Around 12:30 pm, we left Matheson and "glacier country" and headed toward the city of Haast. We managed to leave the cloudy weather behind briefly, but the rain soon caught up to us. Fortunately it stopped when we got up into the alpine area, so we stopped for a hike at Haast Pass.

Knights Point again

Rain pours down in the hills.

A view from... (booming voice begins)... The Gates of Haast

The Haast Pass Lookout was a VERY steep but not-too-long trail to the top of one of the sub-alpine hills. The terms alpine and sub-alpine take on a whole new meaning here when compared to Colorado. In the Colorado Rocky Mountains, treeline (the division between alpine and sub-alpine) can be found between 10,500 - 11,000 feet. In New Zealand, treeline can start around 2,000 feet. It all has to with latitude as well as geography. The main difference is oxygen content! This was a lot easier to hike with all that nice air in the lungs.

This was a new one!

The trail kept getting steeper and steeper.

Moss carpeted everything...

.. and came in an array of colors.

Almost at the top!

There was a biting, bitter wind at the summit. The vegetation had noticeably changed. No longer were there lush ferns and tall trees but rather small plants with even smaller leaves. Haast Pass is the lowest pass across the main divide of the Southern Alps. Julius von Haast was a geologist in this area in the 1860's.

The view

Survival up here is difficult.

We continued our drive and finally started getting some blue sky at the top of Wanaka Lake. So we pulled over and had some lunch in the car... finally able to see some of those elusive, snow-capped beauties.

As we passed Lake Hawea, we got stopped by sheep. Some ranchers were moving the flock from one pasture to the other. In spite of all their running and barking, the numerous dogs couldn't seem to keep the sheep going in the same direction... the sheep ran at us, then away, then doubled back, then up in the hills, etc. The ranchers kept calling and whistling to them but it didn't seem to help. Eventually the road cleared enough so that we could slip past.

Traffic came to a halt in both directions.

Sheep flowed everywhere!

Whistling and calling...

.. and running and barking.

Finally a chance to escape!

Next came the climb back over Crown Range Road. Again the trip was accompanied by the strong smell of the engine going up and the siren call of the brakes going down.

From the top of the road, looking toward Queenstown

Lake Wakatipu gets some scattered rain.

There were definitely not here the last time we passed by!

We decided to stop in Arrowtown for some dinner. Unfortunately it was a bit on the pricier side, so we just had a stroll around the town before heading down to Queenstown. Apparently their fall festival starts the 12th, so we were a bit early.

This used to be a bustling mining town in the 1800's but was now a bustling tourist center with the old buildings restored.

Some were probably authentic, like this one from 1862...

... but others were clearly just slipstreaming with the originals.

Upon arrival in Queenstown, we checked into our accommodation, the Haka Lodge, which was just one block from the main downtown. We found some Chinese fast food (which wasn't very fast) and then for dessert got a "thick" milkshake (which wasn't very thick) at the Turkish stall in the nearby indoor food court. The flavor was "jaffa" or a mixture of chocolate and orange. It was so good that it didn't last long enough for me to take a picture of it!

Our room

Aaah... warm food that doesn't involve cheese or peanut butter!

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