Behind the wheel
Emirates Team New Zealand helmsman Dean Barker loves to drive - be it on the water in an America’s Cup yacht, or on the track racing cars.
As a typical Kiwi teenager, he had a passion for cars, and raced a Ford Escort Mark I (circa 1970). These days, his racing is restricted to the sea, but he still loves getting behind the steering wheel of a car.
As a husband and father, his driving is a little more sedate, and he has more time to take in the scenery.
Barker’s favourite driving route, without question he says, is from Queenstown to Wanaka on State Highway 6 in Central Otago. It’s the part of the world where Barker’s wife Mandy, a former New Zealand hockey star, was born and raised.
The highway is an historical and dramatic journey from Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world, through the Kawerau Gorge, and its rich gold mining past, and the Gibbston Valley and its vineyards - the ‘new gold’ of Central Otago. It winds through Cromwell, the heart of stone-fruit country, to Wanaka, a ski resort on the shores of a stunning alpine lake.
The landscape through Central Otago is dominated by ancient schist mountains, studded with tors and valleys scoured by glaciers in the ice age. The colours of the changing seasons are spectacular: the purple carpet of wild thyme in spring; the golden-baked hills of summer; the amber of willows and poplars in autumn; the crisp blue skies and eerie white hoar frosts of winter.
‘It’s so cool, driving along these spectacular roads through mind blowing scenery you won’t find anywhere else in New Zealand,’ Barker says.
For Kelvin Harrap, another Emirates Team New Zealand helmsman, the most beautiful drive in New Zealand also starts in Wanaka, but heads to the West Coast region of the South Island.
‘My wife is from Ireland, and it was a great way to show her the beauty of the South Island,’ Harrap says.
The most famous part of the route is through the Haast Pass, following an ancient trail used by Maori travelling to the West Coast in search of pounamu, the Maori name for greenstone, or jade. Their name for the trail was Tiora Patea - ‘the way is clear’.
The road crosses the Clutha River, and follows the shores of Lake Hawea, once gouged out by glaciers. It enters Mount Aspiring National Park, a World Heritage area, before the dramatic twists and turns of Haast Pass, where you can see spectacular waterfalls and ancient rainforest on the roadside.
At the end of the route are the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, mighty rivers of white ice, which cut their way through forest almost to the sea.
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