Captain’s Log: Franz Joseph to Haast, Day 25-26

Feb 27-28

Hi All,

We were up pretty early to make our way to the Wilderness Lodge at Lake Moeraki near the Haast region. Remarkably the weather had cleared from the night before and we had some spectacular views of the southern alps and coastal range. We posted some of the pics of the Fox glacier, Mt Tasman and Mt Cook on the previous blog.

The Wilderness Lodge was a bit of a gamble as we booked this after reading about this eco-lodge and became intrigued. “It is run by husband and wife owners, teacher Anne Saunders and biologist Dr Gerry McSweeney who arrived at Lake Moeraki (Maori translation: “to sleep or dream by day”) in 1989 from Wellington where Gerry was director of New Zealand’s largest environmental organization. They set up the Lodge to help protect the rainforests and to share this extraordinary natural setting with visitors.” Gerry was the leading force to have this region declared a World Heritage site in 1989….wow!!!

The drive down the West coast was just spectacular and rugged, with vista after vista opening up around every bend. It reminded us a bit of one of our favorite areas, Big Sur in California! When we arrived the weather was starting to set in again but we got in two small hikes before dinner. Dr Gerry went with us on one and it was fascinating to learn about these forests. Many of the trees are 500-2000 years old…..Rimu, Matai, and Kahikatea and about 100 different other trees and ferns. We saw many birds as Gerry’s rat and stoat eradication has been very successful over the 18 years he has owned the Lodge. We saw bellbird, tui, fantail, wood pigeons, tomtit, Harry the white heron and a variety of waterbirds – mallards, cormorants and black swans.

We have walked in rainforests in Alaska, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Patagonia and now New Zealand. They are all special but this one being so old was truly magical. This region gets aver 160″ of rain each year….that is like half an inch per day….well, it rained at least 1.5″ while we were there…impressive!!

The food is advertised as gourmet as well as luxurious accommodations…..well, I think Angus spoiled us on the Heaphy track as we rated the food as only half CO’s…..still not bad and we ate well. And, the bed had a feather top…..we both slept very well!!!

Well, our luck with Mr Weather finally came to an end and we got up the next day to very gray skies and rain. But, being the hardy souls we are, we donned our rain gear and spent the day hiking and kayaking the river to the sea in the morning and doing a 4 mile coastal walk on the beach with Dr Gerry in the afternoon…..a very full day indeed and we were both a bit cold and waterlogged and ready for cocktails and dinner!!! Again, this is very remote area, both the forest and beaches, and we were treated to some marvelous sights. We even saw a fur seal and some crested penguin tracks but no penguin. It is not really penguin season so we did not expect to see one but we think this one had come ashore to moult. On the beaches we continued to look for greenstone….we came close but no true gem….but a lot of cool shells, rocks and drift wood pieces!!!

The next day after a delicious breakfast we did our last 4 mile hike to Munro beach….where again it was raining, but we did some shelling and saw another fur seal!! Then it was off to Lake Wanaka and up and over the Haast pass. Unfortunately it was still raining pretty hard so we did not get to see much of the pass but we think the views would have been spectacular!!

Stats:
Traveled: 100 miles today; 1400 miles total!
Hotel: Wilderness Lodge at Lake Moeraki – our most expensive yet, helps pay for the World Heritage site!!
Wrong Turns: holding at 4:)))
One-Way Bridges: 130+, and includes the longest one way bridge in NZ over the Haast River, it has 2 pass over spots for cars to move aside and let the oncoming cars pass….arghhhhhh!!!
Food: Kathy had the filet one night that was excellent, and we both had lamb the 2nd night that was also excellent; the 1st night a Wooing Tree Pinot Noir….excellent and the 2nd night a Peregrine Pinot Noir…..outstanding, both wines from the Otago region we visited last year and Peregrine is one of our favorites!!

We are now in Wanaka and hopefully will hike the Rob Roy glacier tomorrow but it is supposed to rain and the road might be impassable…..so our backup is wine tasting in the Otago region…yep, LIG!!!!

Hope all is well!!

John

PS: More pics on the website!!
PSS: On the boating front, we just learned that the container with our packages we shipped with Kiwi shipping from LA which have been held up due to the port labor issues and which were supposedly on the water to arrive Auckland March 5, was randomly selected for a Custom inspection so all the packages are still sitting in LA on a customs hold…..they are now scheduled to ship on 3/9 to arrive 3/23 which is just about the time we get back to Auckland so we are crossing fingers this all works out!!