Feb 22-23: Haast to Te Anau

Feb 22, 2025. Left Haast and were pleasantly surprised that we followed the vast Haast river valley way up into the mountains, so that when we got to Haast pass we had barely noticed that we had climbed and the road had not been perilously windy. 

 

We made one stop at the Rushing Billy Falls Walk  for about 20 minutes, 

passing through a lovely forest 

to the river bottom where we looked across at the falls.

Trees big enough for a small home. Drove on to the Blue Pools, a premier destination, but the trail was closed because a bridge washed out, so we drove on.

 

To our surprise, we passed into Aspiring National Park and the hillsides became barren and brown. All the glaciers or snowfields were melted so it was an Eastern Washington sort of experience. 

 

We passed a lot of cattle and sheep pastures and closer to Queenstown there were a number of orchards and fruit stands. 

We stopped for fresh peaches, Black Friar plums, and some nectarines.

 

Our crazy campsite in Queenstown was right next to the gondola and a lot of tourist action.  Also by a gelato stand with Belgian Chocolate and Pavlova gelato flavors.  That fortified us for vigorous shopping---looking for teeshirts for the grandkids but also found a great one for Kris.  Looking for a possum-merino sweater for Andy's birthday, but too scary to spend so much money on something we weren’t sure would fit.  Enjoyed hanging out on the waterfront, where we snapped this photo of the lake.

 

Bypassed all the nice restaurants and went to Kentucky Fried for the familiar fried chicken with mash and slaw.

 

February 23, 2025 - 

Stopped at the dump and water station on our way out of town and headed south along Lake Wakatipu toward Te Anau. The road was much straighter and wider than yesterday and we made it there before two.The drive along the lake was the place where the road became exceedingly curvy, but at least not steep up or down. We stopped at Devil’s Staircase which turned out to be a lookout across the lake and the jagged peaks.  That was a relief because we thought the term referred to the road!

 

At the DoC bird sanctuary in Te Anau we saw several Takahe, a flightless bird previously thought to be extinct but then discovered again in remote mountains nearby and now in a breeding program.

Also some kakarika green parrots.  There are four kinds of native parrots, some of which we heard/saw on the north island.

 

Lots of time so decided to explore the Kepler Track along the south side of Lake Te Anau. It was the most like the Pacific NW, with tall trees and an understory of almost sword ferns. Very cool and pleasant in the shade---sun a bit hot. 

The New Zealand version of icicle moss, dripping off the trees. 

                                                                                

These look so much like our sword ferns but grew on little root stalks almost like a miniature fern tree.

Also discovered an orchid plant on a log.

The orchid with tiny white blossoms.

 

At the spillway for Lake Te Anau we saw some giant fish---either big trout or landlocked Salmon that were transplanted here.  Native eels have to be transported around the dam.  Back to town we found our campsite and then went to downtown and walked the lake a little and shopped for merino-possum some more until we found ourselves at an impasse and gave up and came back to the RV park to plan our trip to Milford Sound tomorrow.