New Zealand South Island; an impression

 

This page deals with the time we had in NZ's South Island, another page covers our time in the North Island.

On this page...

My amateur's impression of the geomorphology of the South Island is that the mountains in the west owe their existence to uplift caused by plate tectonics and much of their shaping to glaciation. Water erosion, which has been very important in the formation of Australia's landscapes, seems to have not had enough time to greatly modify the glacial landscapes (there is some very flat land on the South Island which suggests deposition beneath lakes with subsequent uplift). There is some, but not much, glaciated landscapes in Australia, so I found the South Island New Zealand landscapes fascinating.

This page was started 2019/11/05, last edited 2023/07/25
Contact: David K. Clarke – ©

Our family (two grandparents, two parents and two kids) travelled in a hired people-mover through the North Island. In the South Island we hired a slightly smaller people mover and a trailer for the luggage. We travelled from the North to South islands without a vehicle on one of the ferries.

Queen Charlotte Sound

There is something to see all the way on the three to four-hour ferry voyage between the two main islands, from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island. Near half of the time is spent in Queen Charlotte Sound, a particularly beautiful part of the world.

Sound

This panorama was taken soon after entering the Sound. The land visible (in the high definition copy of the image: click on the image to see it in high definition) through the gap on the left is probably the North Island.


 
Sound
Another panorama of the Sound.

There were quite a few houses built on the edge of the Sound and at the foot of the very steep hills. The cost of getting either a road in, or getting building materials and machinery in via the water of the Sound, must be huge, but they would be beautiful places to live.

 
Gorse (also known as furze) is a terrible introduced weed in NZ. It is a yellow-flowering very prickly shrub; it was used for hedges in Britain, and was probably introduced into both NZ and Australia (where it is also a weed) for the same purpose. I seem to have largely avoided it in photographs, but it can be seen in the high definition version of this photo – the area tinged with yellow is flowering gorse.

 
Ferry
We passed this ferry, going the opposite way to us, well inside the Sound.

 
Picton harbour
Approaching the ferry terminal at Picton.

When you see Picton from the Sound you might think that any rout out of the town would have to be very steep. In fact there is a railway as well as a couple of roads, so there must be some routs that are not particularly steep.

We picked up a hire car and trailer in Picton, then went on to Nelson via the road that touched on Mahau Sound and passed through Havelock.

 


Nelson

Nelson

The city of Nelson from what was advertised on signs as 'the centre of NZ'.

It turned out that 'the centre of NZ' was defined as such by surveyors. They divided the country up into districts, and of these Nelson was the closest to being at the centre of the country. The point at the top of this hill was made the central point around which all the surveys of the district would be organised.

One of the most interesting things about Nelson, to me, was the Boulder Bank, which, to quote Wikipedia, "is a very unusual naturally formed landform. It is a 13 kilometre long stretch of rocky substrates which begins at the Mackay Bluff and ends at the Cut of the Nelson Harbour". The SW portion of the Boulder Bank can be seen in the middle distance in this photo.

The snowcapped mountains of the Arthur Range can be seen in the distance. It seemed that, weather permitting, snowcapped peaks could be seen from most places in the South Island.

 
Marker
Denece and me standing beneath the marker for 'the centre of NZ'.

The city was behind the photographer.

I felt that the view in the direction opposite the city was more attractive than the view toward the city.

 
Anti-Nelson
The view to the SE from 'the centre of NZ', in the direction opposite the city of Nelson.

 



Panorama

A panoramic view from 'the centre' in the direction opposite Nelson.

 
There must be a great many houses perched on steep hillsides to take advantage of views, such as the few on the right of this photo, in NZ. Driving a car to and from them every day or so, or even several times a day, must burn up a lot of fossil fuels.



 
Harbour
A part of Tasman Bay and Nelson harbour, including the Boulder Bank, from Nelson city.

Haulashore Island, in the centre of the photo, used to be connected to the Boulder Bank, seen here further to the right.

'The Cut', to the right of the island, is an artificial gap cut through the Boulder Bank to improve shipping safety. Before The Cut was constructed shipping had to go through a treacherous gap between Haulashore Island and the small rock visible to the left of it.

A link between South Australia, my home state, and Nelson is that both were commercial projects of Edward Gibbon Wakefield (who had an interesting past, Wikipedia records that "Despite being imprisoned for three years in 1827 for kidnapping a fifteen-year-old girl, he enjoyed a distinguished political career."). The South Australian colony was established in 1836, Nelson in or about 1841.

Japanese garden, Nelson

 
Japanese garden
A panoramic photo of a part of the attractive Japanese garden in Nelson.

