South of the South Island - less dramatic scenery

  Queenstown, New Zealand
Monday, March 10, 2008

Tuesday 4 March Te Anau - Monkey Island
Wake to overcast sky, and cloud down low on the mountains, so decide to get the hell out of Te Anau. Dry our washed clothes in the electric dryer, and head out about 10am. Get paper and money in town, and decide to head South, via the scenic route through Lake Manapouri, and down through Clifden. The sky starts to clear, get photos of mountains through the clouds,

02. Lake Manapouri and clouded mountains

turns out to be a nice day by the time we get to Manapouri, which looks a lot prettier than Te Anau. Stop at an interesting motor camp/antique vehicle museum for photos of old Morris Minors and home made campers,

01. Another home-made caravan for the collection

before carrying on to Pearl Harbour,

03. Pearl Harbour

on the river leading out of the lake, which is the HQ for cruises on Lake Manapouri, and connections to Doubtful Sound. Cheap special (half price) on an overnight cruise, which tempts us, but not really feeling up to it, and weather is still not that good, so carry on south.
   Just past the dam which controls the level of Manapouri, and diverts the waters of the Mararoa River into the dam, we do a walk on the Rakatu wetlands which are being established to counter the effect of hydro water usage. Not all that interesting, only bird life the Paradise shelducks

04. Pair of Paradise shelducks

we see in pairs everywhere. They are a large goose-like duck endemic to New Zealand. They are are prized game birds. Both the male and female have striking plumage, the male has a black head and barred black body, the female a white head with a chestnut body. They usually live as pairs, grazing on grass and weeds, and will raid crops, particularly when molting. They form long-term pair bonds, often lasting for life.
   Take a  12 km gravel detour into Monowai Lake, through some pretty farm and forest land. It is a long hydro lake, only accessible at the dam, unless you do a long walk. Workmen at the dam are installing a solar panel. It is so far south here, the panels are almost vertical.
   Next stop is lunch at the historic Clifden Suspension Bridge

05. Clifden suspension bridge

which was built in 1899.  Walk across, take photos of the bridge, local limestone formations, and the Waiau River which is an unusual muddy yellow-green colour. Look at the substantial underground stream which emerges from the limestone bank not far from the bridge foundations.
   Shortly after, turn off the main road to do 32 km of mostly gravel road to Lake Hauroko, reputed to be the deepest lake in NZ, with spectacular mountains and gorges,

06. Lake Hauroka

but they are certainly not at this end. Big boat ramp, park and jetty facilities, obviously a fisherman's lake.
   Descend the Waiau River valley all the way to Tuatapere, with excellent farming country in the valley bottom, forests on the hills and mountains.

07. Waiau River Valley

The town is historic, has quaint old buildings, but looks a bit depressed. Decide against taking the road along the beach as far west as roads go, as the beach is wide and flat, and the water discoloured by the river discharge. Head East, with the road following the shoreline, with improving water colour and shoreline. Following the Riverton Heritage trail at times. The landscape is pretty windblown. Try to get definitive pictures of wind tortured stands of macrocarpa trees.

09. Windblown trees out of Orepuke

Drive around Orepuke a couple of times working out why it is historic, as distinct from just decrepit. Can see an interesting headland further east, so take the turn to Monkey Island to get to it.
   Monkey island is at the end of a long, sandy beach, just off shore, accessible at low tide. There is a day picnic area, and a separate free camping area, just behind the beach, with half a dozen vans. It's only 4pm, and we had intended to push on a bit further, but it's such a lovely spot we decide to stop early. Try a couple of places - move from the first when we realise the large van has a generator.   Walk along the beach, leap over the creek in our sandals and socks (a necessary precaution against the ever-present sandflies), climb the steps of Monkey Island and take photos

