Bus to Wanaka via Fox Glacier, Dolphins, a reflective lake, and Blue Lagoon
Distance: bus, 278km
Total Distance: 4357km
We were all due to get up early for the bus. My dorm mates got up especially early, however, probably because of the very nice guy from Sheffield who has asthma couldn't stop snoring and none of us were really sleeping anyway. Didn't matter, we had 4 hours on the bus to catch up on sleep.
There were more people for the bus than seats. Oops, someone in the office had mucked up. I was last on the list, but there were 4 who had been subsequently added. 3 crazy Australians and a German who's birthday it was. Well, we couldn't leave them behind! The German took the courier's seat at the front by the driver. One Ozzie sat next to him on the step coming down from the aisle. And at my feet, in the central aisle, the other two Ozzies found a comfortable place to lie down and sleep off their hang overs.
We drove out of Franz towards Fox Glacier. Our driver made a "wrong" turn, ending up on a gravel track between two farms, giving us all spectacular views on the Fox Glacier.
Returning to the correct route we got to a lake so flat it, on a good day, gives a perfect mirror image of the mountains beyond. The drizzle set in as we got there- not enough to ruin the day, just enough to make our reflections hazy.
As we got further along the coast we passed a cove where two guys were enjoying the uneven weather with a spot of surfing. Someone noticed a couple of fins. We parked up. There in the waves were a family of dolphins. Hector's Dolphins, one of the world's rarest with only an estimated 175 left. We must have seen most of them! They were playing in the waves, or swimming as a group further out. We saw little but their tiny black dorsal fins, but enough to make the bus excited.
The Blue Lagoon is formed as melted glacier water runs down from the mountains and enters an old waterfall pool just before joining the river. The is now a bridge above the pool. A short walk took us down to where a large group of Germans and Brits were throwing themselves off the perfectly good swing bridge and into the freezing cold, refreshing, waters below. Our crazy Ozzies joined them, but even they said, whilst good to do once, not again. Not ever again.
The landscape changed dramatically as we passed over from the western Southern Alps to the eastern Southen Alps. We left Jurassic Park behind and finally emerged in Rohan of Middle-Earth, aka the Scottish Highlands on steroids. Gone were the rainforests produced by the rain coming off the Tasman Sea, replaced by scrubby grasslands of sheep, rocks, and lakes.
We made it to Wanaka, the town by Lake Wanaka. A beautiful place which advertises itself as "The World's First Protected Lifestyle Reserve"...which goes on to sound like a game reserve for the middle classes, or the village from Hot Fuzz. There's a few communities in New Zealand that feel, to me, like that's what they want- and you can't blame them. If I lived in some where this beautiful, with so few tourists, and especially with the raucous Queenstown next door, I'd want to keep it as it is.
Some how there were people I knew here from the Bay of Islands and other parts of my trip, so we went out together for an evening meal and drink. It's amazing how often one meets the same people time and again here!
No comments:
Post a Comment