the running of the sheep, etc.]

More sculpture/ironmongery

Really nice outdoor grill set

Another street scene

Puffers for your pooch; so how can you properly 
fit Fido if you can't bring him to the fair?
But not this day, at this show...






Huge nice greenhouse

More scary farm apparatus

"A wandering minstrel, I..."

Watching little kids riding, practicing

Interesting tiny house, sort of...just 30k NZ$; portable; "accessory
dwelling" for your farm/ranch/station?

Watching a 10-year-old doing the jumps...she was good

Receiving her gold ribbon

Best in show...the single malt was cask-strength...
69%; and delicious

At a bank client hospitality tent--hey, we used one of
their ATMs--using a stock dosing gun to put ketchup on
Vicki's sausage sandwich (she's now worm-resistant, too)

Yet another winery/distillery...

Only a few RV exhibits, and mostly of the macho variety

Another kiddie area

We've seen (the tops of) these humongous things
growing in fields all over NZ--they're nearly
watermelon-size; in NZ they're called "Swedes,"
as in Swedish turnips or beets; actually a variety of
rutabaga, according to Google











Among our major take-aways from the show
Needed to be closer to the distillery exhibits

You can really get fleeced here

We leave you with this final, unforgettably disturbing scene, for
which you can supply your own caption