Picture Postcard Country

 Picture Postcard Country

WEDNESDAY 7 MAY 2025 - THURSDAY 15 MAY 2025

Armed with the information Dave had gleaned from the Hunting and Fishing guide standing next to him as we fished yesterday, we headed to Twizel to ‘invest’ in some more fresh water tackle to try and tempt a salmon. The area around the three lakes, Ohau, Pukaki and Twizel is where all the salmon farms and fishing canals are and we wanted to stay in the area but were keeping a watchful eye on the weather as Tekapo had already had quite a dumping of snow and we didn’t want to get trapped here. The forecasts were predicting some snow so we thought we would at least get to Tekapo. Although the roads were brilliant there was a very strong wind that Dave had to contend with and when you are in a vehicle the shape and size of the Beast his concentration levels were high!!

We booked into Lakes Edge Holiday park for four nights and not only did we have an amazing view but we were also just a stone's throw from Tekapo Springs Heated Pools. These pools allowed me to use my Gold Card for the first time so we purchased a two day pass at a discounted price. Sitting in the 38⁰C adult only pool afforded another picture perfect view of the Lake and the snow capped mountains. We discovered an innovation at these pools that we had never seen before. In the change rooms was a device on the wall that was a bit like a centrifuge for your swimwear - in just 10 seconds all the excess moisture was spun out of your swimsuit - talk about brilliant. The pass that we had purchased allowed us to come and go from the pools and after our first dip we were keen to return again later that day and because of the tog spin-y down thing it would be with dry togs!

One of the first things we noticed in the camp was the amount of bunnies everywhere. We had times when there were six rabbits outside our motorhome. I know they do a lot of damage but they are soooooo darn cute.

After arriving in Tekapo to a beautiful blue sky, on the second day the wind had really got up and it was overcast. We decided to brave the elements and headed out for a walk as I wanted to get the classic photo of the Church of Good Shepherd on the shores of the lake. When I say the wind had really got up, I mean it was the strongest wind we had ever been in. Crossing the pedestrian bridge over to the church was an absolute mission! The things we do to get a decent photo!

When we came into Tekapo I contacted my nephew, who lives in this area, to see if he was going to be anywhere near us and even though it meant a six hour return drive he committed to coming for a visit - I KNEW he loved us!! Luckily the brilliant weather had returned when Erron came to visit and we had a brilliant day sussing out a place for lunch in Tekapo Village and then working it off with an amazing walk up Mt St John. Now I know there is a bit of a clue in the name of this walk but it involved quite a lot of steep, uphill walking through a working high country farm called Balmoral. The views we got from the top were well worth every knee popping step. 

I did love James’ comment when I shared this photo with him - “Dad and Erron must go to the same barber” 

We totally felt like we had earned another trip to Tekapo Springs after our uphill adventure and the three of us enjoyed the water temp, the view, the conversation and of course the tog spin-y down thing! After dinner Erron headed off on his three hour drive home - it had been a super day.

‘Where to next?’ was our next decision and we had to keep in mind the weather and the fact that we didn’t want to get trapped anywhere that meant we wouldn’t make it to Christchurch in time for the wedding. We toyed with the idea of heading to Mt Cook but in the end our love of fishing won. Keeping a very close eye on the snow predictions we decided to head backwards slightly and spend a bit more time at the fishing canals.

We were heading towards a freedom camping place at Lake Wardell but to get there we had to go right past the turn off to the Tekapo Canal and a place referred to as the Fishbowl. Now with a name like this you would expect the salmon to be leaping into your arms (or at least that was our expectations) but sadly this was not the case even though we gave it our very best shot.

A little disappointed we headed off to Lake Wardell and after seeing the other three lakes in this area we renamed it Wardell Puddle. 

Fortunately the lake was not the place we had planned to fish but it was right beside the Pukaki Canal. We had given ourselves a couple of days here and were mildly encouraged when Dave saw a very large, male Rainbow Trout cruise by - you know the ones that have that really bad overbite happening in their bottom jaw! Every local we spoke to waxed lyrical about how many fish were in this canal - but also added that they were very fussy. We are not sure if they just didn’t like the lures we were using or the fact that their feeding is governed by the phases of the moon and it was a full moon at that time but the bottom line is that we still haven’t managed to hook anything! What we do know is we will be back to keep trying.