 
Japanese garden
Another part of the Nelson Japanese garden.

It was quite a good garden. I'd recommend a visit to anyone who has a bit of time to spend in Nelson, although it's not up to the standard of the one in Cowra, NSW, Australia, or of course some of those in Japan.

 
Still in the Japanese garden; cherry(?) blossom and family clowning about.

Our accommodation, Nelson

 
The house we stayed in while in Nelson; arranged through AirBnB. One of the more pleasant places we stayed. It had an attic room where the kids set up a 'restaurant'; great fun.

 
The car and trailer are the ones we hired for our travel in the South Island.

Pancake Rocks



 
Coast
This view of the west coast of the South Island was taken to the north of Pancake Rocks.

The high definition image will show yellow-flowering gorse on the left, on the far side of the road, which, as previously mentioned, is a major and very wide-spread problem in NZ.

Much of the road we took from Nelson to Fox Glacier closely followed the western coast of the South Island; this was typical of the topography. Challenging country for road building.

 
Flax
New Zealand flax lining the walking path to Pancake Rocks.

This is a common plant that was used by the Maoris as a source of fibre. See below for more information about NZ flax.

 
Flax sign
A sign providing information about New Zealand flax.

 
Group
Our group on the excellent path around the Pancake Rocks area.

 
The way we were dressed shows that the weather was fairly typical of what we experienced in NZ, wet and cool or cold.

 
Pancake Rocks
There were a number of sea-caves that joined onto gorges such as this in the Pancakes Rocks area.

The photo also shows the trouble taken to produce a safe and convenient access path.

Note the NZ flax in the middle distance.



Pancake rocks

Some of the more distinctive of the pancake-shaped rocks.

 
Pancakes
Stacks and stacks of fossilised pancakes!

 
Path and flax
Flax, a beautifully made path, and a rugged coast.

Most of what we saw of the western coast of the South Island was similarly rugged, with mountains coming down to the sea.
 



Glacier country

Like most of the world's glaciers, with our catastrophic climate change, the NZ glaciers are in quick retreat. Long ago those in this area came down to the sea, now to get to them you have to take a long walk up into the mountains.

Franz Joseph glacier vicinity

 
Alluvium
Alluvium in a river valley coming out of the Southern Alps near Franz Joseph glacier.

Note the bright orange lichen on the left. A similarly coloured lichen grows in South Australia, but only close to the sea; typically from a metre or two above high tide to perhaps ten or twenty metres above the high tide level.

Just a little of the snow-capped mountains peaking through between the foothills and clouds.

A group of four-wheeled motorbikes were disturbing the peace. A little further on the sound of scenic flight helicopters almost constantly disturbed the peace.

 
Lichen
A closer view of the lichen-covered rocks.

I've written about orange lichen in a page on Kangaroo Island, South Australia.



 


Fox Glacier

From about eight in the morning to five or later in the afternoon scenic flight helicopters can be heard in the Fox Glacier township area. I haven't heard that electric helicopters are yet viable, but small electric fixed-wing planes are; although I think that most of the present viable models are two-seaters aimed at pilot training.

It would be much quieter if the ICE-powered (or turbine-powered?) helicopters were replaced by electric fixed wing aircraft, which I would think would be well suited for sightseeing.

Wikipedia has a page listing the many electric aircraft that are being produced or at the development stage.



Lake Matherson, near Fox Glacier

 
Forest
The forest on the way in to Lake Matherson.

My wife and I were continually impressed by the epiphytes that grew all over the trees and rocks in NZ forests. In our home state, South Australia, trees typically host very few, if any, epiphytes apart from some of the hardier lichens.

A photo of typically epiphyte-free Australian trees is shown on one of my pages on the Flinders Ranges.



Southern Alps

A view of the Southern Alps from near Lake Matherson.

 
This was taken in the late afternoon. As we didn't get good views of the Alps over the lake on this visit, because of the clouds, we came back early the following morning when the sky was (for a short while) free of clouds.



 
Lake Matherson
Early morning at Lake Matherson with the Southern Alps in the distance.

The tourist information talks of mirror-like reflections of the Alps in the lake's water. In fact ducks, hoping for a free breakfast, were continually swimming in front of the viewing area making ripples.



Sunrise

The sun about to rise behind the Southern Alps, from Lake Matherson.


 
Forest
Another shot of the forest on the path into Lake Matherson


Alps

The Southern Alps from the main road near Lake Matherson.


Fox Glacier township vicinity

 
Alps
A view from near the motel that we stayed in at Fox Glacier.

Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand (far higher than any in Australia), could be the pyramidal peak in the centre of this photo.

