After we left our back country off road adventure, we headed west through the Haast Pass. On the day that we did this, the weather was terrible and we only just made it through the road works that mark the start of the video below. Shortly after we got through, they closed the entire road again, because of the danger posed by the huge deluge of rain and potential for more slips. You can see in the video how the forest just sits on a steep slope of bare rock and when the rain undermines it, the vegetation and any top soil simply slide off into the rivers, taking what ever is in their path at the time. Unfortunately when these slips went they took two Canadian tourists in their camper too.
We regularly tried to get off road as we progressed north, using out 4WD maps and track guides we had purchased. But time and time again the tracks had either been over stated as to their 'ruggedness' I guess we had been spoiled by the land access and terrain we had enjoyed in the previous week. Most often, however, the gravel roads had been tar sealed and were just normal state highways and most annoyingly when we were just nosing into more remote areas we would encounter a locked gate thrown up by the local farmer, even though the road was a publicly maintained road. I know that we can appeal these gate closures, but that would always be after the fact. I am sure the farmers are sick of the hoons who ruin it all for the rest of us. A good example would be the vandalism that we saw at lake Ida on the Wrighton Station. Last year some kids from Christchurch had driven all the way out to the curling/ice skating hut on lake Ida and smashed all the windows... Idiots. No wonder the farmers feel compelled to throw up locked gates if idiots are going to damage property, worry stock and rip up paddocks.
Anyway, enjoy this last video of our trip. I am currently working on a time lapse video taken at some of the stops and when I have rendered it I will post it here.
WestCoast2014 from David Kinane on Vimeo.
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