Saturday 27 April
I left Milford Lodge just after 7am Saturday heading up to the Homer Tunnel with rain falling as I climbed steadily upwards. I had to wait for the green light to enter the tunnel and went through on my own, no one else being on the road south that early. However, there was a queue of traffic waiting to proceed down to Milford as I left the tunnel.
Saturday morning waiting for green light at Homer Tunnel entrance on Milford Sound side of the mountain. Snow from Thursday nights fall had largely melted away in Friday and Saturday rainfall.
Inside the tunnel – as I was the only vehicle travelling up the steep climb I stopped to take this photo.
Tunnel exit into the Hollyford Valley and pouring rain.
The road cones were part of the diversion lanes to keep traffic away from the reconstruction project renewing the avalanche shelter on the Hollyford entrance to the tunnel.
However, by the time I reached Lake Gunn on the road south to Te Anau the rain had stopped and the road was dry.
The mountains around Lake Gunn retained their snow cover from Thursday’s fall.
After shopping in Te Anau I headed towards Gore, with a diversion to Piano Flat north of Waikaia. From Balfour I drove up the Plains Station road to Waikaia, the large sheep run that Aunty Lila and Uncle Ernie worked and lived on after they got married. Piano Flat was a holiday retreat they used a lot, and I remember being there when I was 5yrs old and after they moved to Diamond Peak
The “plains” of Plains Station relates to the Mataura River Valley which stretches from Round Hill (behind the sheep) of the Mataura Range south past Riversdale and Mandeville to the Hokonui Hills near Gore. Piano Flat consists of several meadows adjacent to the Waikaia River, with holiday cribs (baches to a North Islander) at the edge of the bush lined valley. A precarious swing bridge crosses the river into a bush walk.
The swing bridge deck is wire mesh.
Lexie tackled the bridge with determination in January 2002 during our visit there.
In Gore I looked over the fence into No. 244 Main Street, which had been renumbered from 19A Main Street, the address when Aunty Lila and Uncle Ernie retired there in the late 1950s.
The garden is a jungle today.
Lexie took this picture during a 1960s visit when the garden was a Gore visitor attraction to horticulture enthusiasts, and was featured on Eon Scarrow’s “Dig This” TV series.
This pergola leads though to the sunken garden.
My Dad and Aunty Lila in the sunken garden which included a pond and fountain. All this has gone now.
The neglect that has happened to the Gore property has not been foisted on the farm at Howe that Aunty Lila and Uncle Ernie retired from. It also had a huge garden which attracted visitor groups over the years. The current owners have extended and upgraded the house and have developed the swamp area below the house into a landscaped feature which really looks good.
The farm house was called “Rosedale” when I lived there in the 1940s and 50s.
Now the farm is called “HOWEPARK” and the house has been extended, with landscaping of the swamp area on the flats below now called Lake Crispin.
Lake Crispin at HOWEPARK.
The other family related property locally is Mackie Reinke’s cottage on the side of State Highway 1 at McNab. This cottage was used as a prop in the 1981 movie “Goodbye Pork Pie” when the police chased the two characters in the film over the hedge and roof of the place. Now the cottage is gone and ——-
——- a huge new “Mataura Milk” processing factory occupies the site.
I also travelled a few km up the Waikaka Valley Road from HOWEPARK to a place called Mandeville where we attended the Presbyterian Church while living on the farm, and it was there I got this week’s bird picture.
There were three spur-winged plover fossicking for grubs in the church grounds.
Saturday night had me freedom camping at Whisky Gully near Tapanui on the road from Gore to Central Otago.
Sunday 28 April
Sunday morning I explored local farmland as I headed north through Roxburgh, Alexandra and Cromwell over the Lindis Pass to Omarama, ready for a Mt Cook visit on Monday 29 April.
Farmland north of Tapanui with the Blue Mountains across the valley.
Monday 29 April
Omarama on Monday morning had the coldest overnight temperature in the country (as per the radio weather forecast), and leaving for Twizel and Mt Cook there was low cloud and ground fog either side of the road.
The frosty morning did not put off these merino sheep grazing on the frozen grass.
The objective of the Mt Cook visit was to walk up to the Hooker Glacier Lake from the Whitehorse camping area. This involved a 1hr 35 minute hike into the Hooker Valley, over three suspension bridges and a steady but moderate climb on a well formed track.
