Queenstown to Franz Josef

A few things to see just outside Queenstown before heading north. Firstly, Edith Cavell Bridge over the shotover river. Built to assist in the goldrush. A miner decided its name, though the council disagreed as they thought her too controversial. He painted on the side of the bridge, and it stuck!

Arrowtown Chinese settlement from the 1880s. Very interesting to see some of the buildings that the Chinese men lived in when they immigrated at the time of the gold rush. Some are tiny.

And then on to the Kawarau Bridge, the birthplace of bungy. The world’s first commercial bungy operation opened at the Kawarau Bridge, surprisingly as recent as November 1988. It now attracts more than 500,000 people each year.

No, we didn’t, but we did do the zip! Who knew there were so many options?

 After watching a chap going upside down……

Up and over the crown range with fab views over Queenstown and the river we jetted up yesterday.

Established in 1863, the Cardrona Hotel is one of New Zealand’s oldest hotels, and is one of only two remaining buildings from the Cardrona Valley gold rush era.

They obliged with a light lunch. Bao buns and frickles – fried pickles (gherkins etc) – recommended!

The Cardrona Bra Fence of course needed a stop

I’m sure there is so much more to this beautiful town, however it had to be done #ThatWanakaTree

We then headed north via the amazing Haast Pass with numerous waterfalls and other vistas.

Most bridges here, unless they are in a big town, are single lane. I guess they just dont have the amount of traffic to warrant a full-size bridge. We certainly haven’t seen a rush hour or a traffic jam, not even in the big towns. So we were not surprised to find the Haast bridge at 737m long was still just one lane, but with a couple of passing places. Apparently, it is the 7th longest bridge in NZ and the longest one lane bridge.

Through Fox Glacier and a fairly late arrival to Franz Josef to hear the weather has been awful this past day or so.

Apparently, there were 1444 lightning strikes in the westland in the 24 hours to 7.30 this morning! We had a brief thunderstorm last night in Queenstown, but the rain had finished by the time we had left the pub.

Our glacier helicopter hike tomorrow morning has now been cancelled due to the bad weather. 😭 Hoping for a cancellation tomorrow afternoon or the following morning, but unlikely.