Aust/NZ

It was definitely cold when I got home. There was about 3 inches of snow every, crystal clear, and felt much colder than -4F. I think I’ll be able to sleep for at least three days…

We headed back to Sumner to take the high road, which runs a ridge-line high above Christchurch. We went to the eastern end of the peninsula, where there’s a farm with sheep and cattle sharing an unbelievable view northwest through Christchurch with old gun emplacments.

Well, today started out with a bang. Literally. Actually it was more like a whoop-whoop-whoop. A New Zealand Air Force helicopter landed about 100 feet behind our A-frame, and the Alpine Center. It must have been Search and Rescue training, since the loaded up with people in bright red-orange jackets, and took off about an hour later, heading up towards the Mueller Glacier area.

Today we took a tramp (a walk, not a person) up towards the Hooker Glacier. We headed up a canyon covered with huge gravel moraines left when the 6 glaciers that worked this valley retreated at various times. We continued right on past the terminal of the Mueller Glacier, up towards the Hooker (Glacier, that is).

We headed north, back to Queenstown, before turning east for the rest of the trip to Mt. Cook.

We picked up our sack lunches and boarded the ferry across Lake Manapouri to the power station. There was a light drizzle falling, so most of us stayed inside the ferry, going out only for pictures. We got to the other side of the lake, climbed into a bus, and took a short trip down inside a huge, solid granite mountain, where somebody decided to put a power station. The tunnel we drove down was a 2Km long spiral that ended 200 meters below the surface of the lake.

We started up towards Arrowtown, which is a small, rural, ex-ghost town which now caters to tourists. It wasn’t too big, or too interesting, so we did a tramp up to a monument on a hill, and through an early-day graveyard.

We finished up and headed south on highway 6 through Greymouth (the Jade River) to Mokitika.

We followed the Wairau River about 100Km to St. Arnaud, which is a beautiful little chapel on the edge of a beautiful mountain lake. We’re now only 100Km from semi-arid desert, and have huge snow-covered peaks in the background. Exactly like a trip from the high-desert in Nevada into the Eastern Sierras. Next we picked up the Buller River, heading due west, over to a quick diversion down to Lake Rotoroa (not Rotorua). Another beautiful high mountain lake similar to Lake Arnaud.

South Island, New Zealand: We spent three hours working our way southwest to Picton, in medium to small seas, still facing a few squalls.