With the threat of snow getting closer it was time to get past Tekapo and we headed to Fairlie. We only intended to stay one night as we had heard so much about the pies from the Fairlie Bakehouse. We were not disappointed. With fillings like Pork Belly and Apple, Salmon and Bacon, Ultimate Steak and many more it took a while to choose which to try. These pies were next level and definitely worth a night in this wee town.

Our next stop was Methven. For Dave’s birthday last year, Laura gave him a voucher for the two of us to enjoy a “Tranquility Pool” experience at the Opuke Thermal Pools and Spa. These pools have only been open since 2021 and a lot of thought has obviously gone into making them a desirable tourist attraction even down to the massive amount of solar panels that provide just about all of the heating. The Tranquility pool is an adults only experience as it has a swim up bar and is sitting nicely at 38℃ and comes complete with towel, robe, locker, flash change rooms AND a tog spin-y down thing. As Methven is also known as Mt Hutt Village I imagine these pools are just as busy in winter as they are in summer. As our friend and avid skier, Alan Wild, put it “We love to go to these pools when Mt Hutt is Mt Shut” Thank you Aston family for giving us this lovely afternoon of luxury!

Knowing we would only be stopping for one night we headed to Rakaia. We followed the Rakaia River from Methven to Rakaia and as it was only a 30 minute trip we thought we would have a look around the shops to kill time until we could check in at the campground. Wrong! When we stopped for petrol I asked the young man who served us where the shops were. He gave me a strange look and told me that there was only a Four Square and a second hand clothing shop. Funny, Rakaia looked bigger on the map. The retail experience might not have been great but the walk we did to the river was magnificent - even if there were not any obvious spots to fish from the river bank. 

We had only spent one night each in the last three spots that we had stayed in and we were looking forward to spending an extended amount of time in Christchurch, as that is where we were heading next.

Wears the Fox Hat

 Wears the Fox Hat??

(If you have been to Aroa Beach Huts in Rarotonga that will make sense OR say it with an Irish accent 😉)

Lake Matheson - with Mt Cook covered in cloud.

Our choice of eating establishments for my birthday dinner let us down again as the head chef was away. The 50% discount on the bill was nice but we really need to up our game when it comes to picking where to go for a meal! The wine was nice though!

Hello Superannuation.

THURSDAY 24 APRIL 2025 - TUESDAY 6 MAY 2025

If you are staying in a campground you have to check out by 10:00 am BUT you can’t check into most campgrounds until 2:00 pm so when the next place you are going to stay is only 30 minutes away you need to have a plan for those intervening hours! We quickly discovered that the town of Fox Glacier is nowhere near as commercial as the town of Franz Josef so hitting the shops was not going to be an option. We did suss out a bike trail we had in mind to do the next day and we did a small stock up at the VERY overpriced superette but that did not chew up much time. We noticed a sign to Lake Matheson so thought we would go and check that out. After a short 6 kms drive, we were quite surprised to see a large car park that was quite full and a gift shop and cafe called “Reflections”. Not knowing anything about this lake we thought that maybe this was somewhere you came to pontificate on your life. Still not quite understanding we joined the many people walking around the lake to the many viewing platforms and then we twigged. People come to Lake Matheson to get the money shot of Mt Cook reflected in its waters!! There was a bit of a ripple on the water on the day we were there and apparently you need to be ready to take your snap at dawn or dusk to get the best photos so we just enjoyed a magical walk through native New Zealand forest and seeing a gazillion Canadian geese - WTF? We also saw some little NZ native mushrooms called Blue Pink Gills which are super vibrant but their toxicity is unknown so I have been keeping an eye out for them in the Beef Wellington!

We were staying at a Top 10 Campground in Fox. We joined the Top 10 club as you get discounted rates and have already got the joining fee back in savings. At this Top 10, members got free use of the spa pool and as we have been sorely missing our spa we booked time slots for the two days we would be in Fox.

