On Thursday, after driving up the Remarkables, Pete and I drove out to Glenorchy, which is at The Head of the Lake (Lake Wakatipu that is). Glenorchy is the last stop before the Routeburn Walking Track and was originally known as the meeting or resting place by early Maori, who would make the hazardous journey from the West Coast to the Head of Lake Wakatipu in search of the unique grey-green greenstone, or pounamu, only found in the Dart and Routeburn Valleys.In 1862 the first settlers came from Europe looking for new grazing and were closely followed by prospectors looking for gold and later scheelite. Tourism is now a major contributor to the town's economy. In the early years, steam ships would be the only way to access the Head of the Lake and the TSS Earnslaw is still used for tourism today. The first road from Queenstown to Glenorchy open in 1962.
The photo to the right is of Pig Island, in the forefront and Pigeon Island behind. These lakes lie at the Head of the Lake.
The road from Queenstown to Glenorchy is tarsealed all the way, but windy. Slow drivers who are not used to such windy roads can cause some minor road rage (not us, no, never :)), especially when they do not pull over where it is possible and let the built up traffic trailing them pass. To the left is a small section of the road up to Glenorchy. Drivers must remember to watch the road and not the amazing scenery! |
| Wind sculptured tree stumps. |
This building is/was historic in that it originally served as the unloading/loading point for all produce coming in and out of Glenorchy. Unfortunately, in a big flood, it was partially destroyed so was relocated further up the shore and rebuilt, using new timber. The history of Glenorchy is able to be viewed inside the shed.
The Dart River enters Lake Wakatipu at the Head of the Lake. Here is a photo of the Dart River, taken just out of Glenorchy on the road to Paradise. Many of the rivers in the South Island are very wide and "braided". In periods of snow melt or heavy rain, they can become full from bank to bank.Further on from Glenorchy are the Dart and Rees Valleys and Paradise. We didn't venture up either valley, being time poor and not having a second 4WD with us, if we got into strife. Another visit will see us do the Dart River tour, by both 4WD and jet-boat. We did drive up to Paradise, which really is paradise. An area of beauty, accessible on a dirt road, that winds literally through a Beech Tree forest; in places the road is only one lane, and meeting a vehicle coming the other way can necessitate one of you backing up until the road is wide enough for the vehicles to pass. At this time of year, you have to 'ford' a stream to get to Paradise. Paradise is not even a village, it is a group of farms in a certain area. If we had had more time, we would have driven to the end of the road, but unfortunately, we didn't. Another time. Both Pete and I agreed we could easily live there, although in winter, it would be very cold and at times, cut off from "civilisation" - not always a bad thing in my book.
Another view of the Dart River is to the right. This was further up the valley and taken from a bridge that spanned it. I love the snow capped hills in the background. The sign to the left is one that is at the beginning of the dirt road through the beech forest to Paradise and really "tickled our fancy". |
| Road through the beech forest |
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| The stream we had to ford, not deep at the moment |
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| Paradise with Diamond Lake in the background. |
On the way back we did a small detour up alongside a little rocky stream which I can now not remember the name of. Schist is everywhere around this area. One day, I'm going to have a house built of it. We had a wee play with some of the stones on the side of the stream.
We also passed some old semi derelict cottages, which possibly have been around for many many years. I love old buildings. We also saw a new subdivision which had two copper tui statues at the entrance. The sound of tui's is one of the things I really miss.