 
According to Wikipedia Mount Cook was 3,764m high before December 1991, but since 2014 it has been listed as 3,724m, "due to a rockslide and subsequent erosion".

We tend to think of our mountains as being fixed and stable. This gives a hint of how dynamic they really are.

Fox Glacier access trail

 
Morain
It is possible to drive part of the way from Fox Glacier township toward the foot of the glacier.

When we were there the main walking path beyond the car park was closed due to erosion from the river that flows through the lower part of the valley, so we had to detour through round-about trails that allowed visitors to see the terminal moraines that had been left by the glacier in the past.

The section of the trail shown here goes along the top of the moraine that was left at the foot of the glacier around 1750. A little further down the valley was another moraine that was left around 1600.

In the last ice age the glacier got all the way to the sea.

 
Epiphytes

Epiphytes

An example of some of the epiphytes growing on a tree trunk on the Moraine Trail.

Other photos also show NZ epiphytes, on this page above and below this, and also on the North Island page.

On an earlier visit to Laos, we ate beneath a huge tree covered with epiphytes.

 
Epiphytes
A tree on the Moraine Trail that was host to a great many epiphytes.

 


Fox Glacier township environs

Fox Glacier

A distant view of the Fox Glacier from a viewing point in a small public park.


 
Fox glacier
Another view of Fox glacier from near the above viewing point.


Mountain view

An evening view from near the motel we were staying in.

Fox Glacier township was where the street lights can be seen in the distance. The cycling/walking trail on the right started from near our accommodation and went into the town.

 


Haast Pass

Thunder Creek Waterfall near Haast Pass

 
Waterfall
Thunder Creek Waterfall, near Haast Pass. One of the many waterfalls that can be seen coming out of a hanging valley in the South Island.

The waterfall is accessed from the main road by a walking trail a few hundred metres long.

The road along the west coast of the South Island doesn't go a long way past the little town of Haast (which hosts a good information centre and cafe).

Another road crosses through the mountains to Lake Wanaka, Lake Hawea and the town of Wanaka via Haast Pass.

 
Rocks
Heavily metamorphosed rocks, probably some of the Haast Schists, near the waterfall.

 
Rocks
More highly metamorphosed rocks in the creek bed near Thunder Creek Waterfall, looking up toward the head of the main gully.

 


Blue Pool, on the Haast Pass road

 
Blue Pool
Blue Pool, from the pedestrian suspension bridge.

The Pool is accessed by a walking trail a few hundred metres long from the main road.

The colour of the water made me think about what the cause was. It crossed my mind that there might be a trace of copper in it.

In fact the colour is not due to a trace of copper or to the Rayleigh scattering that makes the sky blue. It is due to vibrational transitions of the water molecules, as described in Web Exhibits:

"Blue water is the only known example of a natural color caused by vibrational transitions. In most other cases, color is caused by the interaction of photons of light with electrons. Some of these mechanisms are resonant interactions, such as absorption, emission, and selective reflection. Others are non-resonant, including Rayleigh scattering, interference, diffraction, and refraction. Unlike with water, these mechanisms rely primarily on the interaction of photons with electrons."
If you can follow all that your grasp of physics is better than mine!

 
Stone pagodas
The children who were visiting the Blue Pool were probably more interested in building stone pagodas (here is my Son-in-Law Shayne Uren and granddaughter Elizabeth) or skipping flat stones over the water.

 
Blue Pool
The Blue Pool and pedestrian suspension bridge, some of my family in the foreground.
 


Lake Wanaka

Lake Wanaka

Lake Wanaka from the eastern side, before the road turned off toward Lake Hawea.

While the lakes in the North Island were volcanic in origin, I believe those in the South Island owed more to glaciation. As mentioned elsewhere on these pages, my impression was that the geomorphology of the North Island was largely volcanic modified by aqueous erosion while that of the South Island was probably block-faulting related to plate-tectonic subduction with the subsequent erosion being mainly glacial.

 


Wanaka town and more of Lake Wanaka

Lake Wanaka

Lake Wanaka from near the motel that we stayed in in the town of Wanaka.


Lake Wanaka

Another view of Lake Wanaka, this time from near the playground and restaurant area of the town.


 
Kiwi_fruit
This kiwi-fruit vine was at the motel we stayed at while in Wanaka.

 
The very friendly manager invited us to take as many as we wanted from the vine.

Puzzling World, Wanaka

 
Leaning tower
The Leaning Tower of Wanaka is outside of Puzzling World.

Puzzling World had much to interest and amuse a family group like ours; we must have spent two to three hours in it.

