Lake Coleridge Loop

Catch-up

One of the reasons we wanted to stay at the Rakaia Gorge campground was so we could do some exploring in the Lake Coleridge basin.  Now that we were back in Methven is was just a short drive back through the gorge, up to Windwhistle (don't you love that name) and then onto the lake road; 30km of lovely sealed road through to Lake Coleridge.

I took this photo at the top of the road out of the gorge, the gorge is tucked around the corner of the hill, middle left. You can see the road leading down to the gorge in the background. And that is Mt Hutt behind.

We pass the entrance to Terrace Downs Resort and championship golf course along the way; I'd always wondered where it was. That's two extremes in accommodation just a few kilometres apart; camping down in the dip or top notch luxury up on the terrace! I know where I'd rather be.....in winter anyway! Just joking.

The road follows the Rakaia River inland, all the way to the Lake Coleridge village, but unfortunately there are only a few places that you catch a glimpse of it across the farmland.

There's an excellent information board on the side of the road with a map and listing accommodation, activities and walks that can be done in the area (click to enlarge).

Like the Ashburton Lakes, there are also quite a number of smaller lakes up this valley too. We'll have to come back and explore more in the summer, today we're only going to be touching the bottom end of Lake Coleridge.

Another photo opportunity presents itself at Dog Box Corner, I have no idea of the origins of the name but the 'box' looks like it could be used for the pickup or dropoff of supplies. Perhaps it's a take on the historic Dog Kennel Corner in the MacKenzie Country.

Lake Coleridge was the New Zealand Government's first hydroelectric power station, it was in an ideal location because of it's proximity to the growing city of Christchurch. There's a good display of historic items from the station and also a excellent information board on the reserve at the entrance to the carpark. 

Lake Coleridge is 170 metres above the Rakaia River, so only gravity is needed to bring water from the lake through to the power station and then emptying into the Rakaia River below.  Construction started in 1911 and with over 400 employees at its peak, it took 3 years to complete in what was a wild and bleak landscape. The station was built on a glacial moraine (shingle) which had never been achieved before. The winters were harsh, and a small village of permanent huts was built for the workers and then once they had moved on, power station staff and their families moved in. Today, with most of the power station automated, the village's permanent population is small and the residents are mostly there for the lifestyle and recreation in the area. 

Harry Hart, a power station superintendent, was interested in New Zealand's forestry potential and experimented with planting exotic trees, particularly conifers, around the village. The collection grew large and was diverse enough to be called an arboretum. Many trees are still standing and visitors can learn about some of them on the Harry Holt Arboretum tree trail. 

We drove past the power station, over the outlet canal, down an overgrown track and through several deep ice covered muddy holes until we found the edge of the river where we sat on the tailgate and had our lunch.

Here's a pano of the view up river (click to enlarge)- I've said this before; we certainly find ourselves some awesome spots to have lunch.

After lunch we wind our way up the hill above the power station, passing through the arboretum and stopping to take a photo of the view out over the river, half way up.

The pine forest gives way to farmland and this expansive view down the Rakaia valley and the backside of Mt Hutt. 

I zoomed in on the river here where you can clearly see the how braided it is before it narrows down to pass through the gorge.

We headed over the hill and down towards Lake Coleridge, passing several road repair vehicles on the way. The road has just been graded and several trucks and a roller are filling in potholes on a connecting road. 

And what do you know? We cross the Te Araroa Trail once again! 

It's a surprise to see divers in the lake, I bet they have super heavy duty wetsuits on, the water is freezing! It would seem that a Christchurch dive company use the lake for their dive courses- that's my type of diving; no chance of sharks!

Nearby a small fast inlet whirlpool takes water from the lake into the penstocks and off down the hill to the power station.  

The power station is moderate in output by today's standards, feeding the national grid with a maximum of 40 megawatts. Water stored in the lake is also used for irrigating farms on the Canterbury Plains.

I was a little disappointed that we couldn't explore further up the lake (on both sides)- there is a lot more you can't see from this small area- but it was getting on and we wanted to take the back country road over to Lake Lyndon. It exits onto the main highway over Arthurs Pass to the West Coast.