10. Monkey Island

11. Beach near Monkey Island

of  the beach, the rocky headland out past the island, and the boulder field out from the island. There are backpackers out on the rocks collecting some sort of shellfish. DP has a look, as there is a notice on the shore with massive fines for taking some sort of large pippy. Looks like they are after mussels, or paua (abalone).
   Walk along the rocky shore, which has excellent rounded bouncing rocks, then back to the van. DP goes to the beach with her 5 pm Gin and Coke, MP stays at the van. Our neighbour invites him for a beer, so he takes his G &C, sits and talks about rugby, fishing, and the state of the world. DP turns up, and Mrs Neighbour comes out of the kitchen for a while. They have done 3 years of caravan in Oz, have been on the road for quite a while here.
   We leave when their meal is ready, and back to the beach for a while. Take sunset photos then cook another soup meal, and off to bed. Rain in the night, and a fair bit of wind.
   Wednesday 5  March - Monkey Island - Purakaunui Bay
   Raining, blowing and pretty unpleasant in the morning. Take a contrast photo,

12. Beach not as pleasant in the morning

and head out along the coast to Cosy Nook, a snug little boat harbour on a wild coast

13. Cosy Nook

- could be Ireland, or Newfoundland. Take photos of fishermen's cottages, coastline. Like the look of the camping here too. Follow some pretty confusing Riverton Heritage Trail signs off the main road along the beaches, look at wide grey beach at Colac Bay, which has uninviting water, and a small surf.
   Get off the main road at Riverton, take photos of the fishing harbour, river entrance, and some colourful historic buildings, but don't feel the need to hang around.
   Invercargill is a big disappointment to MP. Expecting a "port at the end of the world", perched on cliffs looking at the south pole, find a large, modern town, on a dead-flat plain, miles from the sea. Drive through looking for the library, which we find, but also find parking meters everywhere, so decide to carry on through to Bluff, sort it out on the way back.
   Bluff is looking more like the port at the end of the world. Drive right through the old town, out to the point, as far south as you can drive. Weather not too bad, photo of Stewart Island, as close as we need to go. Take photos beside the sign tree with distances.

14. Murray & JUCY at Southern-most point of Bluff

Only halfway to the pole, but feels closer. Drive to the port, see signs for fresh Bluff Oysters, but shop closed, settle for two cooked ones for $5. Not too big, but pretty tasty.

15. Bluff

Drive up to the lookout for views all around, and across the water to the Aluminium smelter.

16. Bluff from lookout

The lookout isn't badly done, but it is blowing hard, and a lot of the information panels had been smashed by dickheads.
   Drive back into Invercargill, get 120 minute free parking, and walk to library, DP to internet, MP to the local electrical AND technology store for a very expensive($60) one gig memory card. DP doesn't have a lot of success with the library's computer system, so back to the van, and look for where DP might have stayed in 1971, when she spent two weeks living in looking after two young children. Find an exotic Basilica, Queen's Park, but no familiar streets. Have trouble finding a road sign to anywhere outside Invercargill, but get petrol, bread and advice, and head for Fortrose, and The Catlins,  a region known for its isolated forests and wildlife-filled bays.
   The land around is fairly flat farming country, a little more scruffy than we are used to, but it is relatively close to the salt water.

17. What New Zealand is famous for - sheep

See a lot of wetlands, and a lot of small, rough shacks. Work out that the shacks are near, or on the wetlands, hence probably for hunting, but unable to confirm.
   Glad we filled with petrol in Invercargill, as Fortrose is just a speck on the map. Some hint of petrol pumps, but nothing obvious. Look for the shipwreck in the bay without luck, tide too high, and head onwards to Waipapa Point turnoff. Several km of gravel to the historic wooden lighthouse under repair, and good views of rocks, bays and rough seas.

18. Waipapai Pt, South Coast

   Take another gravel road detour  to Slope Point,

19. Wind-tortured trees, Slope Point

20. Slope Point - South Pole closer than Equator!

21. Slope Point

the most southerly point of the mainland. Have a 20-minute walk through sheep paddocks to a laser type lighthouse and marker tree with distances to various landmarks.

