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Day 6 Feb 1
Glenorchy to Te Anau
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This morning I nearly made it to Paradise – but not quite. More of this
later. The heavy overnight rain had eased to light drizzle but the mountains
which looked so good from outside the motel last night had completely vanished.
I had a bacon sandwich, checked out of the motel and thought about exercise.
Another couple staying at the motel suggested that I try the Glenorchy
Walk, which took an hour and included a boardwalk through an area of marshland
which was full of birds.
I followed the signs onto a path along the edge of the lake, then through
the trees and into a meadow full of long wet grass. At this stage, however,
something obviously went wrong as I ended up on the golf course. As I was
already quite wet, I gave up the quest and walked back through the village.
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Glenorchy
Walkway
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Glenorchy
golf course
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Like many small towns, Glenorchy has a fine war memorial, testament to
the huge losses incurred, mainly in WW1. I think they were the highest
per capita of any of the combatants.
I also stopped to take a photo of the house with the grass roof. I had
done a couple of kilometres so the effort wasn’t quite in vain.
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Grass roofed house,
Glenorchy
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Once in the car, I followed the signs for Paradise, the settlement at the
end of the road, where quite a lot of Lord of the Rings was filmed. The
road started with a nice sealed surface which eventually changed to gravel
and then entered into an area of forest. About 4 kilometres before Paradise
I came upon a ford in my Ford. As there had been a lot of rain over night,
as the rocks on either side of the ford looked a bit rough and as I didn’t
have anyone to push if I hit problems, I chose discretion over the other
thing and returned to Glenorchy and then Queenstown.
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The Earnslaw, Lake
Wakatipu, Queenstown
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Knowing that the Otago Wine & Food Festival was on in the Gardens, I cruised
along the crowded streets until I found an empty parking metre. I put 50c
in the metre and it hung there in the slot in spite of my best efforts
to shake it free. Pressing the refund button only gave me 10c, which I
didn’t think was good value. Seething with the injustice of it all, I made
quick visits to the loo and the Bank, trusting to luck that the car wouldn’t
get towed while I was away. As I could find no evidence of the Festival,
I drove up to the Information Centre, found another illegal park and dashed
in to seek directions. They confirmed that it was where I thought it was,
so I found another meter. I had just started inserting more cash when I
realised that the maximum parking period was 1 hour, nothing like enough
for a festival. I abandoned the idea and drove off, muttering lots of nasty
things about Queenstown as I left. It is quite unlike anywhere else in
New Zealand, far too many people, far too many buildings and far too expensive.
The peaceful atmosphere of the lake, the town’s original reason for existence,
has long since vanished and concrete and mammon rule.
Heading south along the side of the lake, the road travels along the edge
of a cliff until it eventually reaches the lake’s end at Kingston. Throughout
the trip the clouds had lingered over the lake, at a height considerably
lower than the surrounding mountains.
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Lake
Wakatipu
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Lake
Wakatipu from Kingston
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Kingston used to be a substantial settlement, being the terminal where
the railway from Invercargill joined with the ferry to transport goods
to and from Queenstown. Now all that remains are a few houses, a pub and
the railway station.
As I approached, I saw that the Kingston Flyer was there in all its glory
and it was stoked up and ready to go. I grabbed a toasted sandwich at the
buffet - it was entirely in keeping with the standards of sandwich long
associated with British Rail catering - and boarded the train.
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Kingston
Flyer
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Kingston
Station
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Kingston
Flyer
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Kingston
Flyer
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Kingston Flyer at
Fairlight
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Cars overtaking us
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It isn’t worth saying too much about the journey as, in all honesty, it
isn’t that exciting a route. The photos will describe everything much better.
It takes half an hour to cover 14 kilometres through a mixture of scrub
and pasture before reaching Fairlight. There, the engine was uncoupled
and moved through a triangular section of line in order to point it back
towards Kingston.
After half an hour we all re-boarded and trundled back to Kingston. At
various stages, cars on the main road obviously knew that I was aboard
and they kept pace with the train and waved at me. With all the photo stops
it was great fun and the carriages have been beautifully restored. It was
an afternoon very well spent.
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Beautifully restored
carriages
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From Kingston to Te Anau is a rather flat and boring road. I cruised along
at 100 kph and was regularly overtaken by other vehicles. There was still
some light drizzle falling when I arrived at the motel & completed the
formalities. I then walked into the town, across the park in the centre.
This used to be quite large but, in true New Zealand fashion, they have
built a large motel on part of it and are happily starting building a new
subdivision on some of the remainder. The town has grown since I was last
here - which isn’t really a surprise after nearly 8 years. There are many
more shops & cafes and I had a very good coffee in one of them. The rest
of the evening was occupied with the usual tasks of cooking, eating and
writing.
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