New Zealand Part 7: Fiordland, Haast Pass and the Death of the Van
Still reveling in the beauty of the Ball Pass Crossing, we ventured to Wanaka for a little rest and recovery time. A few weeks ago we discovered a spring-fed water source in Wanaka that may very well be the best water in the world. It’s become a certain stop any top we pass through Wanaka.
Before checking into our Airbnb, we went to a rope swing on the river. Grady had seen this rope swing several weeks ago, but we’d been waiting for warmer weather to check it out. This felt like the perfect day, so Grady climbed to the top of the tree branches several times to jump into the gorgeous blue water.
Our Airbnb had the loveliest garden patio which was a perfect place to split a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream - a little taste of home! The next day we were back on the road - this time heading up to Haast Pass.
We drove Haast Pass much earlier in the trip after the Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers of the West Coast (link), but in typical West Coast Fashion - it was raining that day. This time, we picked a beautiful, sunny day to explore some of the waterfalls along the pass. There are plenty of marked waterfalls with designated parking pull-off areas, but you can be sure that Grady found all of the off-the-beaten-path waterfalls.
The first one ended up being the highlight. We walked a short distance back through the knee-deep, ice cold water to reach a little hidden grotto. Despite the 75 degree and sunny day, the shade and cold river temperatures made this feel chilly. The walls of these narrow river valleys are so steep that they hardly see sun.
The second waterfall ended up being less accessible than expected. We thought it would be a similar, mild river walk, but the river was flowing higher than expected. We turned around and left without seeing much of anything.
The third waterfall was the biggest adventure. We forded through cold rivers for probably a total of two hours. The water was never more than knee deep, with light flow, but the icy cold water makes it more challenging. I’m very confident that this trip has boosted my tolerance for cold water and even more confident that our Alaska river crossings have made our river crossings here so far feel mellow and manageable.
The falls themselves were beautiful. The waterfall comes through an arched rock with a bunch of green moss and bush surrounding it. In true Lord of the Rings fashion, it feels like a little hobbit oasis hidden away in the jungle.
By the time we had hiked out of the falls, I’d developed my first Chacos tan! It was a proud moment for sure. The sun here is so strong, but even still the difference in color after just a few hours was striking.
On our drive back towards Queenstown, Grady’s back started having spasms. He’s been our primary van driver as I hadn’t driven a stick shift car until this trip. We pulled over on the side of the road and the spasms were so strong he could hardly walk. We waited for a while to get things under control, but opted for him to keep driving because the roads were challenging and I had 20 minutes of stick shift driving experience under my belt on empty roads a month ago.
Several ibuprofen later, we made it to Arrowtown. We decided to come here since there’s an urgent care in Queenstown in case we needed to make a visit. We had Indian food for dinner and were blown away by how quaint and cute the town of Arrowtown is. It’s too bad that we couldn’t walk around and explore more, but we’re hoping to come back later in the trip.
Sure enough, the Queenstown Urgent Care center was needed. We visited the next morning and the doctor got Grady all fixed up with the right meds to calm down his back muscles. The downside is he couldn’t drive on those medications. My time to shine had come with the manual van!
Grady gave me a quick refresher in the Queenstown Events Center parking lot and I must’ve been deemed road worthy because we hit the road straight from there. It was a sink or swim situation because my first turn sent me straight into two roundabouts during peak Queenstown rush hour stop and go traffic. Thankfully, I recovered after stalling in a roundabout and we made it out of town mostly smoothly.
I drove us all the way to Lumsden for the night and then to the Homer Tunnel the next day - the gateway to Milford Sound. A total of 5 hours on windy, narrow roads! Learning was certainly more difficult in an underpowered van with no RPM gauge or gear indicator. I didn’t love the “works zones” where I had to abruptly go from 100km/hr to a stop, the one-way bridges, or how the van couldn’t make it up most hills in 5th gear, but honestly it was all kind of fun by the end.
After we were through the tunnel, we visited the Chasm. It’s a cool waterfall that plunges into this beautiful blue pool.
From there we continued towards Milford Sound. We had been here before about a month ago, but have since learned more about the tunnel closures - or so we thought.
Last time we left before sunset because of the notices that the tunnel closes from 8 pm - 6 am each night. No surprise, but the construction planned to end 2/28 was delayed so we called the DOC office to gain more info on the closure. We were told it opens intermittently during the night time closures to let waiting traffic through. Equipped with this new information we decided to stay and wait for sunset.
