January 29 - February 27, 2025 New Zealand February 12

Today we leave Queenstown, driving over Arrow Junction from where there is an incredible view, and continue on towards Cardrona.

Cardrona is a small settlement in the Queenstown-Lakes District of the Otago region on the South Island of New Zealand.

The settlement was founded during the gold rush in Otago in the 1860s. At that time, up to 5,000 people lived in and around it. The former site is known for its distinctive hotel from the gold rush era, which is situated on the other side of the river, while only a few houses of the original settlement remain. Another historic building is the town hall and church, where the Cardrona Folk Music Festival takes place annually.

The pub in Cardrona gained fame through an advertising campaign by the Speight’s brewery from Dunedin, which also produces a beer brand of the same name. Since then, Speights has built replicas of this pub in other parts of New Zealand, including Mount Eden in Auckland.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the place gained national and even international attention through the Cardrona BH Fence, which became a tourist attraction.

We continue along Lake Hawea to Mount Aspiring National Park, towards Haast.

In 2006, the Milford Dart Company requested the Department of Conservation to amend the management plan of Mount Aspiring National Park to allow an additional road within the park for a bus tunnel, called the Milford Tunnel, from Routeburn Road to Hollyford Valley, which was intended to bring tourists to Milford Sound. The tunnel would have created a link via Glenorchy and significantly reduced the current travel time of 9 hours for the round trip from Queenstown to Milford Sound.

In December 2007, the New Zealand conservation authority rejected the amendment of the management plan. They believed that the proposed road would neither contribute to the use nor the enjoyment of Mount Aspiring National Park and that the negative impacts of constructing and utilizing the road in the national park would outweigh the benefits.

The proposal was fundamentally approved in 2011 by the Department of Conservation, but rejected in July 2013 by Minister of Environment Nick Smith. Smith stated that the proposal went beyond what was appropriate for a World Heritage Site. The executive of the company supporting the proposal expressed disappointment. The National party is trying to outdo the Greens. Skiing is on the agenda.

Mount Aspiring National Park was established in 1964 as the tenth national park.