NZ Holiday - Heading East in NZ - over the Haast Pass to Otago

Passing Haast - 20th Ocober

Thunder Creek Falls to the Haast River

Heading past Lake Wanaka

Lake Hawea

We booked into quite a good Motel in Haast but somehow we could not get warm during the night. And there was a terrific draught under the bathroom door as I was having my shower. Something just was not right about the room? A window was open! It was a sliding window with an insect excluding mesh across it. We plead guilty to stupidity and we are sorry to the environment for having the heater on all night By the way, we bought some bug repellent at a pharmacy in Richmond. We had expected to be attacked by swarms of sandflies on the West Coast. Can report that this stuff is magic. Have not even seen an insect and, the great thing is, you do not even need to spray it on, just leave it in the car. Best 30 bucks I have ever spent! The road from Haast over to the East was only completed in the sixties. When I pedalled over in the mid-seventies it was still unsealed. Today, it is a pleasant easy drive with a few stops to look at waterfalls plummeting into the Haast River. There are no settlements on the 80 km drive between Haast Town and Makarora. The Gates of Haast is the steepest section of the road. Shortly afterwards you cross the divide at the Haast Pass and enter Otago. This chap Julius Von Haast seems a bit of a self-publicist. He surveyed the area in the 1800's and seems to have put his name to just about everything he saw. He selflessly did not name a big glacier after himself. He did however name one Franz Josef, after the Hapsburg Emporer, and was rewarded with a Knighthood. Hence the Von in his name. Bit like cash for honours if you ask me. He did have a couple of failures, Mt. Haast is not the highest mountain, only 3114m and the Haast Eagle is extinct. Transiting a van? Mountain Biking Downhill in Wanaka Anyway we are now in Otago and heading down through Makarora. The A frame hut I stayed in is still there. Magnificent mountain vistas as we passed Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea. We were headed for Albert Town, named after Prince Albert, possibly another knighthood for someone. Albert is on the Clutha River that flows out of Lake Wanaka and is a few minutes drive from Wanaka Town. We checked in to our flat and headed for Town. Wanaka Town was really busy which was a bit of a shock. It was a Bank Holiday weekend and there were a couple of events going on. One event was an Urban Downhill Mountain Bike Race. People were hurtling down steps, flying over jumps and through lorries to get from the top of a hill to the Lakeside. We were too late to enter thankfully. Looked lethal but good fun.