We wandered around the beautiful sound at sunset and there was nobody in sight - except for thousands of sand flies. How we had missed our old friends.
After a gorgeous sunset we drove back up to the tunnel curious how long we’d need to wait for the first opening. Turns out there were no openings - at least not for the first 2.5 hours. We waited, parked in the dark on a significant incline at the tunnel entrance, testing the integrity of our two-decade old parking break.
Grady’s back was feeling better, but he was tired from the meds so he slept in the front seat while I waited on alert. No sign of activity on this side of the tunnel at all and no indications of reopening. Plus there was a big barrier that would require the workers to come from the other side of the 1.2 km long tunnel to physically move it. We were calling into question the accuracy of the DOC provided info.
Once midnight came and went with no lights, voices, or activity, we decided to pull over somewhere safer than the middle of the road to sleep for a bit. We learned that the closure is truly all night the hard way and our booked DOC campsite for the night went to waste. You win some and you lose some!
The big win though was that Grady’s back was doing better. So much so, that we decided to still hike into Gertrude Saddle the next day for a one-night backpacking adventure.
The hike into Gertrude Saddle goes through an impressive glacially carved valley with steep, sheer rock walls. At the head of the valley you start climbing up the rock until you reach a false saddle. We had heard that the upper part of the route was more challenging with fixed cables present, but it was not difficult in sunny, dry conditions. I wouldn’t have wanted to do it in any level of wet conditions though.
After the cables we ascended the next bit of rocks, past the lake, to reach the proper saddle. The views were breathtaking. The interwoven layers of mountains leading to Milford Sound and the ocean were beautiful. The conditions were dynamic all afternoon leading to cool light rays and a lot of different cloud scapes.
After our recent Kea experience on Ball Pass Crossing we were cautious and decided to wait before setting up our tent. Keas are smart and they will see your tent and recognize where you are. We’d heard a tip that waiting to set up your tent until right before you go to sleep can help and figured anything was worth a try.
We dropped our packs at a nice, protected flat area where we could later set up our tent. We ventured higher up the ridge towards Barrier Knob to open up the view towards more of the Sound and Mitre Peak. We were happy to not need to go very far to see incredible views.
The sunset lingered for what felt like an hour. We finally set up our tent and even then, the color was hanging on.
Grady woke up for sunrise, while I took an increasingly rare opportunity to sleep in. The sunrise delivered though and made his wake up well worth it.
We descended down to the car park recognizing we had a long drive ahead of ourselves that day. We’d lined up some van showings in Christchurch beginning the following day so we needed to make a good dent in the 9 hour drive there. Christchurch is the biggest hub for visitors to the South Island so we figured it would be the best location to sell the van. As we expected, the van market has shifted dramatically as the summer is ending so we wanted to be proactive about selling. There are currently far more sellers than buyers prompting us to list the van earlier.
We drove to Queenstown, camped there, and got the van all staged to sell. The next day we would drive the 5.5 hours to Christchurch. We had pastries and coffee in Cromwell and were making great time as we passed Mt. Cook and Lake Tekapo. Things took an unfortunate turn from there.
We had just made it to the top of the hill in 5th gear no less, which made it particularly strange when we started losing speed on the downhill, even with the gas floored. The steering felt like it locked up and Grady quickly realized we had lost power steering. We knew something was seriously wrong and were lucky to be on a straight, downhill bit of road. He wrestled with the wheel to get us safely to a pull off. Eerily, it was the pull off for a cemetery (hint, hint: foreshadowing).
We couldn’t get the van to start back up again so we put it in neutral and pushed it further from the road since we might be there for a while. We were thanking our past selves because we signed up for AA (like AAA) when we bought the van given its age. The cemetery was about 1km outside of a tiny village. We walked towards the village hoping to get at least 1 bar of service to call AA and thankfully did.
We explained to them the situation and they sent a mechanic out within an hour. We killed the time by cleaning to prepare for the showing that afternoon, but I think both of us had a feeling today’s sale might be overcome by events.
The mechanic showed up in just a pickup truck, boosting our spirits for a potential quick fix that could send us on our way to Christchurch. That optimism quickly faded when he spent a few seconds listening to the engine trying to start and said “that doesn’t sound good at all - I’ll go get the tow truck”. You can’t make this up - the van literally died at a cemetery.
