Driving NZ Style

Nov. 19

Last night I went to my car from the B&B to get something about 9:00PM and when I came back to my room I looked out at the yard and thought someone had turned on a floodlight. The mountains were suddenly lit up like it was sunrise and I really thought a yard light had been turned on. Then I realized the setting sun had found a break between two peaks in the west and was bursting through onto the far peak that were in front and to the right of me. It was incredible. Moments before it had been almost dark and I was ready for my bath. I grabbed my camera and ran out my door to the yard. Sandy met me out there and said only rarely did this happen and you have to be watching at that moment as it wouldn’t last long. And as we watched we saw the sun light the very top of some of the snow covered peaks and the sky above started to stain a pale gold and pink. Meanwhile the light was already leaving the peaks on the far right. I was snapping away.

After this fantastic display I went to my bathroom, filled my large, deep tub with hot water and bubble bath and had a nice long soak with a good book and a NZ beer. Then I cooled off in the special rainforest shower and went to watch satellite TV. Nothing to watch on all those channels; simply amazing that I ended up watching the one American TV show that was airing among all the shows.  

This morning I had a very mediocre breakfast-I’ve been spoiled by Pam and Denis- but breathtaking views of Lake Tekapo and the mountains beyond from the dining room table.  Then I started my 5+ hour drive to Manpouri in Fiordland on the south end of the island. I programmed Mrs. Tomtom with my next destination, a self-catering cottage in Manapouri owned by two rangers for the Milford Sound Park, the largest in NZ. I figured the location was perfect for all the Sounds and the information from my hosts would be invaluable. I had already e-mailed with Jessie several times and she had some very good tips.

As I left Lake Tekapo area I was again struck by the abundance of Lupines. Sandy had told me they are members of the pea family and at one point had been planted along the roadside. As pea-type plants the pods heat up and pop open and drop their seed, thus reseeding themselves. My drive was serenaded by a symphony of Lupines for the next two hours. It was incredible. One side of my car passed brown and green slashed, rounded mountains, the other, jagged, jutting snow dappled peaks while the middle of the valley spread wide with Lupine and sheep and cattle. Eventually the yellow gold bush came back and at one point, completely brown mountains covered only with mounded, tan grass bushes. I was afraid of falling asleep even with all this beauty and diversity so first I made a poem to the Lupine, then I sang along to a really cheap CD I bought of Dean Martin (think: That’s Amore and Volare)

Lupine, Lupine paint my way

Kiwi blossom proud and gay.

Flower, weed it matters not

For to me much joy you brought

The southwest of NZ is made up of what are known as 16 sounds, but are really fiords. The original English and Welsh explorers who discovered them named them sounds, such as Doubtful and Milford, the most famous, but they are actually fiords. A sound is a drowned river valley, while a fiord is created by glacial action. So the region is called Fiordland as these are all fiords, but the fiords are still called after the original name of the sounds the explorers used. The area is one huge park mainly accessible by foot or boat. This is where The Great Walks take place and are known as Tracks such as Kepler, Routeburn, Milford, and Hollyford. All these are several days long and require reservations as you need to stay in huts along the way. This is Mecca to backpackers. It also has unpredictable weather, but certain clouds and rain at least once within a several day hike.

As far as driving in NZ, the second day I lost a mud flap on my car. Not my fault- it just started coming off because a bolt was lost so I put it in the trunk. But yesterday I was driving along and because I’m not quite used to sitting on the right side as I drive, I tend to veer to the left a bit and I have no idea what I slid along, but I heard a really long wrenching noise on the left side of the car and a kind of shudder. I pulled over and went around to check and I had somehow mangled my left front wheel cover to the point where it was in pieces and I just pulled the rest of it off. The back is in bad shape too, but I left it on. Glad I have insurance

 I still don’t have the hang of turning right if there is no oncoming car or I’m flustered, I automatically move into the right lane which is fine if no one is around, but as soon as a car starts coming it’s a bit awkward to try and get over where I’m supposed to be on the left. The other thing is it’s really hard to enjoy the fantastic scenery when you’re focused on the driving. And sometimes it’s not because of the left side driving, it’s because a lot of what I did today was two-handed, white knuckle driving. I left at 10:30 in the morning and got into Manapouri at 6:45 in the evening. The whole drive was mountains interspersed with a few valleys.  Driving is all two lane roads with lots of camper vans, semis and tour busses, so you can imagine the tight squeeze I often feel and the little tinge of panic as I round a bend of sheer cliff on one side and drop-off on the other and meet a speeding tour bus.  I did manage to drive back and forth over one gorge three times, but that was Mrs. Tomtoms fault. Somewhere along the way, she started directing me back to where I had come from the night before, and I, like the sheep all around me, decided to follow her. And I followed her back over one of the worst gorge roads in NZ – twice. And then when I got over it the second time I realized she must be nuts (not me, of course) and checked what she was doing, saw the error of her ways and corrected the destination. Always trust your instincts not those stupid little gizmos. Then I went over the gorge a third time with a police man following the whole way. What fun!!! And it was getting late and I was running low on gas and the cop would not get off my tail and I was hungry and thirsty and had to go to the bathroom and I couldn’t take one hand off the wheel to eat or drink. Phew! And all the gas stations close at 5:00PM. What is with that? No one needs gas at the end of the day? My tank was less than an eighth full and Mrs. Tomtom said I had an hour to go. I had no idea if the car would get that far. I prayed two rosaries, sweated a lot, and finally, in the middle of bloody nowhere, came to a town with an open gas station. I almost kissed the man. He even pumped the gas. How cool is that? God is good. The owner of the station even has a son in Minnesota. That is like the third person I have met here who has a relative in Minnesota.

I continued my drive to Manapouri with a much lighter heart and prayers of thanksgiving. From now on the tank does not go below half. Duh! I found my resting place, a small cottage behind the owner’s house with a kitchenette and garden with views of the mountains in several directions. I’m 1 minute from Manapouri and the lake on the edge of the park and 20 minutes from Te Anau the gateway to Doubtful Sound, glow worm caves and all sorts of hikes. The weather is iffy so I don’t know what I will be doing, but I hope to take a boat and helicopter trip over Milford sound sometime in the next few days. Stay tuned.