22. More wind-tortured trees near Slope Point

    Next stop planned is Curio Bay but we first look at the adjacent Porpoise Bay camper park, as it is getting to that time of day. Have a look at the two Hector's Dolphins in the long curved bay,

23. Porpoise Bay beach

admire the camper bays tucked into long, spiky clumps of vegetation, but decide to move on, fortified with some surprisingly good "Cruiser" meat pies.
   Curio Bay, which reads well, looks good, with a wide, flat sandstone shelf in the inter-tide zone, and massive banks of kelp on the outlying rocks. However, the world-class forest of petrified wood was difficult to identify, even standing on it. Some long trunks were obvious, but pretty ordinary.

24. Petrified tree trunk - Curio Bay

More special was the long channel through the rock shelf all the way to a small beach, which was so full of massive kelp fronds the waves coming through looked like waves of kelp.
   Waikawa town was missed because we blinked, but the 10-minute walk to Wilkie Lake, a perched lake in the sand dunes, was interesting.
   Looked at the campsite at Tautuku Beach, a steep drop down from the main road. Quite nice, but no toilets, and MP wasn't too confident, as spent the day finishing off our dried fruit supplies.
   Stop at a good lookout at Florence Hill, where we note campervans on the prowl for good free camping. Later stop at a nice park at Papatowai, on the mouth of the Tahakopa River. Toilets, and signs about no camping, but no mention of campervans, so tempted, but push on. Others look like they could be setting up for the night.
    Having missed a few falls, do another gravel detour to Purakaunui Falls, where we find an excellent set of tiered falls, not far off the road in good rainforest. Read our DOC pamphlet, and find we are quite near a campsite at Purakaunui Bay. The parking area at the falls has a toilet, and no signs forbidding camping, but decide to try to find the campsite. Drive a few kms onward, don't find Long Point Rd, so backtrack all the way to the highway. Reinterpret the directions, as they are for coming from the north, find our turnoff a few hundred metres north of where we turned back. It is still a long drive, in a good but narrow gravel road to the campsite, on a beautiful small bay, with a high limestone headland to the north, lower rocky headland to the south, and a small river running in at the centre. 
   We select a sheltered campsite at the south end, beside some dense bush and a small creek, but a long way from the toilets.
   Take a walk south along the beach, past a half-concealed beach house, which looked habitable, but unoccupied. Take more photos of kelp off the rocks,

25. Kelp beds - Purakaunui Bay

and the general scene, then back to the van for a light salad meal, to compensate for the afternoon pies. Very cold at night (newspapers say between 2 and 4 degrees C!), but not raining. When we started in the North nearly a month ago, the supplied doona was too hot - this night we were using the doona, PLUS our -10 down sleeping bag.
   Thursday 6 March Purakaunui Bay - Queenstown.

26. Early morning - Purakaunui Bay

Carry on along the coast on minor roads, looking for Jack's Blowhole, 200 metres from the sea, but direction too obscure, so head for small village of Owaka, then north on a minor road towards Clinton, through the Catlins range of hills, some covered in remnant lowland rainforest, others quite bare, almost an altiplano look about them.

27. The Catlins - farming landscape

Take more photos of NZ farming land, head for Mataura, rather than Clinton to avoid a road already travelled. Find Mataura looking pretty depressed on one side of the river, with a large abandoned factory, but quite viable on the other side of the river, which has a gorge and waterfalls in an area between two big factories, with no public access. The road from here to Gore is dead flat and straight, with a couple of kms of 4-lanes for no apparent reason.
   Retrace our route from Gore to Lumsden through farming country, then head North towards Queenstown and high mountains, in beautiful weather.
   Stop at Fairlight to see what the Kingston Flyer is. A historic steam train which used to run from Gore to Kingston, now from here 14 km to Kingston. No train present, so head to Kingston, at the foot of Lake Wakatipu. The steam train is at the station, ready to set off, so get some good photos of the train,

