Week 508 · Queenstown · Lake Wānaka · Lake Pukaki · Crown Range
Queenstown /
After the day at Milford Sound, we took the bus back to Queenstown and got some more spectacular views that we missed on the outbound trip due to snow. Got some great sky by Lake Wakatipu at sunset before our feast at The Flame. The next morning we picked up a rental car in Queenstown to begin the drive toward Mt. Cook via Lake Wānaka.
The drive back from Milford Sound was completely different from the snow storm on the way there that morning — blue sky and spectacular views of the Remarkables mountain range in the sun. A great steak dinner at The Flame finished the day.
We started our drive toward Mt. Cook with a planned stop for lunch in Lake Wānaka but had an unexpected detour over a mountain pass with a great view back over the Queenstown valley. It was about a 3.5-hour drive to Mt. Cook via Lake Wānaka — it took us about 6 hours with all of our stops. Lake Wānaka had a different focus than other lakes we saw — a lot of watersports and activities — whereas others were kayaking or nothing in the water at all.
While driving, we noticed miles of forest that had been cut down — apparently for no reason, but a quick Google search revealed it was an infestation of wilding pine trees that had choked out native forests and had to be removed. Other interesting facts relating to the remoteness of New Zealand: no humans until the 1500s (Australia has had humans for thousands of years); no indigenous land mammals — no bears, squirrels, anything. Possums were imported in the 1800s to provide a source of fur and immediately overpopulated. Possum fur accessories are still available.
New Zealand's geographic isolation for 80 million years meant it developed with no land mammals except bats, relying on birds to fill ecological niches. When humans arrived (Māori around 1300 AD, then Europeans from the 1800s), introduced species caused catastrophic damage. The Common Brushtail Possum, introduced from Australia in 1837 for a fur trade, now numbers around 30 million and devastates native forest by eating an estimated 21,000 tonnes of vegetation nightly. Wilding pines — self-sown pine species that spread aggressively — now cover over 1.8 million hectares and are considered one of NZ's worst ecological threats, choking out native tussock and alpine ecosystems. New Zealand spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on predator and invasive species control, with a goal of becoming "Predator Free 2050."
"It was about a 3.5-hour drive — it took us about 6 hours with all of our stops. No regrets."