Day 19: Sunday, March 9, Wanaka/Haast Pass

A creative sign at our hostel.

Today we went to church at a tiny Baptist church in Wanaka. When I say tiny, I mean that there were 14 permanent members and ten visitors from out of town. It was a friendly crowd, and like every church so far we talked to them over tea and snacks afterward. I met a guy from the UK who had been a camp counselor for a couple of summers in Connecticut when he was studying in England and moved to NZ back in 1994. We talked politics and it was a very interesting conversation. The guide book said that politics is a very common topic of conversation and that most all Kiwis talk politics. I would agree. However, I would add that Kiwis are more interested in U.S. politics than their own politics. I have had three political conversations in as many days (this guy, one of the hang glide instructors, and a lady selling pictures at the A&P). Every one started essentially the same way: “Where are you from?” “I’m from Texas.” “What do you think of the election?” I’ve found that everywhere I’ve gone people always follow American politics. However, I think Kiwis are the most interested (or at least upfront) of those I’ve met. This also includes non-native Kiwis. The hang glide guy was Swiss. After a conversation about the Democratic election I told him that Kiwi politics seemed to be interesting, too, and he replied that he didn’t follow them. (He has lived here four years.) Others have made similar comments.

If you look at a map of NZ you will see that a huge proportion of the land is national park land. I’m not exactly sure how it works, but apparently the government has granted land use leases to a lot of sheep farmers. I think they are prolonged leases – 50 yrs or so – and were mostly granted a long time ago. I saw a short film about a family of shepherds in the highlands who said the government won’t renew their land lease. One guy at church said that his son traded his highland land lease to the government for ownership near Wanaka and then sold his land ownership to a development company; he retired on the money. The government realized that a lot of people were doing this and so it retroactively restricted the use of land it sold in these swaps. That meant that people who hadn’t completed the sale of their new land suddenly saw the land’s value plummet due to government action, but they didn’t get any compensation from the government. It’s like the EPA declaring part of someone’s property to be restricted use because of the presence of an endangered species without compensating the owner for loss of use or value. The huge amount of publicly owned land and the restrictions on the use of new land might be a factor in housing/land prices.

Enjoying a break and a good viewpoint above Monro Beach.

We then drove to Fox Glacier via Haast and Haast Pass. Along the way we came to a one-lane bridge about ¼ mile long. We have seen a lot of one-lane bridges, but none this long. It had two passing bays, which are essentially bulges in the bridge big enough for two cars to pass each other. The idea is that each pulls into their bay and then they can go on. However, there was a car on our side that obviously didn’t understand that because he was waiting for the bridge to be totally clear. A camper van was coming toward us and was about halfway across the bridge when a Mercedes comes roaring past us. He was obviously five or six cars back and decided that the driver at the front of the line didn’t know how the system was supposed to work and decided just to pass ahead to the front of the line. I agree with his assessment, but his style screamed “I drive a Mercedes so I can drive as I please.” The worst part of it all was that he waited way too long

A view down Monro Beach. It is secluded and a 45 minute walk from anywhere, so we had it to ourselves.

and thus encountered the camper van after it had passed the last passing bay. Everyone came to a halt with this Mercedes nose-to-nose with the camper van, which in turn had another car or two behind. Mercedes Man got out of his car and gesticulated at the camper; the camper driver just sat there and shrugged his shoulders. After a minute or two Mercedes Man admitted defeat and started backing his car up on the bridge. It became readily apparent that he was terrible at backing up, adding insult to injury. At one point he ran into the curb and had to pull forward in order to straighten out and continue. When he reached the end after his ignominious retreat he gave the camper van the finger as it moved past; we gave the camper van a big thumbs up as he went past.

Note the name. Someone had a sense of humor. This also gives you an example of a one lane bridge; the large arrow indicates right-of-way.

To give you an idea of how unpopulated this area is, Haast is considered a big town on the west coast highway. It has a population of 250 and one gas station.

Rocks and surf. A great combination.