Iconic South Island 4x4 tours.
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With our arrival in Greymouth this afternoon our West Coast Explorer is over and so to is our 2023/24 season. And as with this trip what a season it’s been.
Thanks so much to all the participants in both this and the other eight tours of this season.
With few vacancies left in the 2024 / 2025 season all is looking pretty good at NZ Adventures.
Day Four of our West Coast Explorer.
Our Big River day. Used to have more in it than Big River but the track has deterorated so much that getting out to and back from Big River is taking absolutely all day.
And not so many photos either.
Murchison to Westport on Day 3 of our West Coast Explorer. The most amazing weather. We have had it pretty good over on the coast other times but today was one out of the box. Scarcely anything better than the West Coast on a nice day such as it was today.
Day two of our April West Coast Explorer.
Murchison back to Murchison.
A shorter day especially by distance but not so much by time. Porika Track is becoming increasingly demanding in the context of our trips but we all made it over and some can feel very proud to have done that track.
The other tracks of the day were just fun. Mt Murchison or at least the very to bit must have missed the memo about being cloud free (again)
Needs a stern talking to but views from just below the summit were pretty spectacular especially on the way up.
Big shout out to the team at Beechwoods Cafe for once again being so awesome.
Day one of our last trip of the 2023/ 24 season.
The West Coast Explorer started this morning in Hanmer Springs and our day ended in Murchison.
The day went well in great weather.
Day two sees us return to Murchison before we head to Westport on Saturday, Reefton on Sunday and our tours end in Greymouth on Monday.
With the completion this afternoon of our High Country Heritage trip we have finished our eastern side tours for the season.
Only the West Coast Explorer still to go a little later in the month.
Todays Cromwell to Cardrona route was much altered by weather (rain in the ranges around Wanaka) but we had a pretty good run with our alternative program. Many thanks to our much valued landowners for being so accommodating and easy to work in with.
Our Day 5 of the High Country Heritage went pretty well including a big eastward deviation to try and get in front of wet weather coming in from the west.
How successful we’ve been with our plan remains to be seen as the rain is all around us late Tuesday afternoon in Cromwell. We certainly have options for Day 6 and we may well need them.
Fairlie to Omarama is our plan on Day Four. So thats what we did. My speculation that the light fog in Fairlie would clear on the Mackenzie Basin side was well wide of the mark as we drove into real pea soup over the Mackenzie Pass which we didn’t get above until high above Lake Benmore. But when the change came it was sudden and spectacular and well worth waiting for. Bring on Day Five as we head into Central Otago.
Half way through our 6 Day High Country Heritage after completing Day 3. Methven to Fairlie.
Weather holding for us but farmers along the way are optimistic that the much needed rain is coming later in the week.
In the meantime we are having a great run down the island.
Day Two of our April High Country Heritage 6 day.
Hanmer Springs to Methven.
A good day especially full of rural hospitality at MacDonald Downs Station, Hawarden.
Love taking our tours there and today was no exception.
Day 1 of our final Blenheim to Cardrona trip of the season. To saw us again effected by the extreme fire danger close to Blenheim so we again cruised down the Rainbow and western side of Molesworth.
Its a nice drive. Not especially four wheel drive but a nice drive and especially the Jollies Pass section tests the suspension.
Our 7 day is completed with our arrival at Cardrona Hotel. That arrival and our departure from Cromwell this morning along with our drive down the Carrick Track were about the only intentional parts of the day.
We woke to some rain and news that there was heavy snow on the Pisa Range which was part of the planned route. Enough snow on Duffers Saddle on the top of the Carrick so we re planned.
Cafe stop back in Cromwell was a welcome change.
It was quite cold actually with a lazy wind.
We weren’t going high to the snow so drove the back Pylon Road over to Clyde only to encounter a ridiculous amount of traffic on the narrow back track including trucks and large wide trailers.
There had been a serious motor vehicle accident in the Cromwell Gorge so some very keen if somewhat optimistic drivers thought the back track was a good track. Police advice cautioned against this.
Restricted the numbers of oncoming to mere hundreds.
We got through and then drove the eastern Dunstan foothills to Thomsons Gorge and then west again.
Very large amount of traffic on this track also. How some of the wee rentals were to get through would be interesting. Enthusiastic driving I imagine.
It was an OK day. Not so good as the other days but OK. Trip overall on the other hand has gone very well.
Day Six of our High Country Heritage running this time under our 7 day format as against the other 3 times each season we run as a 6 day.
Going well. A couple of mls of rain overnight at least settled the dust for the morning.
Certainly cooler as we travel along especially at altitude such as we reached today topping out at over 1660 metres.
What a great crew we have in tow. And what an awesome island we have to show off to them.
Day Five of Seven and this is our Mackenzie Country day. Usually our Mt Cook day also but the big hill today failed once again to turn up for our appointment. Disappointing.