The next day Dave got the bikes down and we headed to the start of the Te Weheka Cycle path that was going to take us to see New Zealand’s largest moving landslide - no glacier views but it sounded like an interesting ride and it didn’t disappoint although the landslide was a bit underwhelming. What we did find when we got to the end of the track was a road that had obviously disappeared at the barrier at the end of the track. We followed this road back down to highway 6 - passing another couple of spots where it had disappeared over the edge and we found ourselves at the Fox One Lane Bridge. Crossing this brought us to the start of the cycle track that takes you to views of Fox Glacier - magic!  This was so much more than what we expected from this bike ride. The path up was wide and easy to negotiate and the views were spectacular - much more so than Franz Josef! We parked the bikes and went slightly off the beaten track so we could get down to the Fox River. For the first time ever, I tasted fresh water from a New Zealand stream. I worked at a medical laboratory so I am a bit of a Giardia/amoeba-phob but I reasoned that water that was coming from a Glacier would be safe and it was so sweet! On our way back to the bikes we even saw some Alpine Daisies! We much preferred the trail to Fox Glacier and the Glacier itself is more impressive than Franz Josef. Good old Julius von Haast got the naming rights for the Glaciers, naming Franz Josef after the Emperor of Austria and originally calling the Fox Glacier and a second Glacier close by, Victoria and Albert Glaciers. Victoria kept its name but the Fox Glacier was renamed and got its name from Sir William Fox who was Premier in 1872. 

The glacier is known by local Māori as Te Moeka o Tuawe ('The bed of Tuawe'). According to oral tradition, Hine Hukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover Tuawe to climb with her. Tuawe was a less experienced climber than Hine Hukatere but loved to accompany her, until an avalanche swept him from the peaks to his death. Hine Hukatere was broken-hearted and her many, many tears flowed down the mountain. Rangi the Sky Father took pity on her and froze them to form the glacier now known as Franz Josef; the glacier now known as Fox marks Tuawe's resting place.

So enough of the history lesson but it was very timely to mention old Julius von Haast as that is where we were off to next. Have to say that old Julius would be a tad disappointed with the town named after him as there is not really a lot there. We stayed at a really nice campground just a bit before Haast that encouraged us to fill our water tank as they had the sweetest water in New Zealand. There was a rather impressive DoC information centre within walking distance of the camp and just a tad further on was a very welcoming tavern so we stopped for a hearty bevvy. We only stayed one night in Haast to break our trip to Wanaka and we wanted to get through Haast Pass before the snow hit. 

I have given the trip from Fox Glacier through Haast Pass the subtitle of:

“20+ One Lane Bridges and 50+ Dead Possums” - catchy, don’t you think?? Obviously the South Island Possums do not have the same ‘Road Sense’ gene that their North Island counterparts do because they littered the road. I do have to hand it to whichever district council looks after this stretch of road as the curbs of the state highway were pretty litter free.

Old Julius would be VERY impressed with the mountain pass that bears his name, what an amazing stretch of HIghway 6! Yes it is windy and steep in places but the scenery, waterfalls and the fact that it takes you through to the beautiful central lakes made this such a picturesque trip for me - for Dave it involved quite intense concentration and not so many opportunities to enjoy the panoramas.

So, finally after approximately 36 years we were back in Wanaka. When we visited in 1989 James was nearly two and I was pregnant with Laura. We had come down for the wedding of my eldest niece Sandi to Mike Kemp. Two of my sisters and their families were in Wanaka, Pam and Phonse Low who had built a beautiful home in Wanaka and Lynn and Dave Collings who bought the takeaways shop on the main street.

Oh my goodness has it changed. It is certainly no longer the sleepy little lakeside village it was then. The houses sprawl out from the lake, it has a thriving commercial centre, heaps of hospitality venues and tourists…. like heaps of tourists. 

