Into The Interior- Journey to Edoras; Part 2

Continuing on from Part 1

After lunch at Lake Clearwater we carried on up the valley, we've another 21kms of gravel road to travel before we reach the end of the road.

But..it's not long before I've shouted out 'Stop!' (ever so nicely) yet again. These unusual lines have formed in the sheep tracks as the snow has melted away. I think I've mentioned it before, but you may notice a colour difference sometimes in my photos (see above & below). This is due to the photo above being taken through the tinted windscreen of the ute...and me not having time to adjust them all as I process the photos. 

Our next stop is at a lookout point- it's not an official lookout, but going by the rough gravel pulloff area just before the road drops down into the valley, it's a place that many people stop to take in this breathtaking view (click to enlarge).

Ahead of us is the spectacular braided Rangitata River plain, the Rangitata (which means 'close sky' in Maori), is made up of several rivers that flow from their headwaters high in the Southern Alps, that spine of mountains that runs down the middle of the South Island. The eagle eyed amongst you will spot a hallowed Middle Earth location, the rest will have to return to check it out once they've finished reading the blog post.

The Potts River, contained in a deep narrow valley, sweeps dramatically around from our right to join the Rangitata below us.

It's so hard to get perspective in these huge vistas, here's another pano with the road we've just driven down on the right. It's absolutely stunning scenery!

We carry on and as the road (sealed on this downhill/uphill section) drops to the valley floor I can't possibly shout 'Stop!" again so make do with another shot through the windscreen.

We pass by an old friend, the Te Araroa Trail. We've criss-crossed the trail so many times on our journey through the South Island. There'll not be anybody walking it at this time of the year, there are many places that are inaccessible during winter.

We called in to check out Mt Potts Station, a large farm station nestled below the rugged Potts Range and overlooking the river valley.

Mt Potts also offers lodge accommodation and has tent and powered motorhome sites available too. There's plenty of activities to do for anyone staying. During the winter there's heliskiing or skiing at the Mt Potts skifield, farm tours, hiking, fishing, hunting, rafting, biking or just relaxing and enjoying the spectacular scenery. Unfortunately we wouldn't get 'Out There' up the driveway, the overhanging pines are too low.

There's another reason Mt Potts Station is also popular with visitors, along with it being not too far a walk off trail for Te Araroa walkers to spend a night, it's also home to Mt Sunday.

Mt Sunday, that small brown rocky hill in the centre of the valley has been made famous by Sir Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy and has become the El Dorado to die-hard LOTR fans, a must visit while touring the country.

Mt Sunday was the set for Edoras, the fortress city of the Rohan people in the Lord of the Rings. The Golden Hall and surrounding buildings were built at the top of the sheer cliffs, with the gatehouse and more buildings at the foot. And even though the area was returned to its natural state once filming was finished, Mt Sunday still attracts hundreds of people on a pilgrimage, they come to see it, walk it, touch it, photograph it, and then to go home and be able to say they have journeyed to Edoras.

Unfortunately we didn't have the time to walk to the summit of Mt Sunday, a 3km, 90 minute return walk, we carried on up the road stopping again to take in the views. In this panorama shot you can clearly see Mt Sunday in the middle of the river plain. Mt Sunday is a 'roche moutoné', a low rounded hill of bedrock, left behind by a glacier as it's retreated up the valley.

I couldn't get enough of the spectacular views in every direction; just to stand there and take it all in was breathtaking (not least because of the cold air!). 

The sheer vastness and how remote and untouched it was; we are but just small fry in this land of splendour. I love how the mountains rise so sharply from the valley floor. 

We haven't much further to travel before the road runs out. We're heading to the base of that mountain ahead of us. But first we'll cross Jumped Up Downs, those gentle slopes leading down to the braided river below (I wonder how they were named).

Long before Edoras there was Erewhon, a huge 14,000 hectare high country station world famous in New Zealand, and one of the main reasons why people ventured to the top of this valley. Erewhon's name is a play on the word 'nowhere', and it must have really felt like that when early settlers, and then later; farm managers, shepherds, musterers, shearers and their families arrived to work on the farm.