28. The Kingston Flyer, Kingston

station, and vintage cars. Look at the waterfront,

29. Lake Wakatipu Beach, Kingston

photo of the historic school building, then on the road again, only to get the petrol warning light, 50 metres past a servo.
   The lake looks pretty flash

30. Western shore of Lake Wakatipu

31. Lake Wakatipu-looking North towards Queenstown

32. Lake Wakatipu - Western shore

as we come into Queenstown, but the town has grown into a bit of a monster, halfway between Noosa and Airlie Beach. Development right up the hills, flash shops and restaurants, First class hotels, crummy motels and backpackers.
   Cruise the town trying to sort it out. Find the Lakeview Caravan Park, and book in, getting a gate pass, and a spot right next to some noisy looking campers about 4pm.

33. Queenstown -our car has a friend

34. Close-up of JUCY's "kitchen"

Later try to change to a spot further away, but too late. The camp is one large paddock, with campers in straight rows, cheek to jowl - it looks like it holds more than 300 campervans!
   Down steep streets and steps into town through the bar area. Looking for accommodation for two nights after we give the van back. Check out the city YHA, then try the one further out along the lake, but full. On the way back, check the backpacker attached to the Lakeside Motel. Pretty crummy at $69, but has a room for the 9th and 10th, so take the number and back into the City YHA, which is full. Book Lakeside by phone, then walk around the town and waterfront, in glorious afternoon sunshine.

35. Queenstown Bay and waterfront area

36. Water landing of paraglider - Queenstown Bay

Run into a memorial paragliding contest, with paragliders taking off up the hill somewhere behind the top of the gondola lift, some landing in a park in town, some on the beach, some in the water. Others ended up tangled in trees and lamp-posts on the waterfront. One was injured, and attended by paramedics, but hardly acknowledged by the commentator on the PA system, who was promoting an upcoming competition.
   Identified the restaurant at which DP had her one and only waitressing experience, now a chocolate shop, and photographed St Peter's Anglican church and hall, where DP may have slept. Back in 1971 there were about three restaurants in town, and no backpackers or YHA, whereas now there are literally dozens of both. Backpackers slept on the beach, until the local Minister opened the Church hall, where you slept on the hard, board floor.  It was even harder after doing 11 hours of waitressing when you weren't used to physical work!
Walk along the beach to Queenstown Gardens,

37. Lily pond, Queenstown Gardens

38. Queenstown Bay, Gardens,Remarkables background

the park on the point opposite town, then back into town to the Alpine Supermarket, and up to the camp for a late 5pm drink, and a very large can of baked beans. Dollar showers are pretty good, and have a relatively quiet night, but cold.
      Friday 7 March Queenstown - Moke Lake
   Just make the 10am checkout, as weather is overcast and dismal, and not conducive to activity.  Want to check out the start of the Routeburn track, which Dianne did in 1971, so head out on the road along the lake towards Glenorchy. Blowing hard from the north end of the lake - not nearly as idyllic as yesterday, but get some good views and photos from the road, which is often on the side of steep slopes into the lake.
   Just short of Pigeon and Pig islands, we drive down to a point where we find some power boats, buses and a lot of children sitting in rows on the shore. Looks to MP like an outing aborted because of the strong wind.

39. Lake Wakatipu-looking towards Glenorchy

40. Wind blowing dust around Dart River and lake

There is a cloud of dust blowing off the sandy sections of the braided Dart River, which runs into the end of the lake at Glenorchy. Looks like a bit of an outpost, with a range of tours, horse and 4-wheeler riding, and guided walks. There is good farming land around it, and some pretty forbidding-looking mountains at the end of the valley.
   We continue on the road to the start of the Routeburn Track, tar, then gravel, then good smooth bush roads to the track terminus. This is a very flash, bullet-proof concrete and glass visitor centre where there was just the suspension bridge and the end of the road in 1971. We decide to take a short walk to see if it jogs DP's memory, but doesn't ring too many bells. Decide to keep going to the second bridge, and then a bit further. On the way, talk to a guide who says the whole first section has changed because of a persistent land slip. Says we will get good views if we walk a bit further. Walk halfway to the first hut without seeing much, so turn back. The path and forest is quite pretty, but not a lot of distant views.