One of the first things we needed to do in Wanaka was to decide where we were going next. While Queenstown, Te Anau and Milford Sound were all looking very attractive we were conscious of the fact that we needed to be in Christchurch at the end of May - this time for Sophie Kemp’s wedding and we did not want to rush this part of New Zealand. We decided to start making our way to Christchurch through the central South Island which would give us some time to fish the salmon canals and arrive in Christchurch in plenty of time to catch up with friends and all the wedding events. Our original plan was to spend four days in Wanaka and then head over the Lindis Pass to Tekapo but Mother Nature had other plans in the form of a very early dumping of snow.

After our first night we woke to find the tops of the surrounding mountains covered with snow and the news that Lindis Pass was only open if you had chains. While the snow had certainly lowered the temperature it meant that everywhere we looked there was another postcard perfect picture to be taken. The sun continued to shine and luckily, Wanaka has many fabulous walks and cycle tracks so there was plenty to do. The cycle track around the lake was just magical but it did show us the extent of the rabbit problem they have in the area. 

It was at about this time that we decided to book in for another couple of nights to allow Lindis Pass to clear, which just gave us even more time for taking photos. Although we were a little late for the full visual symphony of autumn colours we weren’t even slightly disappointed by the colours of Wanaka.

As we explored Wanaka we even found a Paul Dibble statue and I think we can see from this next photo where he got his inspiration.

The reports of snow and ice on the pass and in Tekapo continued to reach us and once again we busted out the maps to see if we needed to come up with a Plan B - or C or D? We still liked the idea of heading toward Tekapo but thought we would give ourselves another two days for the sun to do its thing so we shifted camp to Lake Hawea.

Although Hawea is only a 15 minute drive from Wanaka it is a totally different experience - a bit like Wanaka was like in 1989. We were lucky enough to get a level, sun soaked campsite right beside the Lake and headed off on our bikes straight away. There were two tracks we wanted to do while we were here and we started with the Lakefront to John Creek track. This trail was only 16 kms but with the sun on the lake, the snow tipped mountains in the background and an amazing track surface this was one magical bike ride. We even saw a little feral kitten that I was keen to take home.

The next day we tackled the Hawea River Track that went from Hawea to Albert Town following the Hawea River. This track was 30 kms and apart from one fairly rocky bit was another amazing cycle. Of course there had to be the obligatory swing bridge, but as I walked my bike across I saw the fattest wild bunnies I have ever seen!!

When we got to Albert Town we noticed heaps of people were in the Patisserie having coffee and cakes so we went next door for a pint of local beer and cider and the best loaded fries ever topped with pulled pork and jalapenos at The Albie.

Feeling adequately re-fueled we headed for home. As we passed the Albert Town Four Square I spied a sign advertising 2nd Grade Bluff Oysters for $20 a dozen so of course we got two pottles, strapped them to my carrier and headed home to Lake Hawea. 

Obviously the trip home involved going over the swing bridge again. Hands up if you RODE your bike over a swing bridge for the first time ever??? Yes, well that would be me - I had my big girl knickers locked and loaded (literally) and rode ALL the way over a very long swing bridge. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?? As we got closer to Lake Hawea Dave noticed that his bike’s battery life was rapidly dwindling. Luckily most of the hills were behind us and just as we got to Hawea the battery died completely. E-bikes are great when the battery is working but they are HEAVY when you have to power them yourself so Dave’s quads and gluts got quite a workout for the last two kilometres of the ride.

Lindis Pass was calling so giving the sun some time to warm up the road we headed off on Highway 8. You do not have to travel very far in New Zealand for the scenery to change drastically. Having travelled through Haast Pass which was green, lush, wet with lots of tree covered glades, Lindis Pass was brown, sparse and so dry.

We were heading for a freedom camping spot that is only open to NZMCA members right on the Ohau B Canal. Thanks to Meridian Energy we would be able to park right beside the canal and literally cast our line out from the camper in search of that elusive wild salmon. This will be our second night here and although we do have salmon for dinner it is courtesy of one of the other campers. Salmon fishing is trickier than we thought. Today we were fishing next to a local fishing and hunting guide so Dave gently pumped the guy for as much information as possible so we are heading off to Tekapo a little bit more prepared to catch one of these monsters for ourselves.

Oahu B Canal and its environs