Nine Degrees and Raining

Half the people we meet tell us that this rainy weather is just what happens in New Zealand, the other half apologize for the weather. Regardless of what it’s normally like, we have had awful weather lately. The worst of it was in the Catlins, the south eastern corner of New Zealand. Over the course of our four days there we experienced pouring rain, gale force winds, daytime temperatures of 6C, and hail storms. All this prompted us to write another rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas, this one based entirely on what we experienced in the Catlins.
It goes like this:

On the twelfth day in the Catlins New Zealand gave to me:
Twelve gale force days
Eleven big black clouds
Ten frozen toes
Nine degrees and raining
Eight rusty wheels
Seven giant hills
Six twisty roads
Five numb fingers
Four soggy tourists
Three hail storms
Two frozen ears
And hypothermia

For our first version of the Twelve Days of Christmas, click here
For the full story of our time in the Catlins, click here.

The Misty Mountains

After a lovely ride through the Buller Gorge and the West Coast we have reached the Southern Alps. The mountains have been getting progressively bigger since we started crossing the South Island and now they have finally become the Alps. These towering, snowcapped mountains are home to all sorts of birds and plants as well as several glaciers.
On our first day in Greymouth,  we rented a car (a Mazda Demio) and headed south towards the Franz Joseph Glacier. On our way we stopped to explore Hokitika,  a popular tourist town near Greymouth. There we found a Saturday morning market.  Though the market was small, we made a few purchases. Dad and Owen both bought pounamu (jade) pendant and we shared this fantastic, Hungarian, fried, garlic – flavoured pancake called a Langos. I also bought a jade necklace in Hokitika. Pounamu (jade) is a very important stone in Maori culture and necklaces with carved pounamu pendants are very popular. From there we drove all the way to the village of Franz Joseph. The drive, although pretty, was not as stunning as the ride from Punakaiki to Greymouth. We did get to cross a combination rail and car bridge (a bridge where you literally have to drive on the train tracks to get across), which dad was thrilled about.
After lunch,  we went on the glacier walk just past the village of Franz Joseph. The glacier is receding very quickly, so the only way to actually hike on it is to fly there by helicopter. This is why we stuck to the (free) hike to the view point. We walked through the bush for a few minutes before popping out into a large valley. We could now see the glacier itself. We were a bit concerned that the low hanging clouds were going to cover the glacier but it was easy to see and it was even in sun for a while.  We walked up the braided river that comes from the glacier, to the lookout point. It was  stunning. Both sides of the steep valley had rock faces and cliffs all over as well as gorgeous steep waterfalls and natural bush. The mouth of the valley gave way to steep cliffs and the glacier itself. This was our first experience with the Southern Alps, the filming location of the Misty Mountains in the Hobbit movies.
The next day we woke up to low hanging clouds and spitting rain. As far as we could tell, this seemed like the worst possible weather for our TranzAlpine train journey. We had a tickets for the train that goes from Greymouth to Christchurch via Arthurs pass and we had been hoping for a clear day to see the mountains. By the time we got on the train (1:30) it was still cloudy and wet. We resigned ourselves to missing the snowcapped mountains.
The train took us through some large valleys with more braided rivers. It took about 1 hour and a half to reach Otira, the last town before we got to Arthurs Pass, the point at which the water flows either to the east coast or to the west coast. At Otira the mountains were still obscured, much to our dismay. When we left that station we headed into the 8.5km Otira tunnel. This rail tunnel climbs on on a very steep grade and took nearly 15 years to construct. After about half an hour in the tunnel we came out into the Hamlet of Arthurs Pass…. and clear skies!
From here on we got to see the snowcapped mountains clearly. They were astonishing. We took advantage of the outdoor viewing carriage to photograph the mountains. As we were standing out there we began to see the Waimakariri gorge. This beatiful glacial blue river has carved a gorge through the foothills of the Alps. We rode the train along the steep cliffs beside the gorge and across several shockingly high viaducts over the river itself.
We soon parted with this gorgeous river and continued across the plains of Canterbury to Christchurch.
So while the Misty Mountains might look forbidding and scary in the movies they are definitely worth a visit in real life.

NB: Technical issues mean that I have no photos at the moment. I’ll post them as soon as I can.