Makarora
Trip Start
Mar 10, 2007
1
119
188
Trip End
Jan 08, 2008
Makarora,
New Zealand
Thursday, October 4, 2007
We also made brief stops at Lake Matheson (a mirror lake, where, when the water is still you can see the surrounding scenery perfectly reflected in the water, the ducks had a good go at ruining it for us though) and Fox Galcier, which, although dirtier than Franz, was more accessible to non-hikers and so presented some good picture opportunites, and it was pleasant to walk up the valley in the sun. After this stop we motored on toward Makorora which was to be our stop for the night, climbing through the Haast Pass, visiting some spectacular waterfalls on short roadside breaks and taking in the breathtaking scenery on the first really sunny day that I have had since beginning my tour of the south island. Other stops en route included a really picturesque beach (thankfully devoid of sandflies due to a breeze) which had reams of bleached driftwood in the foreground and the countryside stretching away to some spectacular snow covered peaks.
Our only real major stop of the day was a walk out to the Blue Pools, eight kilometres from Makarora, which was a half hour return walk, and included a river crossing using a fairly bouncy suspension bridge that had a maximum safe load of five people. I thouroughly enjoyed making the bridge bounce as we crossed it, though the other girls did not find it so amusing. I do have quite a childish sense of humour sometimes...
The Blue Pools, are not so much pools as they are a wide and slow flowing stretch of river just before a confluence, they are however, intensely blue when viewed from above, and the colouring is a cold blue, very apline in aspect, though the whole quality fades if you move down to river level to look across at the water. I took a few shots of the pools from the shingle as well as above, before catching everyone else as they crossed the bridge. I had forgotten how much further along the track the bridge was however, so my little jaunt out onto the river floor meant that I was by far the last back to the bus, but we were not far from our destination, so it was not a problem.
We arrived into tiny Makarora in the late afternoon and declined the scenic flight over the mountains, though it would have allowed us to see the new lake forming along the Young river, created a week earlier by a massive rock fall, although it is not expected to last, as the volume of water now being stored behind the natural dam is immense. Warning monitors have been put in place so that people are awre if the dam bursts. Makarora was a fairly picturesque little place, situated in an alpine valley surrounded by snowcapped peaks, and was a lovely place to spend the night, though there was not much to do. I disappeared promptly when the karaoke started. I really dislike it. I had an early night instead.