41. Mountains around the Routeburn Track

On the way back, take the nature walk, same time to the carpark, but a lot more up-and-down. This was probably the track DP took in 71.
    Salad lunch and drive to the river at the end of the road, then back towards Glenorchy, past some very strange hummocks, to the Paradise turnoff, but decide a few kms of Paradise is enough, and return to Glenorchy and back down the lake.
   DP has located a possible campsite from the DOC booklet, as the one on the main lake we saw in the morning was pretty ordinary. 6km out of Queenstown, we take Moke Lake Road up the steep side of the main lake for about 4 km, then enter private property, go for another 3km on gravel including a very narrow cutting around what has to be Moke Lake. Find a large, sloping grass paddock with large clumps of gorse, with tracks to grassy parking areas concealed in the clumps.

42. Moke Lake

43. Our camping spot at Moke Lake

There are two toilets, and about 8 vehicles. Try a couple of spots before getting a level spot with lake views and some shelter from the wind, which has dropped to a light, but cold breeze. We don't register as a note says there are thieves about - do it in the morning.
   Go for a short walk, but get involved in a conversation with a Welsh couple travelling with a car and a tent. They are doing roughly what we are, have been in Oz doing similar. Later, go for a longer walk around the end of the lake, across the creek, and up to a high point on the lake circuit track for photos. There are a couple of farms in the area, otherwise it is remarkably deserted, considering how close we are to Queenstown. Some pretty noisy local campers set up near us, and we get some more late arrivals, but have a cold, but quiet night, with some rain (as usual).
   Saturday 8 March Moke Lake - Queenstown
   Very cold morning. On the road without breakfast.

44. Lake Wakatipu is nicer today!

45. The Earnslaw on Lake Wakatipu

Have a look around the residential areas outside town, then head through to the Shotover River, stopping en route to try the undercover car park at the Fresh Choice Supermarket (just in case we have to unpack the car when it is raining - a real possibility), and get some supplies. Park in the Shotover Jetboat parking area to breakfast.

46. The Shotover jet boat

47. The Shotover River

Have a look around their setup, then back across the river and up Oxenbridge Tunnel Road. The road leads along the river, then down to the sandy river flats, where we park and walk up to  where DP thinks she walked through the tunnel to jump in to the rapids and river-surf among the rocks in 71.
   The river has changed a fair bit, and there is now two feet of water rushing through the tunnel. You can still see right through the arch, but there is no way you could walk it. There is a new, steep walking track to the head of the tunnel, and we can look down from here to the river, which looks pretty rocky. Figure there have been rockslips and floods since, causing the river to back up and flow through the tunnel.
   MP climbs around the rocks to the downstream end of the tunnel, and there are some plastic covered wire ropes strung from the rocks for some sporting purpose, but long disused.
   On the beach there are several landrovers with Nomads, and Lord of the Rings decals. Turns out to be a commercial tour group specialising in Ring locations. One of the guides says the river might have changed.
   From here we drive up the Coronet Peak road, past the Skipper's Canyon road forbidden to hire vehicles, to the construction carpark, below the ski tows. There is major snowmaking construction going on, but we are high enough to get good view and photos of the whole area,

48. Queenstown viewed from Coronet Peak

49. Further views from Coronet Peak

Queenstown in the west, Arrowtown in the east. Too cold and windy to hang around, so down the hill and off to Arrowtown, where the town is full of visitors and cars. Drive around a while before finding a parking place. There is a fun run and mountainbike race on, with a fair set up in the park, food stalls, sweaty finishers lying or hobbling around, with late finishers (more than 5 hours) still being named and famed by the race commentator. Walk the quaint but very tourist-trap town,

50. Arrowtown

 look at the small river, then head for the bridge over the Kawarau gorge where the current popular bungee jump is. On the way, see a procession of cars winding down a zig-zag road. See it is only the high road to Wanaka via Cardrona. Feel we need to at least go far enough up it for a good view. There are road works on the steep zig-zag, figure this is what is holding up traffic, but it is only the abominable slow man, spooked by the switchbacks and witches hats.
   At the top, turn around and stop at a major lookout. It is still blowing strongly. Take a few photos with the window down, and get the van, which we are trying to clean, full of dust.
Back down to the Kawarau River bungee jump.

