Stuck in the Sixties

From Christchurch we headed southwest towards our next destination, Twizel (sadly, pronounced ‘T-wise-l’ not ‘Twizzle’), the gateway to Mt Cook National Park. These roads, as well as most that we travelled in the South Island were lined with VERY tall ‘hedges’, usually made up of actual pine tres cut into hedge form. we deducd that rather than prforming the function of hedges in England (keeping animals contained) most of these were actually windbreaks, as the whole of the South island can be very windy.

‘Jane’, renamed ‘Hal’, our recalcitrant Google assistant, was up to his/her old tricks, arbitrarily changing our planned route several times in the first hour, so we decided to retire Hal completely and spend the rest of the trip navigating the old school way, with a map (albeit, not a paper one). And who was doing the navigating after this decision was made? Spoiler Alert: it wasn’t Tom.

We took the scenic route on old state highway 77, crossing the vast Canterbury Plain, and over the Rakaia River, one of New Zealand’s many ‘braided rivers’ named for the crisscrossing channels they make over wide, flat river valleys.

This glacial river appears a milky blue from a distance and a milky greenish white up close—all a result of the sediment from the glacial moraine the water flows through. A glass of the river water appears clear, however!

We walked along the riverbank, which was full of vast quantities of flat round stones perfect for skipping. We tried our hand, with middling success.

Further on, we passed through the attractive small towns of Geraldine, wher we stopped at the ubiquitous WWI Memorial, and Fairlie, where we saw a monument to to a different kind of hero: folk-hero/outlaw James MacKenzie who discovered the valley that still bears his name while trying to hide the 1000 sheep he had stolen from farmers on the Canterbury Plain. ,

The scenery included lovely valleys and the background of the Southern alps foothills.

,And thn we made the descent over Burkes Pass and caught our first glimpse of Lake Tekapo.

What a stunner! The deep turquoise of the lake is hard to describe and unlike and body of water I have ever seen, again as a result of glacial moraine. We stayed a while at the lake, entranced by its color and setting among the mountains, though it and the town nearby are quite the tourist destination and it was very, as we say, ‘people-y’.

Nothing prepared us for the sight further on of Lake Pukaki, larger and an even more beautiful color than Lake Tekapo, its beauty further enhanced by the backdrop of Mt Cook and its snow-covered peaks. As an added bonus,  there is no tourist town there, so there were no crowds and we had the place almost to ourselves.

We wanted to stay until sundown, but had to check in to our next place before six pm, so we reluctantly drove to Twizel, where we had booked a 3 bedroom holiday cottage.

Twizel was founded in 1968 as a village to house workers on a nearby hydroelectric dam, so everything in the town dates back to that time or later. The house we stayed in was certainly one of the originals. It was clearly a pre-fab built on the cheap and it felt as if we had entered into a 1960s time-warp. Everything from the single pane aluminum windows to the cabinetry and bathroom fittings was very 1960s. It was very comfortable, though, with a well equipped kitchen, a washing machine (no dryer) and  plenty of space.

Our next place, in Queenstown, had much the same vibe. A ‘motor lodge’ very centrally located near the gondola, it obviously had a been built in the 60s and had not had much upgrading since. Our room boated a ‘lake view’, which was not entirely inaccurate….

The small kitchenette/bedroom with a double and spare bed reminded me of the motel rooms we used to get in Lake Tahoe in the 1960s in order to be able to afford to ski as a family, where my mom would do all the cooking in a small under-equipped kitchen and we all slept in the same room.

In much the same way, throughout NZ we have tried to book places with cooking facilities to save money on eating out every night. We’ve had some great kitchens like the one in Twizel, with all the kitchen utensils anyone would need, a full stove and oven, even a few with dishwashers and full sized fridges, paper products, oil, spices, etc. Others have been quite minimal, with just a microwave and small frig or maybe a two burner stovetop as well.

Everywhere we have stayed has provided an electric kettle, some size of French Press coffee maker & complimentary ground coffee (which they call ‘plunger coffee’), often a small bottle of milk and cold water in the fridge, always tea bags and instant coffee and hot chocolate. They have all been clean, comfortable and adequate for our needs, and a few have been top-notch, but none has matched the first place we stayed-the Treehouse– which set a very high bar indeed.

 All in all, our apartment stays in New Zealand have probably spoiled us a bit and I think we will be in for a shock in some of the places we stay later in the trip. They might even make us look back and fondly reminisce about all the 1960s places we stayed in New Zealand.