Whittakers Abroad: South Island Trip - Day 6

crossing a road/rail bridge

A rather disconcerting feature of the road between Greymouth and Haast is the number of bridges which are shared by the road and the railway line. There are no barriers across the road. (There are none of these anywhere in New Zealand, though). There aren't any friendly red flashing lights to warn you of an approaching train. In fact, on only a couple of the bridges were there any road signs warning that the road and the railway were about cross, let alone merge. We'd be driving along, enjoying the scenery, when suddenly we'd find ourselves driving along railway tracks, sometimes for up to half a kilometre. We felt like Wile E. Coyote trying to outrun an express locomotive on a jigger, his arms pumping up and down so fast they're just a blur.

One of the villages we passed through was HariHari, whose claim to fame is as the landing site (albeit accidental) of the first solo flight across the Tasman Sea. Australian aviator Guy Menzies took off from Sydney on 7th January 1931. He meant to land in Blenheim, further to the north and on the opposite coast, but bad weather forced him off course, and he ended up crash-landing in a swamp just outside Harihari. Not exactly a glorious end to his adventure, but he did succeed in his goal and was lucky enough to walk away uninjured.

Guy Menzies and his aeroplane after crash-landing near HariHari

Just over halfway between Greymouth and Haast is an area known as Glacier Country. This area of the Southern Alps contains the glaciers which covered a broad swathe of the South Island during the last ice age. Two of the most famous, due to their easy accessibility, are Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier. There's some interesting information about the glaciers here.

Franz Josef Glacier - note the people in the foreground!

Haast is only a tiny village. The primordial rainforest that surrounds it is so rare that the whole area has been designated a world heritage site. Haast is by far the most remote of the places we visited on our trip, and still has the feel of a true frontier settlement. For example, it's not connected to the national power grid, the whole village relying instead on a couple of generators. The lights in our hotel room were really dingy and there were no fridges in any of the rooms, all in an effort to conserve power. According to the hotel information leaflet, the electricity can be cut off for days at a time, especially in the winter. Until about forty-five years ago there were no roads at all into or out of Haast; there were just tracks through the bush. Overland travel of any kind was very hard and slow because of the terrain. Boats were used instead.

The first road connecting Haast to the rest of New Zealand (to Hokitika – currently a 4-hour drive away) was only completed in 1960. The road south to Wanaka, two hours’ drive away, wasn’t completed until 1965!

The people of Haast used to look forward to the supply boat that arrived once every three months. When it arrived there was always a huge party, and if it was late - delayed by storms for example - people would go hungry. If anyone was ill and needed medical treatment they would be carried out on a stretcher along the bush tracks by a team of volunteers. The journey took several days.

After we'd dumped off all our stuff at the hotel, Iain and I went to Haast beach for a bit of R & R. It was a shame we didn't take a camera with us, because it was the most spectacular beach I've ever seen. Miles and miles of sweeping golden sand, turquoise blue sea, a stunning bush and mountain backdrop, and it was utterly deserted. While beachcombing I found a green pebble which I think might be a piece of jade. The area around Haast was on the ancient pounamu (greenstone) trail taken by the Maori, so it's not too fanciful a notion. I'm planning on polishing the stone up and making it into a piece of jewellery when I get home.

Helen