51. Kawarau River near the Bungy jump

Look at the ambitious visitor centre, and wait for a hero to take the drop,  walk the bridge, then leave. Must be one of the quickest way to spend $150.
    Decide we will look for an early bed, but not the Lakeview Caravan Park which is a bit like an used-car lot. Take the road to the airport and the Caravan park at the Kawarau Falls, recommended in the book. Proves hard to find. Find a run-down camp in Frankton, drive all the way out to the Remarkables, then out the point to Kelvin Heights. Find a Lakelands Christian Motorcamp, don't think it is for us. Go all the way out to the Golf club on the point, which has lake views to the west, and very pretty bay views to the east.
   Back in town, miss out on the last spot at the very cosy Creeksyde Camp, so back to find plenty of room at our former home, Lakeview.
   More soup for tea. Start cleanup programme, as we give car back tomorrow, after living in it for 24 days. Night disturbed by angry, dangerous sounding shouting and cursing further along the camp. Someone had definitely lost the plot.
   Sunday 9th March Queenstown.
   Major cleanup at the motorcamp, till have to leave at 10am. Drive down to the lake to a park for further cleanup before dropping our gear early at the backpackers and dropping off the vehicle at Jucy's airport depot. None of the instructions made sense, but being Jucy, with its lime green, it was easily spotted, and we were able to drop off without incident. Couldn't, however, get a lift into town, just to the bus stop. $9 to get back to town. We've been really happy with the car.  We travelled 4418 kms, with a hire charge of A$1606, and a petrol cost of NZ$882.
Spend a lazy afternoon on the trampoline bed (that's what you get for only $69 - share bathroom too) in our room, reading. Out later for walk and dinner.  Happen upon a Thai restaurant, reasonably flash, food and drinks $50.
   Back at the room, stand our saggy bedframe against the wall, and sleep on the mattress -still a lot of trampoline in the mattress. Only a fair night's sleep, usual backpacker noises in the night and morning.
   Monday 10th March Queenstown.
   Today we're going to be tourists, in this tourist town. Were going to book the Shotover jet boat, but Dianne reads that for the same price you can do the jetboat at Skipper's Canyon, which includes transport on the 4WD road in, as well as the jetboat ride (NZ$95 each). Book for 3.30pm (the only time left), then walk up town to find the Gondola lift to Bob's Peak. Can see it, but takes some walking to get to the base. Take the return ticket on advice ($21 each). Get a gondola to ourselves, as business is pretty quiet. A long ride up, pretty steep, get good views down, but obscured at the side by tall pine trees. Great views from the top. Walk around the deck taking photos,

52. Queenstown from cablecar

then take the loop track up to the luge track, then further up, fairly steep. Take a short, steep detour along the Ben Lomond track through dense pine forest with nothing growing underneath except orange mushrooms. Take photos of Ben Lomond, and the track, then back to the loop, which has its own viewpoint, then up past the water supply to a sign to the takeoff point for the paragliders. MP insists on having a look, so take a very steep track a so-called 10 minutes to the top, the last half on the motorbike track, behind a flier with an immense pack on his back- the glider.