Samuel Butler wrote in his classic novel Erewhon, a great description of this harsh landscape. "Never shall I forget the utter loneliness of the prospect- only the little far away homestead giving sign of human handiwork, the vastness of mountain and plain, of river and sky; the marvellous atmospheric affects sometimes black mountains against a white sky, and then again, after cold weather, white mountains against black sky”. 

We drove through to the turning bay, I'd have loved to have carried on and seen the homestead and farm buildings but I couldn't twist my conservative other half's arm. I had to make do with seeing some of the Clydesdales the Erewhon is famous for in a paddock beside the turning bay.

The Station runs Merino sheep (the only breed that can survive in these harsh conditions), Hereford cattle, deer and has a Clydesdale Horse Stud.

Most of the Station's tractor work is done with a team of of Clydesdales, all the stock work is carried out on foot or horseback and in this unforgiving environment, horses are quicker to ride places and can cross the rivers even when in flood. In the summer the Station offers visitors accommodation, a backcountry farming experience, wagon or saddle rides and overnight treks up the valley. I'm so coming back here!

We head back down the road pulling over to have a cup of tea at the same spot as before, overlooking Mt Sunday. And why wouldn't we?

Well, David would say because it's too bloody cold, there's an ice cold wind blowing so we rug up with jackets, gloves and hats and rather than sit on the tailgate like usual, we jiggle about trying to keep warm and keep our tea in the cup at the same time. I know it's hard to believe it's that cold when you look at the photos, but believe me it is freezing, perhaps 2-3c with a minus degree of wind chill.

At the far end of the valley, the Rangitata River disappears around the end of the mountains on the left and passes through the Rangitata Gorge. Another famous farm station, and twice the size of Erewhon at 30,000 hectares, Mesopotamia Station is on the other side of the river, centre right. Mesopotamia is at the end of the Rangitata Gorge Road, we've not been that far up the road, making it just past Peel Forest when we explored up that side of the river a couple of years ago.

While we were having our afternoon tea we spotted two vehicles driving along a track heading to the top of Mt Sunday. They belong to a LOTR tour company that is allowed to drive to the rock; the vehicles pulled in behind us when we were at the lookout. It's not long before we see little ants walking about at the top of Mt Sunday.

Mt Sunday gained its name because boundary riders from the surrounding high country stations used to meet there on Sundays for a cuppa and a catch up. Makes perfect sense! 

The cold eventually gets the better of us and we hurry about clearing up before climbing back into the warmth of the ute and head off towards home, stopping one more time just before the lookout so I can get a shot of the Potts River Bridge. You can see Mt Sunday, centre right, way in the background (remember to check out the photos I took at the lookout for Mt Sunday too).

Not far past Lake Clearwater, we do a quick drive-by (in and out) to check out two more of the Ashburton Lakes, these ones are side by side; tiny Lake Roundabout...

...and quite a bit bigger Lake Emma, two shallow depressions in the surrounding tussockland.

I wonder if that's the historic musterers/fishing hut across the water, where the old dinghy was based, the one that's now on display at the historic Hakatere farm buildings.

We had a fantastic day tiki-touring, and if you haven't already guessed it, we thought the scenery was absolutely spectacular. We didn't know it yet but this wasn't to be our last visit to the Lakes.

Into the Interior- Ashburton Lakes; Part 1

Catch-up- July

After our initial stay in Christchurch we had to be back in the city three weeks later for another appointment so to fill in the time we headed to the interior.  High country Canterbury is one area we haven't explored in great detail and with winter in full swing we thought it would be a great chance to check out the scenery and hopefully experience some snow. Well, if you're going to do winter you might as well do it properly I say. 

Great signs to direct people around the farm buildings.

We'd had enough of  grey overcast nondescript days in Christchurch, so we headed south-west to Mt Somers first, with a plan to slowly move up SH77, known as the Scenic Inland Route (not to be confused with the temporary alternative inland route from Picton to Christchurch), onto SH72, around to Kaiapoi, and back to Christchurch. Well, that was the plan but you know us, our standby motto, when asked where we're off to next, is 'Ask us tomorrow'. Our plans are always fluid, that's what we love about this lifestyle.

Mt Somers Village is the gateway to the Ashburton Lakes, nine lakes that are part of the vast 60,000 hectare Hakatere Conservation Park which is bordered on two sides by the upper reaches of Rakaia & Rangitata Rivers and includes wide sweeping valleys, beautiful tussocklands, beech forest, wetlands and rugged mountain country. 