 
Sloping room
Appearances to the contrary, if someone sits in the chair it will slide down the slope from right to left.

Note that Beth has Pink Panther, from which she has been almost inseparable for several years.

 
Maze
The maze at Puzzling World is probably the biggest and most difficult to solve of any I have been in.
 


Cardrona ski-field

Cardrona and Cardrona ski-field is south of Wanaka on the way toward Queenstown.

 
Snow-field
Our group drove up to the ski-field for a few hours; mainly so that the kids could enjoy their first real snow.

The ski-lift we used had both gondolas and open seats; we travelled in a gondola. The altitude of the resort area was about 1650 metres.

Rather surprisingly, to me at least, while we had seen snow at 1000 m on the North Island, we didn't see snow until about 1300 m at Cardrona; much further south.



On top

Fun in the snow!

At the top of the ski-lift. The snow was fairly icy on top, but Julia found snow soft enough to make a little snowman by digging below the icy crust. By that time Denece and I had had enough of the cold and went back down to the resort for some shelter and a hot coffee.



 
Cardrona Resort
Looking down from above the ski-lift toward the Cardrona Resort.

This post and those on the above photo were carved in Maori style.
 


Crown Range Pass area

View

The Crown Range Summit Pass, at 1076 metres above sea level, is crossed by the highest sealed road in NZ.

This photo was taken from a view point on the road a few kilometres toward Queenstown from the top of the pass. The little town in the valley in this photo is, I think, Gibbston. Elizabeth (with Pink Panther) and Shayne in the foreground.




From the same point as the previous photo, this time looking toward Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu, which can be seen in the distance.

Shayne in the foreground.

 


Queenstown

Lake Wakatipu

The view of Lake Wakatipu and a part of Queenstown from the motel we stayed in in Queenstown.


 
Dock
The dock area in Queenstown.

Queenstown, on Lake Wakatipu, had a beautiful setting, but was so heavily developed for tourism that it didn't appeal to me so much as a number of other NZ towns or cities.

Perhaps I was becoming jaded from travel?

 
Garden
The botanic garden in Queenstown.

Denece and I enjoyed gardens as much as anything else in the cities and towns of NZ.



Lake Wakatipu

Lake Wakatipu and the (?)Eyre Mountains beyond, from near our accommodation in Queenstown.


Lake Wakatipu

A wide panorama of Lake Wakatipu and the Eyre Mountains south of Queenstown on our way to Manapouri.
 


Invercargill

 
Motor-bike
My Son-in-Law, Shayne, is very interested in motorbikes and cars. He had to see this hardware shop in Invercargill because it had an amazing collection of very early motorbikes.

It was not my cup of tea, but did find some machines that were interesting.

This bicycle has a wheel powered by a small internal combustion engine attached.

 
Maori clock
Also in Invercargill, a clock with the hours in Maori words.

Can you deduce what the Maori words for fifteen are?
 


Milford Sound

 
Glacial valley
Being interested in geology and geomorphology I had to include this photo of a 'U' shaped hanging valley – two very distinctive features of a landscape formed by past glacial erosion.

Valleys formed by water erosion are either 'V' shaped, or flat bottomed. The junction of two valleys in a landscape formed by water erosion typically does not show the sudden drop in altitude that can be seen where this 'hanging valley' joins the larger valley. The glacial landscapes seem to have been little modified by subsequent water erosion.

Seen from the road from Manapouri, where we had an AirBnB house for two nights, toward Milford Sound.

I found the road to Milford Sound (which would more properly be named Milford fiord) as interesting as the Sound itself.

Kia; on the road into Milford Sound

 
Kia
This kia was a regular visitor to this spot on the road into Milford Sound where there was also a coffee van.

 
Obviously it was quite unafraid of us. They have a reputation for chewing up the rubber trim of vehicles.



Sound

Looking down the Sound from a walking track at the small township at the head of the inundated part of the fiord. On the right is the dock area for the many boats that do tourist cruises on the fiord.

Left of centre is the impressive Mitre Peak with an altitude of 1,692 metres above sea level. The fiord in the vicinity of Mitre Peak is 512 m deep, so the top of the peak rises 2,204 m above the bottom of the fiord. For comparison, the Matterhorn (altitude 4,478 m) is 2,858 m above Zermatt (altitude 1,620 m).

(There is an interesting account of an attempt to climb Mitre Peak on the Internet.)



Milford

A panoramic shot of Milford Sound from near the car park area.


 
Group
Our group ready to board the cruise boat that will take us on a tour of the fiord. Beth had Pink Panther, as is her wont, Anna had her new Kia.