The morning sun shone on the eastern face of Aoraki Mt Cook, and the track up the Hooker Valley gave access to a view of the western face.
I packed a sandwich lunch and decided I would wait at the glacier viewpoint for a couple of hours or more to watch the sun move around to shine on the west face of the mountain.
The third of the suspension bridges, with the Muller Glacier valley in the top left of the photo.
The west face of the mountain at 2pm. The actual summit is to the right of the high peak in this view. It appears lower due to the angle of view from this location. The face of the glacier ice is at the head of the lake, with the surface of the glacier covered in rocks.
The ice cliffs at the front of the glacier shed mini icebergs which are blown down the lake to the visitor viewing spot.
This iceberg was below us right in front of the viewing location.
The place was crowded with mainly Chinese visitors, but we were joined by a touring Paradise Shelduck couple.
These “tourists” had an ulterior motive for their visit – they wandered around peoples feet looking for lunch crumbs.
Near the glacier face huge rockslides tumbled down the valley sides every half hour or so.
As this rockslide roared down the mountainside near the head of the lake, it was sufficiently far away not to worry anyone.
Near the walking track the rock fall debris was clearly from landslips formed under heavy rain conditions, but eventually this material will likely reach out across the valley to the track.
Tuesday 30 April
So, it was farewell to Aoraki Mt Cook as the next morning I headed for Lake Tekapo.
Just short of Tekapo is the Mt St John Observatory operated by the University of Canterbury. The road up to the Observatory is very very steep and winding, but the only thing at the top available for the public is the Astro Café and great views of the surrounding countryside.
Tekapo Village from Mt St John.
I gave away the idea of having a coffee at the Cafe as it was jammed with Chinese tourists, so retreated to Tekapo and sought out the Dark Sky Project in its huge domed pavilion.
The dome houses the historic 1894 Brashear telescope gifted to NZ by the University of Pennsylvania.
The Dark Sky Project is a Ngai Tahu initiative which offers both in-house and top of Mt Bruce experiences, the latter at night subject to weather conditions. I did the in-house Dark Sky Experience which explored science and Maori astronomy related to the manner in which seasonal food gathering and fishing was triggered by star positions. One of the four rooms involved in the experience had four star models to scale, one being our sun.
Our guide is holding a pea sized ball between finger and thumb to illustrate the size of the earth (the pea) relative to the size of the sun.
The final room of the experience was with the Brashear telescope. This was the telescope used by astronomer Percival Lowell in “discovering” the canals on Mars. Our guide showing us this instrument said that it turned out there was a smudge on one of the lens that resulted in Lowell seeing a reflection of the blood vessels in his eye which appeared to him as canals on the surface of Mars. I checked Wikipedia which made no mention on the blood vessels in Lowell’s eye, stating instead that the Mars canals turned out to be an optical illusion.
Wednesday 1 May
During Tuesday night at Tekapo heavy rain set in and continued most of Wednesday as I travelled to Christchurch.
Thursday 2 May
Thursday was laundry and housekeeping catch-up day prior to Friday’s TranzAlpine experience Christchurch to Greymouth return.
Friday 3 May
Leaving Springfield via the TranzAlpine heading for the Torlesse Range and 17 tunnels alongside and above the Waimakariri Gorge.
A narrow part of the Gorge.
I managed to get the railway shed at Cass as we thundered by. This complements the earlier picture I got of the TranzAlpine passing through Cass on Thursday 28 March while I was having morning tea in the van alongside the shed.
The train was long, and travelling to Greymouth the Viewing Car was behind the engine, so I could only get good shots of the rear carriages.
However, on the return journey we could see well ahead to the two engines as the Viewing Car was now at the end of the train.
Leaving Arthurs Pass after climbing up through the Otira Tunnel with two engines at the front pulling and one engine at the back pushing. When we descended through the tunnel from Arthurs Pass to Otira earlier in the day we had two engines at the rear helping the two front engines with braking to control the downhill speed.
And so night fell on our journey with this shot between one of the17 tunnels along the Waimakariri, allowing me to then rest in a carriage for the final 1½ hrs to Christchurch, concluding another great train travel day out.
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