Its been a busy couple of days with long hours of driving….. but it has been worth it. I have driven many roads in many countries but few with such spectacular scenery.
The brief run down of the NZ trip so far is we flew into Christchurch on Monday PM after a brief plane delay out of Melburn. Picked up our hire car and gear (at least it all made it here!) and headed for the hotel. Easy place to navigate and had no dramas.
We poked around town and found a place for a brew, a much needed caffeine fix and somewhere to chill for a while. We decided on a place for dinner, which was aptly named the Bicycle Thief. Great little place that served great pizza, beer and local NZ wine! It all went down a treat and all a short walk from the hotel.
Next morning I headed out for a run around the streets of Christchurch, as I am heading back to the hotel I run into Rob Eva (Mr SRAM Australia!), it appears that every time I am away we cross paths as I ran into him in Brisbane a few months back for the Noosa ride.
We made tracks after breakfast the next morning heading towards Greymouth cross country. The views blew me away as we headed towards the Albert pass. Eventually we hit the mountains and the one lane bridges (bloody everywhere on the Westcoast… makes for interesting driving) and narrow wet roads.
Greymouth was a place I wanted to visit for Monteiths. This brewery makes some fantastic beer of which we sampled after a tour of the place. Monteiths has been around awhile and is about to make a cider which I didn’t get to try. Bloody good little tour, and I had a lot of samples of the brew.
Next day saw the rain greet us for the trip to Haast and maybe a glacier trip via chopper. As we drove further into the wilds of the West Coast the rain got worse. By the time we made it to Franz Joseph we knew that we had lucked out with the weather as the cloud was low and the rain smacking the windshield… therefore no chopper ride. We did drive up to an observation point at Fox Glacier and briefly jumped out of the car for a look. Pity no flight in a chopper up on to the glaciers, maybe next time.
Haast was a basic place but surrounded by the Southern Alps on one side and the ocean on the other and carved up by all forms of rivers and streams and waterfalls. The lush rainforest was everywhere and spectacular as were the lakes. Everywhere you looked was a photo moment.
Today we drove the Haast Pass (big rivers and waterfalls) and out of the West Coast into the middle of the Southern Alps and into Wanaka and Queenstown. It feels a lot like parts of Canada we have travelled through with the same vibe. We are spending the next couple of days in Queenstown before heading up to Snowfarm and Wanaka for most of next week. Training a plenty on skis next week will be fun as long as the weather clears a little. It is dry this side of the mountains but the cloud is low and we have yet to be greeted by clear skies and mountains galore.
Had a run around parts of the lake next to Queenstown tonight. The run had awesome views and I felt great pounding the pavement.
Anyway until next time
Happy Trails
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