 
The master of 'our' boat, which was named Mitre Peak, was particularly well informed and very good in passing on his extensive knowledge. Unfortunately I didn't get his name.

 
Waterfall
Lady Elizabeth Bowen Falls is said to be Milford's highest waterfall, at 162 m.

A small fraction of the water is taken from the stream that feeds the waterfall and run through a hydro-power plant to generate all the power needed for the Milford Sound settlement.

 
Fiord
A view of the fiord from the cruise boat.

Photogenically the fiord would have been much better if there was sunshine. Sunshine is probably not common, Milford is one of the wettest places in the world with an average annual precipitation of about six metres of rainfall equivalent.

Note the huge section of the mountainside on the right that has slid away into the fiord. There would have been many thousands of tonnes of rock in this landslide. The very informative master of the cruise boat told me that the fiord floor in the area had been mapped using sonar and there was not any sign of the rock from the mountainside there, so presumably it must have fallen while the glacier was still active and have been carried out to sea by the glacier.

There is another waterfall from a hanging valley left of centre.

 
Waterfall
One of the more prominent of the many waterfalls along the fiord.

 
Waterfalls
Waterfalls down mountainsides

 
Sealions
These New Zealand fur seals are not always to be seen on these rocks. There are few such rocks suitable for seals or sea-lions to bask (are they hoping for some sunshine; slim chance!)

We were told that penguins can also sometimes be seen in the fiord.
 


The Chasm

On the road out of Milford Sound

 
Chasm
The footbridge over The Chasm.

The Chasm itself was difficult to photograph effectively; it needs to be seen to be appreciated.

 
Chasm
A view of The Chasm

 
Chasm
The Chasm is beneath these lichen-clad rocks. The rushing water could be heard more than seen.

Note the rocks that have been carved by the erosion from abrasive materials (rocks, gravel and sand) carried by the fast flowing stream.
 


The vicinity of the tunnel on the Milford Sound road

 
Wall
The Milford Sound road passes through the 1.2 km long Homer Tunnel" from one glaciated valley to another.

The western end of the tunnel can just be seen in the distance in this photo (especially in the higher definition image accessed by clicking on the photo).

The amphitheatre shape of the head of the valley is called a cirque and is typical of the heads of glaciated valleys.

 
Tunnel queue
The queue of cars at the lower entrance of the Homer Tunnel.

While the tunnel is wide enough for a bus to pass a car, I believe the traffic was limited to one-way and controlled by lights during a part of the day.

There was a kia hanging around looking for handouts; not shown here.

Manapouri

 
Manapouri
The view from the AirBnB house that we stayed in in Manapouri.

We used this place the night before and the night after going to Milford Sound.



Sheep

Livestock in NZ included cattle, sheep and deer.

We seemed to see mostly cattle in the North Island, sheep in the South Island and deer in both.

On the way from Manapouri to Dunedin we travelled over flat land like this much of the way.

There seems to be an interesting piece of elevated flat land in the distance, between the hills and the foreground plain; slightly tilted in relation to the foreground plain. Suggestive of block faulting.

 


Dunedin

Larnach Castle

 
Larnach
The front of the 'castle'.

The building and its grounds are available for the public to visit; and it is well worth a visit, even in the miserable weather that we had for our time there.

Curiously the main entrance is not at ground level, but up a flight of stairs on the far side of the stone lions.

 
Interior
The interior of one of the castle's rooms.

 
I think it was in this room that there was a notice describing how the excrement from the stables and castle toilets went into a methane digester and the gas produced was used to light the building.

 
Ceiling
Perhaps the most elaborate and beautiful ceiling of any of the rooms.

 
Interior
Another of the castle rooms

 
View
A hint of what the view from the castle tower would have been had we been able to see it.

 
Garden
A little of the garden; this section was to the left of the front of the castle.
 


World's steepest street, Baldwin Street, Dunedin

 
Steepest street
I'll leave the viewer to see how the photo was taken; I'm sure it's not difficult.

According to Wikipedia Baldwin street was recognised as the steepest in the world from 1987 to July 2019, when a street with an unpronounceable name in Wales took the title.

This photo was taken in 2019/10/12.



Westwind Wind Farm, near Wellington
(Actually on the North Island)


We were given this excellent view of a large part of the Westwind Wind Farm as we approached Wellington airport on our way home.
 


Gandalf and eagles at Wellington Airport, North Island

 
Eagles
Two great Lord of the Rings eagles hanging from the roof of the airport building.

 
Gandalf
Gandalf on one of the great eagles


 





Related pages

External sites...

Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of NZ

Deforestation and the settlement of New Zealand

On this site...

Pages that are largely based on a photographic record...