138: Route 72 to Mt Cook
They call it the Inland Scenic Route 72 and it is the recommended route to drive from Christchurch to Mt Cook, bypassing the main tourist tracks.
Photos come later…
07/05/06
I left Christchurch on the 7th of May and was not too sure how long it would take me to get to Mt Cook but I was not in a hurry and even planned to have several detours along the way.
There are a number of attractions along the route including several Gorges, Forests and Lakes.
The day started off with rain so I wasn’t sure how much I would detour from Route 72 in the end but it cleared up in the late morning.
My first planned stop was Rakaia Gorge and the route from Christchurch to the Gorge was uneventful. Roads are extremely good to drive on: Broad, straight, excellent surface and you can usually see for miles due to the lack of tall trees. Landscape is mostly fields for farming and you can find artificial hedges lining the road once in a while, presumably to prevent strong winds.
By the time I got to Rakaia Gorge (around lunch time) the weather had cleared up a bit and I decided to do the Gorge walkway. The walkway follows the rim of the gorge through some forested area and then along some farming fields to a view point. It was a nice little 2 hour walk giving good views of Rakaia Bridge (which is quite famous for being one of only two bridges in the world built from the Bollman-Truss design (whatever that means;-); built 1882). Through the Gorge runa Glacial River with milky-blue waters which can get quite high and strong at the right time of the year but during my visit the River was very narrow and a lot of the Gorges River Bed was visible (consisting of stones/large pebbles rather than mud).
Along the way to the viewpoint I was greeted by some fantails again, this time a male and female (dark brown rather than brown beige) and on the way back I watched two Bellbirds in the trees. Not sure if it was mating season but the singing and manouvers looked like courtship..
My next stop after the Gorge was at Stavely where there is a forested area with a recommende subalpine walk and Sharpin Waterfalls. The forest was fabulous with lots of different vegetation and very! lush green colours. It had also rained not long ago and the forest was very wet: Dripping Plants, squishy muddy paths and very humid air. All that just added to the experience and the foresty looked more like a rainforest than what I thought a subalpine forest would look like.
Something else I noticed was that when I started off my walk I saw lots of trees with pitch black trunks. At first I thought there had been a fire a while ago but I then concluded that it must be some type of fungus that grows on the tree bark. It looks very thick and ugly if I may say so and wasn’t anything I felt like touching either. I have a vague idea that I have seen/heard somewhere that there a fungae that produce this black mess as a waste product but I may be wrong.. Anyone knows what this might be? I also saw some areas where the black stuff had fallen to the ground like or covered leaves..
The Waterfall (Sharping Falls) at the end of the Subalpine Walk was relatively small but nicely tucked into a Grove. There are plenty of pics on flickr (or will be soon;-)
On th way back to the carpark I stopped at “Goldsmith Rapids” which had some interesting rocks that were covered in some red dust and then I followed the river path back to the carpark. One thing worth mentioning was that when they say River Track then they do mean RIVER Track i.e. walking through the river! I didn’t realise that until the path stopped at the river bed and I could see a red arrow in the distance indicating where the path would continue. The distance between where I was and where the sign was had to be covered by walking along the river, except there was no “along” but only “through” the river. Lucky for me the water was quite low and I could manage without getting wet feet by jumping from rock to rock.. I guess the Gore-Tex boots worked as well 🙂
By the time I reached the car it was 5pm and there was only about an hour of daylight left.
Sadly that meant I could not stop for a walk at another, even more famour Forest called Peels Forest. One of the few primary forests left in that region.
I did drive straight to Geraldine and reached it at Dusk. Lonely Planet recommended a Hotel/Pub as a good cheap place for the night and franly the idea of having a hotel, restaurant and pub in the same building appealed to me.. I fancied a repeat of my Royal Hotel (in Lyttleton) where I throroughly enjoyed the Pubs Steak & Kidney Pie and a Pint of a dark Ale at the time. Reminded me of good old Scotland 😉
Luckily they had a room for me (NZ$ 40) so I stayed for the night, had their Sunday Roast (Lamb) (NZ$12) and an Ale called “Black” which was rather fab. I also made use of their Washing Machine and Dryer free of charge.. All in all a good deal!
08/05/06
The next morning I woke up to another overcast day but it was dry.
I made breakfast in the room making use of the provided kettle and toaster and then briefly walked around the tiny town. Supposedly a new littel Town worth stopping (when i got here it was almost dark) I didn’t find it particularly outstanding so soon after I packed up and left Geraldine after a brief visit to the Tourist Information Office and the DOC Center (Department of Conservation) which has details about nature trails etc.
It started to drizzle a bit as I was driving but at some point I drove beyond some mountaineous regions and entered a huge valley (think plains again rather than valley). As soon as I cleared the hills the sky was clear and sunny. The sudden view of the Southern Alps in the far distance was stunning.. one of those WOW effects 🙂 I stopped for a photo and then continued my trip.
I soon reached Lake Tekapo, famous for it’s blue water and nice view of the surrounding mountains. Indeed the region of the Lake was quite spectacular and I stayed two or three hours for lunch, admiring the views and visiting New Zealands largest Observatory (which was pretty small) on a hill nearby. Apparently The sky above this region is very clear and perfect for Astronomy.
At the Observatory I asked if I could use one of the Telescopes that was setup outside and they kindly agreed. It was setup to observe the sun and after a few minutes of searching for the sun (the Telescope had a very strong filter attached which meant everything was black unless the sun was in the field of view. View of the sun was rather nice. Not as brilliant as one sometimes see on TV but I could clearly see sunspots and a big solar flare shoting out of the sun from 07:00 direction..
Had a lengthy chat with a Lady who worked there and she suggested that I should head to Mt Cook that same day as the weather forecast was good for Mt. Cook. So instead of staying at Lake Tekapo for one night I decided to continue to Mt Cook that same day.
I reached Mt Cook Village around 5pm after a speedy drive along some very long, straight roads and decided to check into the Youth Hostel since sleeping in the car didnt’ appeal in this area which had clear views of snowy mountains..
Tags: New Zealand, RTW 2005/2006, South Island
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