The road is just over 14kms long, there are several reasonably narrow sections but nothing out of the ordinary in our opinion and we'd take the 5th-wheeler across it if we had to, and the conditions were right. On this day there were several icy patches and I'm sure the clay base would be a slippery mess if it was wet or raining but in dry weather, it would be fine. 

Eventually we arrived at the bottom end of a frozen Lake Lyndon which, at this time of the year, is in the shadow of the mountain by the same name, Mt Lyndon all day. The only sign of life in this bitterly cold frozen landscape is a car parked at the lodge across the lake and a pair of spur-wing plovers protesting at being disturbed.

We stop further down on the edge of the road and I challenge David to a rock throwing competition. To see who can be the first to break through the ice, we lob huge rocks at the lake and they bounce and skid across ice until eventually David manages to puncture through. And it would seem that we were not the only big kids to try this, the ice is littered with rocks and very few holes.

There's a freedom camping area at the top end of the lake, it's never really appealed due to it's proximity to the main highway and the last time we came through here, the lake was bone dry, the area barren and hot. We stop this time for a quick cup of tea and then headed off, over Porters Pass back through Springfield, Sheffield, Glentunnel and Windwhistle to complete the loop and then back through the gorge and home to Methven.

Haast Pass

With another sunny day waiting in the wings (behind the mountains), we left a very cold and frosty Makaroa behind and carefully made our way over the icy road to our first stop in Haast Pass. 

The Blue Pools are located at the mouth of the Blue River which joins the Makaroa River deep within the thick bush of the Pass. It's a short and easy 1.5km return walk (1 hour) to the pools but the first thing we notice when we step out on the path through the bush is, (surprise, surprise), how bloody cold it is. It's freezing, and I usually don't feel the cold too much, but this was bone chilling cold. A good reason to step lively, I tell David. Needless to say, he's not impressed. We stop for a moment or two at the occasional sunny spot on the track, it's amazing how quickly you can feel the warmth from a weak sun. It's not too long before we can see the Blue Pool bridge across the river.

We cross over the Makaroa River swingbridge, being careful not to touch the wire rope too often- it's covered in thick ice and our gloves stick to it. Luckily the boards are covered in wire netting providing a good grip for our boots on the frosty bridge. 

We even have to scrape the ice off the information board beside the pools, to read it.

We're back into tourist territory; DOC have gone all out in providing well formed pathways, information panels and this excellent stable bridge so the pools can be seen clearly from above. 

The blue colour of the pools is a result of the light refraction on the clear, snow fed, icy cold water- I can relate to that; that's why my hands and nose are ice blue! A few hardy trout swim through the pool, it's obviously very deep as they look tiny down by the floor, growing to reasonably sized fish as they approach the surface.

Looking back towards the Makaroa River swingbridge- the rocky beach and surrounding trees are coated in icicles.

David has had enough of the cold, he heads back to the carpark while I take a track down to the edge of the pools...

...being very careful not to slip over as I cross the frost covered rocks, unlike this fellow who quickly regained his composure as he slipped and stumbled over them. 

And then the next lot of people did the same. I wonder how many have no idea how ice works. 

Our next stop was just down the road at the Cameron Flat DOC Campground which looks to have had a recent upgrade, there's several parking tiers, all surrounded with bollards and rails. It's well set out for the summer influx of campers although it's not our cup of tea. We're not keen on this type of regimented DOC camp, where the camping areas are marked out and they usually don't allow for larger rigs either. 

There were a couple of things going for the camp though; it catches the early morning sun and it has a fabulous view out over the Makaroa River Valley.

By the time we're back on the road and climbing towards the Pass summit, the icy roads are turning to slush and we can hear the recently spread grit splattering up underneath. We stop at the top...

...and decide that the Haast Pass Lookout Track looks a little too steep and a little too long at 3.5km.... maybe that can wait until the summer if we're passing through. The problem then will be the lack of carparking for our bigger rig- that's one plus travelling out of season.

We're ticking the stops off quickly now, especially when the attractions are right beside the road. Fantail Falls are next and it's just a quick 5 minute walk to see them. With such a dry summer and autumn there's not too much water flowing over them. We're a little underwhelmed (thankfully the walk wasn't too long).

