Day 13-14 The West Coast

Day 13 – Friday 20^th December

Along the West Coast

This won’t get posted today so you will find this posting with another day’s. Because we have been thwarted by the weather again. We left our lovely camp site and within the hour we were heading South down the West coast. Our plan was to hit the credit card hard and get a helicopter over the glaciers and Mount Cook including a snow landing. We booked at the tourist centre (i-site) along the way. We turned up and five minutes later it was all off due to low cloud.

See that glacier needs a good wash

So a rather despondent crew opted for the short but fairly up hill walk to the Fox Glacier which was nice – very scenic and not what we had hoped for L Then drove on to a township called Haast before tomorrow a turn in land over more mountain passes.

So back up plan? Sort of we hope to save a days driving by flying in and out of Milford Sound from Queenstown. We know the weather will be crap tomorrow but we are booked for Sunday when things look better.

Tomorrow then we had for Queenstown via Lake Wanaka. Then a first – two nights overnight at Queenstown meaning a day of no driving!

What I learned today:

• Glaciers are not as white as you imagine at their “snout” – to be honest it was very dirty snow.

Day 14 – Saturday 21^st December AM

The Longest Day

So it’s the longest day. Sorry shortest for most of you. Welcome to Haast twinned with Hotel California.  “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave” You see there are two ways to Haast – the way we came Arthur’s Pass – down the coast and to the South via the Haast Pass towards Queenstown – our next stop. I hope. Every night the pass has been closed while they work on a long standing issue with a

A googled photo of our Nemesis

land slip. Last night the heavens opened and it was monsoon season in Haast. After checking out of the camper site I went to refuel – something you do when you see a garage in these parts – they are rare. The nice lady there told me the road is closed. The detour is 15 hours back the way we came – sod that. Next update is 3pm. It’s mid-day and still raining. So we hope the road slip will be cleared and we get to escape this place. If not then goodness know what next.

PM – We Escape from Haast

I am now lying in my bunk in a rather nice camp site in Queenstown. We had a curry in town for tea – it was excellent. It was washed down with a couple of pints of Kingfisher. Tomorrow the weather forecast is good and we hope to take a scenic flight into the spectacular Milford Sound – which will save a long return drive of around 6 hours. So hopefully our fortunes have changed.

The man at the campsite at Haast let us return to our pitch so we had power and the slowest satellite internet connection in the World. We used this to check for road updates and the kids watched videos on the TV which had a USB port for my portable hard disc of movies and general entertainment. It could have been worse but not much. Haast really is the back of beyond – my friends from the Falklands describe these sorts of places as “camp”. I’ll settle for crap.

Very glad to have made it here - Queenstown

So when the web site of road bulletins simply stopped mentioning the closure at 2.15pm we were up that road in minutes. A fine and beautiful road it was too. The old saying about the best thing about Haast being the road out of there was very true. Some 60Km up the pass we were in a queue for about half an hour to pass the landslide. It didn't matter at all. We passed through when our turn came. I could have got out and shook the hands of the road crew but I shouted my thanks instead – we were over the pass. Out came the sun – ahead the lakes, some breathtaking scenery again and the night in Queenstown.

Good night all.