We have had a good day anyway driving the tracks of the long dry major river beds of the region and into the foothills of the Kirkliston Mountains.
Some spectacular scenery especially the sky today.
Day Four of our High Country Heritage 7 Day.
Geraldine to Twizel. Started off with a bit of light drizzle which kept the dust down for a few hours at least. We ventured into the hill country west of Geraldine along a well worn trail across station country. Then out on roads for the balance of the day.
Macaulay River was very low at the head of Lake Tekapo which is very low also.
So a day of low water levels at least.
Our High Country Trail 7 Day tour rolls on south and today was our Methven to Geraldine day with the majority of a fantastic day spent in the Lake Heron area of the upper Rakaia River.
A shorter sort of day anyway and on this occasion our progress wasn’t blocked by fallen farm tractors.
So a good day for all..
Day Two of our seven day High Country Heritage.
Hanmer Springs to Methven.
A long and winding road with a twist in its tail.
Weather has been great but the countryside could certainly use a proper nice warm rain. And soon would be the right time.
Our March High Country Heritage got under way today in Blenheim heading for Hanmer Springs with our route again altered by the extreme fire danger in the Blenheim area.
Thankfully we have options and a great scenic route down the Rainbow and Molesworth / St James boundary was an enjoyable alternative.
Got into Hanmer Springs in good time which can be quite difficult on our more normal easterly route.
Things change and so it happens that we at NZ Adventures have had a last minute cancellation on our April 2024 West Coast Explorer 5 day set to run from April 18th to 22nd with the briefing in Hanmer Springs on the evening of the 17th. Overnights along the route from the Hanmer Springs start point are in Murchison (two nights) Westport, Reefton and the trip finishes in Greymouth.
One of our longest established trips the West Coast tour is about as different from our easterly and southern tours as it’s possible to get.
The first days sudden transition from the grasslands of North Canterbury to the beech forests of the Upper Buller is something that doesn’t occur on any of our other tours.
Last year, 33-year-old Jesse Whitten and his wife adopted a little girl. Normally, that would not have made the news. But this was a pretty special adoption. Jesse works with the Santa Rosa Police Department in California and he meets all sorts of people while out on patrol. One day, he met a drug-addicted homeless woman with nowhere to go, and she was pregnant. Later, Jesse took his wife, Ashley, out with him to meet the woman. They both offered to take the woman to a rehab facility. That's when the woman realized that this couple was very loving and caring. And that's when she asked them if they would adopt her unborn child. The couple had three other young daughters at home and they had to do a lot of thinking about it. On Feb. 9, she gave birth to a little girl, who was named Harlow. Hospital officials asked her if she wanted to put her baby into foster care, but she declined. Instead, she told them to call Officer Whitten and his wife. So they did. And on Aug. 30, the Whittens became the official parents of little Harlow. Says Ashley: Harlow's mom envisioned "this beautiful life for her daughter and because of her situation, she couldn't give that to her. But because of her interactions with Jesse through the police department, she knew she could trust him." And that trust will see Harlow through the rest of her life.😌🥰
Credit - Original owner ( respect 🫡)
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Our Big Sky for 2024 is finished this afternoon with our return to Alexandra. A pretty good trip is how we feel about it. Weather was pretty kind with only a short sharp period of strong winds on Day Two and some drizzle this morning to detract at all.
What a great bunch of people we have been lucky enough to attract. One couple even from faraway Netherlands.
Day Six is especially gratifying to host when the landowners ask only that we donate to both the Teviot Valley Retirement Home in Roxburgh and the Alexandra St Johns. Can’t get a great deal better than than.
Gratifying also as we finish the trip for this season to know that the same trip is fully booked with a waiting list for 2025. Looking forward to it already
Day Five. A long day. Any time heading into the increasingly rough tracks of the Oteake Conservation Park will be a long day and so it was today.
200 kilometres and most of it, certainly time wise spent in the rough and the rocky Hawkdun Mountains at altitudes up to about 1700 metres.
Day Four of our “Big Sky”
Cardrona to Alexandra via Macetown. Far from a direct route. But a great route also filled with river crossings and some tight squeezes with oncoming vehicles on quite a busy Saturday. And a few walkers from all corners of the globe walking the Te Araroa that also passes through Macetown.
An interesting day.
Our Big Sky continues on through Day 2 from Omarama to Cromwell. Not so far directly but quite a long way by the route we use.
Some spectacular scenery and a particularly impressive farm near Omarama where our access supports the local primary school.
We have had another great day out in the back blocks. Wind got a fraction brisk through the afternoon but overall we have been lucky with the weather. Long may that continue although it can and should rain everywhere we aren’t and that rain can’t come soon enough.
On the back roads, tracks and trails of the South Island once again as our “Big Sky” 6 day gets underway and todays route took us from Fairlie to Omarama. Route was changed due to high river levels in the normally dry Pukaki River but apart from the change the day went well.
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