And once again the rocky beach is covered in thick frost, which actually appealed more than the falls to some Irish travellers I spoke to in the carpark. 

David wanders back to the vehicles via the river, checking for trout along the way. I take some more frost crystal photos.

With no pull-offs or slow vehicle bays on a long haul up the next steep incline, we pull across the road to let traffic from behind pass...

...where there's a very steep drop off into the Haast River far below...

And it's not until later that I realise that this is the area where, 2 years ago, a landslide wiped a tourist's motorhome off the road and into the Haast Gorge during a severe weather event that hit the area. The badly mangled van was later found wrapped around a huge rock downstream. Sadly one person's body was never found and the 2nd's was found 50kms away washed up on the beach north of the river mouth. It's hard to believe that such a tragedy could happen surrounded by such a majestic landscape. Never under-estimate the power of nature.

We head downhill, passing a number of signs counting down the metres left before your time runs out to take the emergency off-ramp (or should that be up-ramp)! I can't even imagine how terrifying that would be. This is the first time we've seen anything like this on  our travels, and although it was steep it didn't appear to be that out of the ordinary. Maybe it's because the gorge and river are at the bottom of the drop...

...along with the 'Gates of Haast'. We crossed over the bridge and pulled into a parking area so I could get some shots of the river and bridge.

The roar of the water passing through the narrow gorge tumbling over and around the huge boulders was deafening. I 'found' this information plaque on a rock wall, hidden under the overhanging ferns on the other side of the road.  

Our next stop is at the spectacular and aptly named Thunder Creek Falls which appear like magic through a tiny gap in the bush, dropping 28 metres over a smooth rock face into a small pool below. David likes walks like these, its another short 5 minute walk from the carpark. 

We stop at the only other  DOC Campground on the Haast Road for lunch. Pleasant Flat isn't so pleasant today, the sun disappears behind the mountains just as we pull in and it's soon cold and very damp; thank God for the diesel heater, which we set going as soon as we stop. It doesn't take long to roar into life and the interior is soon toasty warm while we have hot soup and warm bread rolls. I love travelling with the van on the back!

Pleasant Flat is also another regimented campsite with rails and bollards around numerous areas that are tucked into the bush and out here around the shelters and toilets. We wouldn't fit the vehicles in here during the busy season either, except maybe outside the loos! No thank you.

Our last stop of the day is at the Roaring Billy Falls. I catch a glimpse of the falls over the top of the trees at the back of the carpark and try to decide if it's going to be worth walking to them. They are already in the shade and in fact it looks like they might not see the sun at all during the winter, tucked into a narrow gully between mountains. 

It's a 15 minute walk through a fern and moss laden silver beech forest to the Haast River bank where the view isn't any better. I cross the wide rocky river bed to the edge of the river and the foot of the falls but they are even more obscured by the overhanging trees, the noise is...well...a roar. Been there, done that, crossed it off the list. 

Back on the road and it seems to take forever to wind our way down through the wide Haast River valley until we finally reach the tiny settlement of Haast...

...which we pass right on by and turn left just before the exceptionally long single lane bridge over the river. We're heading south along the coast to the Haast Beach campground, a classic original kiwi campground. Except that it isn't actually at Haast Beach which is just 4kms south but at Okuru, 16kms south. There's plenty of signs letting us know that we're nearly there.

Haast Beach campground is a large property with lots of open space around the central ablution and kitchen blocks and two rows of cabins. It's the long Queens Birthday weekend and after our host tells us that there's a 4WD club due to stay in the cabins for the weekend, we find ourselves a quiet spot out the back with the whitebaiters 'retired for winter' caravans. Perfect! 

Well nearly, there's no cellphone reception so no internet, which is fine for a few days but it still feels like we've had an arm chopped off. We're given 2x 250mb vouchers when we check in (worth $25 each, a mistake we learn later, it should have been a five dollar, 50mb voucher). When we check the provider we find we can buy more data.....at 10 cents a mb. That's $100 a gb! That's some expensive satellite internet. Take note all you landlubber landliners with your endless supply of gigabytes.

And, I have to report here that I still had about 40mb left after 3 days careful use while he who shall remain nameless, used his voucher and then purchased another $10 worth, using all that as well!