The tow truck returned about a half hour later and during our brief drive to the next town over we lost all hope for a speedy fix. We learned that a full engine replacement was likely the only remedy to our problem, which was confirmed upon arrival at the shop. The techs ran some diagnostics and determined there was no compression in all 4 cylinders, which was relayed to us non-car people as “as bad as it gets” for engines. Yikes.
When we told them that we’d be leaving the country in about two weeks the conversation quickly shifted from how we could source a new engine to the phone number for the local scrap yard. Sourcing and replacing an engine is expensive and takes time - more time than we have. A day that started with speculations of potential profit ended with contemplating siphoning the $100 of gas we’d just put in the van because that might’ve been all we’d get out of it.
We then realized our next problem was that we were stuck in Fairlie, a tiny town, on a Friday afternoon, with no mode of transportation. Our first search showed there was one bus per day that travels from Queenstown to Christchurch that does stop in Fairlie, but we had missed it.
There are a number of tour transfer operators in NZ we’ve seen throughout the trip, one of which is Cheeky Kea. I saw they run a shuttle from Queenstown to Christchurch and based on the time, they wouldn’t have passed through Fairlie yet.
Unlike a bus that picks people up at many stops this is more of a small tour group. I called the company and after a call from HQ to the driver, they let me buy a seat from Fairlie to Christchurch and told me where to be and when. Grady and I decided it made the most sense for just one of us to take the shuttle to Christchurch 2.5 hours away. It was arriving in 45 minutes and we didn’t have enough time to pack up the entire van. Plus we’d be leaving it there under uncertain circumstances with a lot of bags to bring with us. I offered to go, pick up a car, and drive back for him while he packed up the van. My sprinter van shuttle arrived and the driver made sure to tell us he was surprised to get the call and had never picked anyone up in Fairlie before…
At that point we parted ways with a plan for me to be back in Fairlie about 6-7 hours from then. I was one of 5 passengers on the bus. The other 4 were couples, also on their honeymoons, who had been using this transport service to take them all around the South Island. They had all of their big rolling bags in tow and were surprised to see me board with hardly anything. The ride was dead quiet until our first rest stop. The shuttle driver asked me where he was dropping me off because he had only heard Fairlie to Christchurch. I told him my goal was to get to the airport and asked where on his route I could catch the local 29 or 8 busses to the airport (I’d done my research). He asked why and after hearing my story about the van and my upcoming drive back to Fairlie, he kindly offered to drive me directly to the airport. His kindness didn’t stop there. My new phone has been subject to the charging problems of the iPhone 15. After trying my charger and his, I thanked him for letting me borrow it and mentioned that unfortunately neither were working and it must be my phone. He said, no worries - I think I can get something sorted for you. Long story short, his wife met us along the route near their home and brought a mag-safe charger that I could use wirelessly. It charged my battery up over 50% by the time I got to the airport so I thanked him and gave it back. He wouldn’t accept it because he wanted to make sure I had enough battery to get back safely. I couldn’t believe his generosity and kindness. I gave him a big tip to effectively buy the charger and tip him for the airport drop off and he almost didn’t accept either. He was just doing it to be kind.
I negotiated a free upgrade with the Avis representative which would help us fit all of our belongings from the van. I stopped at Maccas (McDonalds) for a flat white on my way out of town to keep me alert for the long drive back to Fairlie. The headlights were dim in the rental car, making the narrow winding roads with big, blinding semi trucks (called lorries) more challenging. The worst of the drive came at the end when so much smoke and ash was blowing in the air from a nearby bush fire that I had to have the windshield wipers on.
I arrived back to town and it felt spooky. It was silent and empty, but then I saw Grady waving his arms like an air traffic controller to welcome me back. It was a relief to be back there together and felt like one of the obstacles was out of our way now.
We camped nearby in Fairlie so we could try to come up with a plan for the van the next day. We requested quotes from a few salvage yards and slashed the price of our listing adding the grim, new description, “As-is, doesn’t drive, needs new engine, stuck in Fairlie”. The kind owner of the auto shop said we could leave it there for several days so we decided to get out of town and unwind by the beach.
