Lord of the Rings

I am in Wanaka. The day starts with ice on the ground, but fantastic blue skies. The poncho has weaved its magic! Strange what belief in a PVC poncho can do! I think I’m beginning to understand how primitive peoples can worship inanimate objects. I leave Wanaka and head for Queenstown via the Cordrona Valley and the Crown Mountain Range. I pick up a couple of hitch-hikers on the outskirts of the town: one guy from Middlesbrough, who has been in New Zealand for 5 months and a French guy, Ronan, (parents from Brittany, if you are wondering at the Irish/Celtic name), who has been here for 6 months. We travel in bright, warm winter sunshine through the valley on New Zealand’s highest sealed road, at 1706 metres, and the scenery is simply breath-taking, with mountainsides covered with golden-brown grass, ferns and gorse, topped by snow-capped mountains, brilliantly white in the sunshine. I drop the two at Queenstown and have a look around this pretty, hip town, which has a lot of bars and restaurants and overlooks Lake Wakatipu. It is a small but busy place (a ski resort), with a lot of information shops advertising activities, such as bungee jumping, jet boating and paragliding and there is a jetty where a red, coal fired ship takes people for scenic rides across the lake. I buy some food and head north, towards Lord of the Rings Country, where a number of places were used as locations in the film. I follow the road towards Glenorchy, along the sides of the lake, firstly to Wilson Bay (‘Amon Hen’ in the film), with tranquil, aqua-marine waters, barely rippling in the still air and tall mountains all around. Although it is early (about 1.30pm), I decide to stop and camp at 12 Mile Delta (‘Ithilien’), as the location is so good – a flat delta plain which sticks out into the lake. I mostly stay at Department of Conservation sites such as these. They are pretty basic, with a toilet and sink, but always clean, very cheap at $6 (£3) per night (paid into an honesty box) and usually they are in great locations. Perhaps every 3^rd night I stay at a more expensive site to wash clothes and have a hot shower.

Making the most of the sunshine, I walk around part of the lake to a track which leads to Mount Crichton, about a 4 hour return. Probably too late for today, as the sun sets at about 5.30pm, but it will be darker and colder earlier, as the sun will descend behind the high mountains to the west, so I take a shorter walk to Bob’s Cove, which a sign says is about 3 hours. The track sometimes follows the lake and sometimes cuts inland, through forest of mostly eucalyptus, rata (a tree unique to New Zealand), silver birch and beech, with the snowy mountains a constant companion on my left. It is warm in the sunshine, but decidedly chilly in the more sheltered valleys and I walk swiftly to ensure I’m back so I can cook in daylight. The fried lamb chops taste brilliant in this stunning location and I watch the light gradually change in the sky opposite, from blue to a red colour, to blue tinged with a subtle, light purple, to almost no colour at all. The sky doesn’t go black for quite a while, as the snowy peaks illuminate the sky close by them, but gradually a host of stars appear in the night-sky. Like Australia, there are thousands of them, but here, they are bright and sharp and glinting with icy coldness.

The following day again starts with an intensely blue sky, so I continue to head north along the same, vast lake, stopping at Glenorchy for a coffee, before crossing the Dart River and taking a bumpy dirt/gravel road to Kinloch. The weather stays dry until about 3pm, when it starts to absolutely throw it down. If the good weather had continued, I’d thought of taking a chance on some quite challenging roads to try and reach Lake Sylvan (‘Isengard’), but there are a number of fords to cross and the van is not 4WD (and it’s not insured on unsealed roads anyway), so probably sensibly, I decide to stay here for the evening. The clouds have descended now, the spectacular views have disappeared and the penetratingly cold damp has returned, but at least I have had the privilege of seeing some truly amazing scenery in all its majesty for almost 2 days so far. Absolutely stunning, and if it rains for the remaining stay in New Zealand, then Hey Ho, it will have been worth it!

View from Campsite at Wanaka

On the road to Cardrona - Crown Mountain Range

Queenstown

Lake Wakatipu

Location of 'Ithilien' in the Lord of the Rings film (so the map says, anyway)

Walk to Bob's Cove

Dinner is (almost) served - Camp at 12 Mile Delta (Ithilien)

Lake Wakatipu at Dusk

On the road to Glenorchy - Pig and Goose Islands on the right

On the road again! How fantastic is that?

Crossing The Dart River

Dirt road to Kinloch - a bit bumpy

Campsite view at Kinloch. Luverly!