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South Island - urgent! Need ideas for central / east coast .... help!

South Island - urgent! Need ideas for central / east coast .... help!

Old Sep 28th, 2013, 11:52 PM
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South Island - urgent! Need ideas for central / east coast .... help!

Hi everyone
We are currently in beautiful Queenstown and our plan was to go to the glaciers / trans alpine express over the next few days. Unfortunately Haast Pass is closed so we need plan B. we have a car and need to be in Christchurch Wednesdsy night to fly out Thurs morning. So we have 3 days to fill. Any ideas? We have been in Queenstown for a week so ready to move on.
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Old Sep 29th, 2013, 03:08 AM
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Haast is STILL closed or did they close it again, do you happen to know?


How about Wanaka-Mt Cook-Christchurch?
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Old Sep 29th, 2013, 03:25 AM
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This worries me a little [and if it doesn't open soon, it'll start worrying me a lot] as our route round the SI takes us down the West coast, through the Haast pass, and on to Wanaka.

I suppose that I will have to start thinking about plan B and checking when the cancelation periods for the accommodation that we've booked run out.
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Old Sep 29th, 2013, 11:00 AM
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Mel, it was reopened during day for a while but closed again after another rock fall.
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Old Sep 29th, 2013, 03:33 PM
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annhig -

Don't worry just yet. Haast Pass was closed two days after we'd driven through, near the time a young Canadian couple was washed off the road by a landslide. Like Milford Road, it can be a hazardous area, it gets quite a lot of rain, and closures do happen, but not routinely.

You have lots of time before you go, so don't worry. It doesn't hurt to have a Plan B though.

This is a prime example of why folks need to be flexible when they travel to NZ.

We had to make a few on the fly changes to our itinerary too, but things have a way of working out.
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Old Sep 30th, 2013, 01:58 AM
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thanks, Menq8. I'm not panicking quite yet, but have a Plan B forming somewhere at the back of my head.
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Old Oct 1st, 2013, 10:50 PM
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We made it and came up with some ideas. Thank goodness for visitor info centres and Google! NZ is a beautiful country.
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Old Oct 1st, 2013, 11:27 PM
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Indeed it is LakesideChick. Enjoy the rest of your visit and please let us know what all you did when you get back.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2013, 09:19 PM
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Hi again.... home safe! We ended up driving to Wanaka as there was hope the pass would reopen. It didn't, so we went to Mt Cook, did the glacier boat tour then to Chridtchurch for a day before flying home. Only pain was trans alpine wouldn't refund per purchased tickets even though we couldn't get to Greymouth.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2013, 09:30 PM
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Glad it worked out, minus the bit about the TranzAlpine.
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Old Oct 3rd, 2013, 07:03 AM
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Only pain was trans alpine wouldn't refund per purchased tickets even though we couldn't get to Greymouth.>>

can you claim on the travel insurance?
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Old Oct 5th, 2013, 03:37 AM
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Don't know, going to find out. Probably not, I'm sure somewhere they will have fine print!
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