Aspiring to Wanaka and Beyond

Haast Village is a bit of an outpost, located along the Haast river where it meets the Tasman Sea. It is here that I  started pedaling the Haast Pass, after a decent cappuccino. Haast is two thirds of the way down the west coast of the south island of New Zealand,  where Route 6 turns inland and follows the river up over the pass and through the Aspiring National Forest, across the Southern Alps. 

Haast is actually three separate tiny communities; Haast Junction, Haast Township and Haast Beach. Together, they claim to be the gateway the spectacular scenery in the area 
http://newzealandnz.co.nz/destinations/haast.html. 
Given that there is nothing between Haast and the Aspiring Park or the National Heritage Area to the north, I guess this is technically true.  

The first 30 miles east from Haast along is a pleasant and scenic bike ride with many views points and an easy gradient, ascending 400 ft over that distance.  There is a rest-stop at mile 32, complete with sand flies and a bathroom. We ate sandwiches out in the middle of the parking lot, where the sand flies were least abundant.  Then headed up the pass.

Just after the rest-stop, crossing over a bridge, there were incredibly loud sounds coming from the river, like someone with an excavator bowling with the river boulders.  I got off the bike, searched out a break in the brush and looked down to see just that.  An excavator in the river, moving around boulders, doing what the Kiwis call 'River Maintenance". 

The steep part of the climb began a ways after that bridge and that's where I joined the Haast Pass walkers club. As it was, a section of the road had slid away, right in the middle of the steepest section (18%), and there was road construction, with one way traffic controls, so I 'had' to walk!

After the summit, comes an exhilarating downhill for a several miles, and the scenery goes from the beautiful to the sublime, as the road descends from the lush rain forest of the west, to the lovely but arid shore of Lake Wanaka, then over a small climb to Lake Hawea.  The blue of the lakes is a hue that I can only describe as magical. The scenery eased the tiredness brought on by 77 miles of cycling. Full disclosure, I did SAG the last few miles into Wanaka.

Wanaka

Wanaka is delightful little tourist town, quite a contrast to Haast, and reminded me a bit of the north shore of Lake Tahoe.  Very comfortable, good coffee, ice cream and pastries!  The Patagonia coffee shop is a chocolate lover’s heaven.  Cases of scrumptious looking chocolate treats,

http://www.lakewanaka.co.nz/new-zealand/product/?product=patagonia-chocolates.

We spent a day enjoying the sights at Wanaka, did a bit of shopping (I needed sandals), and Mike and I took a rain-shortened bike ride.  We had hoped to get a flight to Milford Sound, but the weather was not cooperative. 

While the coffee and baked goods in Wanaka were great, I did encounter a particularly tough steak at the restaurant in our hotel.  The waiter brought a big knife with the steak, but I needed one of those Cutco knives that my son sold while in high school.  This steak was seriously tough, and others at my table remarked that they were getting exhausted just watching me wrestle with the damn thing.  I did manage to extract a few bites. 

Cromwell

Back on the bikes after an off day, we left Wanaka and after a few miles arrived at Cromwell.  The Grain and Seed café there is a great place to get a sammie and a cappuccino, then sit out on the stone wall and soak up the scenery.  I had the BLAT – Gluten Free! (see the menu below). The café is housed a beautiful old stone building, down a short hill from the main road. http://oldcromwell.co.nz/grain-n-seed-cafe/.

Moreover, there is a unique bike rack along the street, but if you are on a bike, be sure to shift to the lowest gear before rolling down said hill.  Otherwise, you are walking up. 

Queenstown

If Wanaka is like the North Shore of Lk. Tahoe, then Queenstown is a scaled down South Shore w/o the gambling. Lots of restaurants and shops, right along the Frankton Arm of the exquisite Lake Wakatipu. We stayed one night at the very posh Sofitel Hotel, which had a very entertaining men's restroom.

 

The local news was a bit interesting the day we arrived, as it concerned flooding the previous night of a few high-end shops. You see, above these shops there are hotel rooms, and a couple staying in one of the rooms, got plastered and were dancing on the tables.  Evidently, they got acrobatic and attempted to swing from the fire-sprinkler supply pipes overhead (Oops).  You can guess the rest. They broke the pipes, caused the flooding and ended up in jail. Oh yes, one further complication, they were Canadian, so they woke up with a headache, in jail in a foreign country. Moreover, they were facing a series of charges and potential lawsuits, and their pictures in the small town paper. Just having too much fun.

Trip to Milford Sound

One of the many fabulous places on the South Island is Milford sound.  It is remote, not easily accessible by land. Some folks hike for three days along the famous Milford Trek to get there, and others go by road, either driving or taking a bus on the 5hr (each way) trip. Neither the hiking (reservation required) nor ground transport were appealing, nor did the fit into our plans.  However, flying over the Remarkables mountain range to the sound seemed like a great option, and my friend Shelly was able to book a flight for four of us to and from, coupled with a boat trip around the sound.  (the Remarkables are so named because they are one of only two mountain ranges that are oriented perfectly north-south).

The trip to Milford is a terrific half day adventure.  We flew in a nice ‘small’ plane, right through the mountain range, a stone’s throw away from snow-capped peaks.  Much of the time the plane’s navigation system was screeching “TERRAIN! TERRAIN!”, and indeed, there was terrain nearby.  The scenery is fantastic, brilliant green glaciated valleys below magnificent snow-capped peaks.

Landing at Milford Sound is another part of the adventure. The sound is essentially a fjord, and opens into the Tasman Sea. To approach the landing strip, the plane flies out beyond the mouth of the sound, then back along the length of the sound, losing altitude.  The walls of the sound are high and shear, and the landing strip is on the inland end.  The pilot flies inland, beyond the landing strip and banks the airplane around in this relatively narrow sheer walled canyon. Then he just sits the plane down on the strip.  Nothing to it. Must be like flying in Alaska.

We depart the plane and a bus is waiting at the airstrip and takes us about a half mile to the boat dock.  We depart the bus at a large modern building, fronting 15 boat slips. The place is full of people, like a few hundred, coming and going off of boats. We are wondering ‘where did all these folks come from?’ In a couple of minutes we are handed lunch passes and directed over to slip #12.  A nice sized tour boat comes in, we get on and take a fabulous two and a half hr. cruise around the sound.  Then it is back on the bus to the plane and off on our flight back to Queenstown via a slightly different, but equally scenic route.  All in all, the operation is like a big cash machine, with Milford Sound as the hook. I must say it is a well-run trip to one of Mother Nature’s gems.

On our last day in Queenstown Mike and I rode up the Queenstown Gondola

http://www.skyline.co.nz/queenstown/gondola/.

This is a total tourist activity, with great views of the lake and mountains. There are mountain bike trails, bungi jumping and a luge run where one can ride a wheeled luges down a concrete track. After descending Haast Pass on a bike, the luges looked a bit tame and Disneyesque to me, although I’m sure bodies have been damaged on the luge course.  I steadfastly avoided the bungi platform.

We had 3 nights in Queenstown, and it seems we spent an inordinate amount of time at both the Patagonia Chocolate shop and the Atlas Beer Café. No complaints about either one.

http://atlasbeercafe.com/beer.html

http://www.patagoniachocolates.co.nz/location.php