We booked an airbnb in Wainui, near Akaroa. When I visited Grady in New Zealand many years ago we went to Akaroa the night I arrived to see the sun set and eat fish n chips with Adam and Nate. It’s a special place to us for that reason so this felt like a great reason to go back.
Our airbnb was a tiny cottage with distant views to the ocean. It is in the backyard of the owners property and we spent time talking to him and his dog, Luna. He said something we both loved about life in New Zealand, “If things went any slower here, we’d be going backwards”. New Zealanders just don’t seem to be worried about as much, or bothered, or guarded. Some of that could certainly just be rural versus Urban, but it does seem like people just worry less and live more at their own pace.
We walked down to the beach, grilled tuna for dinner, and had a bottle of wine. We bought a bottle at St. Clair vineyards in Marlborough in January after we really enjoyed the tasting. We’ve been hanging onto it ever since and waiting for the right time to enjoy it. The end of the van chapter felt like the right time.
The next day we received a message from a man who wanted to buy the van. He said he would buy it sight unseen and offered to drive from Christchurch to pay us in cash that day. We had a few other potential buyers interested, but after getting a number of the generic “is this available” messages with no follow-up we were skeptical. He clearly wanted to make sure we were real people too and after a quick phone call we felt confident he was a serious buyer. We picked a public meeting place in Akaroa and low and behold, he showed up with cash and told us about how excited he is to work on the van, fix the engine, and make it a project.
After thinking it could be going to a scrap yard this felt like the best case scenario. The van would get another life!
We negotiated a sale price with the buyer not inclusive of the roof box since arguably that was the most valuable upgrade we made. We listed that also and lined up a buyer for the next day who was willing to pick up in Fairlie. We went through some pretty rural areas driving from Akaroa to Fairlie. At one point we stopped because a truck was blocking the road. When we asked him if he was okay, he said they were just having some trouble getting the sheep to cross the bridge. Turns out they were herding 1200 sheep down the main road to go take them to get sheared. We loved witnessing this. In the 10 minutes it took for the sheep to pass, we had a very pleasant conversation with him and it turns out he’s even been to Denver for the National Western Stock show.
Despite the frustrating situation of the van’s untimely death, things were resolving. In the overall scheme of things we had a vehicle again, we sold the van (just at a greater loss than expected), and we were back on the road - wasting as little time as possible away from our fun adventure.
The few days at the beach were good for us following the van’s demise. We had some time to reflect on the van (and drive a modern rental car) and thought of some fun pros/cons to share.
Pro: We both get our own airbag now
Con: No “share bag” (the name we fondly gave to the *single* air bag)
Pro: Safe crumple zone
Con: No longer can see the ground in front of the car
Pro: Better gas mileage & cruise control
Con: It’s no longer physically impossible to exceed the speed limit
Pro: Back up camera
Con: Backing up no longer requires looking out the window Ace Ventura style
Con: We can’t have as elaborate of camping meals
Pro: Likely will eat more meat pies
Pro: Aerodynamic car profile
Con: No longer get to experience the thrill of the front door feeling like it will fly off in the wind
Pro: Modern car seats have contoured cushions
Con: Our abs won’t get a workout on every turn (thank you bench seats)
Finally, maybe we were a little hard on ole Tassie in hindsight… at least (as far as we know) she’s still kicking! We’re just happy knowing our van will not be crushed into a metal cube, but instead will be restored and enjoyed by someone else.
We said goodbye to the van in the lot in Fairlie and started driving towards Mt. Cook. We passed Burke Pass cemetery where the breakdown occurred and couldn’t believe what we saw. An oncoming vehicle came around the corner and in a wild coincidence, it was a white Nissan Vanette driving happily past the cemetery. It had a standard roof and short wheelbase, practically identical to ours. We’ve seen a lot of Mazda Bongos here, but not many Vanettes. We took this as a sign that she’s not done yet and will be back on the road with many more kms ahead of her!
We’re going to continue with the trip as *mostly* planned with the rental car and look forward to everything our last 2 weeks in New Zealand have in store. We may be down, but we’re definitely not out! We’ll share more soon. Stay tuned!
Some new words and expressions learned in the past week are: “Fush n chups” (fish n chips), lorrie (semi-truck / 18-wheeler), lifestyle blocks (more rural plots of land where people have animals for fun or personal use, not large scale farming), and we realized we never mentioned that they call credit card payments EFTPOS (electronic funds transfer at point of sale).