Twenty three kilometers of sealed road takes us through established sheep country and newly converted dairy farms, right to the edge of the Hakatere Park and the historic restored farm buildings of Hakatere Station. The buildings were bought by the National Heritage Fund in 2008 and are now managed by DOC in partnership with the Hakatere Heritage Committee.

The singlemen's or shearer's quarters (top left, below) was built in the 1870s and was added onto as the need arose. Between 1960 & 1980 up to 14 men lived in these quarters at any one time. Other buildings included a farm cottage, the cook's house, a killing shed and chicken house.

The stone cottage was built in 1862 and is thought to be the oldest building in mid-Canterbury. It was once the home of the 'head shepherd' and then became the 'married quarters'. It wasn't always lived in, it was once the post office for the area and then later used for storage.

I was excited to find behind the buildings an authentic 'Bitches Box'. I've known of them in the past but ever since the Kiwi stage show (held in woolsheds around the country) of the same name brought the name to the forefront I'd wondered if  I'd ever actually see one on our travels. 

Being brought up on a small (in comparison to today's) dairy farm, there was no need for a 'bitches box' with just one farm dog, but on a large sheep station with dozens of dogs, there would be every need. And in case you're wondering what the heck it is, it's exactly what it says- it's where the bitches (female farm dogs) were locked away while on heat. To keep them out of harm's way. I didn't know they were up on stilts though, but I guess that makes sense, any passing (or escaped) dogs couldn't break in. Poor girls, I hope the front dropped down so they at least had a view.

This old dinghy was displayed in one of the yards too. It was used for recreation and lived most of it's days beside an old hut at Lake Emma (one of the Ashburton Lakes).

Click on the photo to enlarge if you'd like to read more about the dinghy. I wonder if the 'blue duck' that is mentioned being shot is the same Blue Duck/Whio that we know of today, and that this is one of the reasons they're no longer found in the Canterbury high country and critically endangered elsewhere.

After exploring the farm buildings we headed off again, we're now onto gravel and we still have another 30kms to travel. Our destination is much further inland, right at the end of the road, towards those beautiful mountains in the background.

Our next stop is at Lake Clearwater for lunch. Just before we reach the lake the recent snowfall becomes obvious with snow still lying in the shadow of banks and trees and on the leeside of the nearby hills. The road just before the lake is covered in compacted snow and ice and it's lucky that there are some tree fellers (3 fellas) with heavy machinery that have stirred up the surface in places which makes it easier for us to cross.

There are actually two lakes here in this wide mountain valley; Lake Camp on the southern side of the road...

...and beautiful Lake Clearwater on the north side, with snow covered Mt Potts towering behind.

Lake Clearwater and the surrounding conservation land are the summer playground of many Cantabrians and there's quite a large village of baches and holiday homes overlooking the lake.

Other than the tree fellas we have the whole place to ourselves, it's a beautiful sunny day but there's a ice cold breeze blowing through. 

We have a welcome hot soup and a sandwich at a picnic table overlooking  the lake (another perfect lunch spot) and once I've finished I wander down to the lake edge taking a few photos of the baches along the way. 

Being a conservation area and also a wildlife reserve no dogs are allowed inside the park, there's  a very large sign back near the Hakatere farm buildings and several reminders along the road.

Powered boats are also not allowed on the Lake Clearwater but are allowed on Lake Camp. 

In the perfect spot down at lake level there's a camping ground, it's $10 per vehicle which you place in the honesty box, there's no power and limited facilities. I guess it would be a great spot in the summer, but now it's very cold, the water supply has frozen and the ground is covered in snow.

The village was so photogenic it was hard  to stop shooting but we still had a way to go, a couple of exciting places to visit and the afternoon was marching on... to be continued; Part 2

I've saved this Lake Clearwater pano for the last photo on this blog (click to enlarge). It's to mark an occasion or perhaps that should be an achievement. This is my 700th blog post! Phew! Seven hundred posts and most of them several screens long (that's computer speak for pages). That's one hell of a lot of writing and just as much clicking (and one patient husband). It's just lucky that I enjoy what I'm doing. And many, many thanks to my loyal readers, you make it all worthwhile. Here's to the next 700...