Queenstown looked like a perfect spot for some beers and dinner, but we wanted to continue our relaxed camp life and decided to save the parties for later. We did some quick shopping, drove a bit out of the town to Otago and stayed over night next to Lake Hayes. Perfect spot to enjoy some chilled Gibbston Valley Pinot Gris and watch how the lake is boiling under the stormy wind.
Crown Range Road
Next day we continued driving through the famous curves of Crown Range Road. On the top of the mountains we enjoyed the beautiful view towards the Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown. Then we continued the ride through green valleys towards Wanaka, a beautiful little town next to a crystal clear lake. There we stayed over night, had a small celebration for Zeynep’s birthday -relaxing in jacuzzi. We visited also Puzzling World, which is famous for their Great Maze a real size labyrinth.
Maze of Puzzling World
land slides on the road
Our aim was to be in Haast, on the West coast, that same evening, but had to stop and stay over night in Makarora, since the road was closed. Land slides are rather common during rainy days and you need to be prepared. It was lucky that there were no casualties and we didn’t get stuck there for many days. Next morning we were able to continue and arrived Haast safely couple hours later. The roads are stunning here, winding between high mountains and next to beautiful lakes and rivers. I enjoyed the driving and constantly changing scenery.
Fox Glacier
From Haast we started to drive towards North by following the Westlands coastline road no. 6. We visited the Fox Glacier at Tai Poutini National Park and Franz Josef Glacier in Whataroa. There we tried to go for a helicopter flight to see the mountains from above, and have a short walk in the peak snow, but the weather wasn’t on our side. Thick fog and clouds prevented us to take off.
misty lake view
This mist and rain continued the whole time we were in West coast. The clouds coming from Tasman Sea couldn’t pass the mountain range and rained down just above us. A bit sad, to be honest, though the gray weather added more mystery to the scene. One day, we drove to a sleepy old mining town Rapahoe, which is just 20min ride from Greymouth. We found a lovely camp place which was build around an old school. Time seemed to stop there in the beginning of 70’s. All the items around, the playground and toys, school building, small huts and other items were there just to remind us how the camping holiday looked back then.
Old school from 70s / new camp house
Next day we visited Paparoa National Park where we visited Punakaiki, the Pancake Rock’s. “These are limestone formations that began forming 30 million years ago, when lime-rich fragments of dead marine creatures were deposited on the seabed, then overlaid by weaker layers of soft mud and clay“. They are very interesting.
Pencake Rocks
After the pancake rocks we moved to Cape Foulwind where we could follow the easy going life of a local fur seal colony. Then we drove to Westport where girls took a time off in local library while I took a very much needed hair cut and shave at the local barber shop.
Berlin’s Cafe
breakfast in Berlin’s Cafe
That day ended at the Berlin’s Bar & Cafe a cozy road side restaurant which also accommodates backpackers and campers. The owner, who used to run a car repair shop, had bought the place 7 months ago. He was extremely happy about the fact that during past months he has seen more people than during the 16 years of life time while running the repair shop in a small town. We had good conversation with him about life while we ate heart stopping breakie, but it tasted great and fit for the place so well. We continued the drive towards Motueka and Kaiteriteri. There were still couple of days, before taking the ferry to the North Island.
4 bags of clothes 