53. Paraglider taking off

  While we take it easy on the grass, he lays out his paraglider. Takes a long while, doesn't look all that keen. Meanwhile, a 6-wheeler with a trailer full of commercial gliders arrives. They set up quickly, and with a slight breeze from the east filling the chute, run downhill, and take off.
   The single bloke has a couple of goes, but is upset by stray gusts near the corner, and aborts. A later arriving tandem team also has the same problem. as the breeze is dying and swinging to the west. Eventually, everyone departs, and we take the track back down, MP on the walking track, DP on the steep, shorter motorbike track.
   Stop a while to watch the luges. They have two winding concrete tracks down the hill to just above the gondola station, with their own chair lift for returning the luges and the patrons. The luges are small poly tubs, two small wheels at the back, one at the front with handlebars. As well as turning, the handle bars also can be pushed forward to lower the body to allow contact of two brake blocks in the front with the track. Most drivers are taking it pretty steady.
   Have a good tempura fish and chips at the restaurant, with a window seat, then back to the backpackers for a rest before our jet boat experience.
    The bus which picked us up was a Toyota Coaster 4WD bus, so we figured we were taking the rough road. The driver was a typical Kiwi with a dry sense of humour. Got front seats, good for photography, and talking to the driver, but pretty scary on some of the steeper sections.
   The road is a historic one, used for access to the gold mining area of Skippers Canyon, cut into very soft schist rock, which weathers quickly. The road is almost as bad as the Fairy Meadow road in Pakistan, our previous scariest, but is, at least, cut into the rock, rather than stuck onto the side of it. Big signs on the road about the danger, and that hire cars aren't insured here, but still a surprising amount of traffic, including an elderly couple in a small, grey car we met at a fortuitous wide spot.
   Looking over the side, you can see a track down the bottom of the valley used by mountain bikes. We have seen vans around with bikes and "Gravity Action" signs. This is one of the places they operate. 

54. Skipper's Canyon Road and Shotover River

55. Our jetboat on Shotover River

When we reach the river, the road heads upstream, cut into cliff over the river, quite spectacular.
   The jet boats operate from a tractor towed shed at the river side, with a jetty and guides to locate the boat for loading while the engine is holding the boat against the current.
   We get a seat in the back of the second boat, thinking it is the same as the first, which was high in the stern, but not so. However, get a pretty good look out the front when it is up and planing. All get life jackets, for real, as we are made to tighten them up fully.
  The ride was longer than expected, about 8kms up through canyons, across gravel beds, and through fast running channels. The boat was a lot faster than it needed to be to handle the current, but gave plenty of thrills, no spills. Apparently only the Shotover jets have the hull shape to do full 360 degree turns and keep going, but this was still pretty impressive in the turns. The driver gave a hand signal before each spin to make sure everyone was holding on, but one hand was enough.
   MP took lots of photos, with the camera held aloft. Some actually showed more than the driver's head.

56. Both jetboats on Shotover River

57. We went up this narrow passage!

We stop opposite an old steel dredge, stranded on the bank. Brought in in pieces, assembled on the river, didn't get a chance to operate before a flood came through and wrecked it. There are also remnants of a sheet piling diversion, and channels cut in the canyon walls for carrying water and sand slurry, to act as a gold separator. Where the canyon walls were not suitable for channelling, the channel was continued in prefabricated pressed steel tank sections. These are now scattered down the river. This scheme was also taken out by floods. Recently, a modern mini-dredge has taken out $24 million in gold.
   We pass under a couple of bridges, one of which was used for Bungee jumping, before becoming redundant when a better, more convenient one was built.  After the boat ride, we continue up the canyon in the bus to this bridge, which also carries a pipeline. The family which owns our jet boats also owns the property with the bridge, and ran the bungee for 6 years before selling it to some mugs. Get some good photos off the bridge, see old water races around the hills on the far side.

58. Another view of Skipper's Canyon road

  
   The ride back was less scary, must be used to it.   Have tea in town at a food court, and a quiet night packing and diarising.
   Tuesday 11th March Queenstown - 
Wake up to pretty crook weather, raining and blowing hard from the west.

59. 8.15am on last day - weather is not good

60. 8.15am on last day -Lake Wakatipu is not nice

Looks like it will continue, so MP opts for calling a shuttle, rather than walk up to the bus in the rain. Call one for 10 o'clock, breakfast on the rough end of our supplies, take the excess upstairs to the free food shelf, and down to wait for the shuttle.
   Claim our key deposit, talk to the desk girl, who tells us Qantas sometimes cancels in bad weather, as they don't have GPS aids at Queenstown, which doesn't make us happy.Load our gear into the trailer of the shuttle when it turns up. The wind has eased off completely, but it is still threatening rain in the west. The trailer is a problem when the shuttle has to back out into the traffic, but no accidents. Pick up a group of 3 at another motel, which is good, because it confirms we are a shuttle, and not an individual booking.
   Have to wait a while at the airport for the check-in to be manned, then are given a typed sheet on check in to say there is a risk of the flight being cancelled. On the arrivals and departures board, we note that there has already been one flight cancelled. The weather changes continually, from clear to clouded in, to rain, then back to some sun, so we are on tenterhooks until the arrival of the incoming flight is put up on the board.

61. 12.20pm last day - is visual landing possible

Pleased to see it land in a cloud of spray. This is an internal flight, but security is tight, possibly because of the hijacking attempt at Blenheim last month.
   On the plane, sit next to a well preserved 70 year old, with 40ish children. He is extremely well off, ex British army, dairy farmer, landlord, but is having trouble getting into a spending state of mind, after saving all his life. Chat all the way to Auckland. Meal on the plane is a choice of an apple, or a blueberry muffin. The muffin wasn't bad, but an unusual choice.
   At Auckland airport, make sure our bags have been transferred,then have a kilometre walk to the international terminal in sunshine and heat and humidity, which is quite a change after the South Island.
   Have a long wait (three and a half hours). Kill time with a local paper bought with our un-exchangeable change, plus an old Australian Daily Telegraph, our first Australian paper in a month.,
   Our plane is a 767, fairly new, but without individual screens. Meal of beef was pretty good, film "August Heat", pretty strange. Smooth flight. Arrive in a hot, sweaty Sydney early evening - goodbye winter, welcome Summer.
   Declare our food and hiking boots, no problems at customs, short wait for Adam and Lavinia to pick us up in the Subaru.
SUMMARY
We were very happy with the JUCY vehicle.  It was an extremely good compromise. We didn't have to worry about not finding accommodation, which is a problem in New Zealand in the high season.  It was also nice to know that you were going to have a COMFORTABLE bed every night. We're both 5'6", so it may not have been as comfortable for tall people.  If you were someone who liked everything in its place, you may also not have been as happy, as there wasn't a place for everything, particularly if you left the bed made up.  We had to continually move things from the back to the front when we went to bed, and move them back when we got up, however this was definitely less work than having to pitch a tent. The bigger vans were a lot more hassle to drive around, and with cars you still had the accommodation problem, plus it was not possible to stay at some of the most attractive sites, which were the Department of Conservation sites, which usually only had a toilet, and nothing else, unless you camped.
DOC campsites were between NZ$6 to NZ$14, and private campsites, with communal kitchens, loungerooms and hot showers were between NZ$25 to NZ$32, quite often paying NZ$1 to NZ$2 extra for each hot shower. The JUCY van enabled us to use these, which were much cheaper than the hotels, which ranged from about NZ$60 (for very poor quality) upwards.
The highlights for us were Mt Cook, Franz Josef Glacier,  the Milford Track walk and Milford Sound. Possibly Abel Tasman Park would have been included in that if we had had better weather.  The weather is so changeable that, if it is bad, it is possible to wait a day or so, and have it improve.  For this reason you really need to have some extra days built into your itinerary.
We had a month in the South Island, drove 4418 kms, and felt that we were rushing to see everything.
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip, despite quite a bit of rain, and saw some fantastic scenery, but there definitely wasn't the everyday excitement you get in a trip to a different culture, such as our last overseas trip, which was to Mali and West Africa.