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When we arrived on the site last night, the last thing John said as we parked up was ‘it’s a bit boggy, but we should be ok if it doesn’t rain’. Famous last words! It rained all night, and I lay in bed for quite a while worrying that we wouldn’t be able to get out in the morning, but of course, we had no problems at all - thank goodness. We had planned to go to the Glacier villages today to book in to a Glacier visit tomorrow, but the weather isn’t looking too good and we’ve been told it would be better to wait until Sunday.
So the choice was either sit around and relax all day, or go somewhere else. So that saw us setting off for Arthur’s Pass, which meant backtracking slightly. We hadn’t been sure whether we’d have time to do the Pass, so this was really an added bonus ... and as much as we keep saying we want to rest and relax, we also want to see everything!! (and we can relax when we get home!).
On the way, we drove past the Quilt Shop sign that we’d seen the night before
that I’d bravely said to ignore, but 2 days in a row must surely be a sign, so we drove in to the Shop, which was actually situated in the back room of a bungalow. Michelle, the owner of “By Hoki Quilts”, was such an interesting lady, we ended up standing chatting to her for ages. Her family had emigrated when she was 16 and she had certainly not been very pleased with it as she had just won a place to Henley School of Arts. Eventually she trained as a nurse (I think in the forces), then trained as a teacher before deciding to follow her passion and open the shop. She had certainly designed and produced some stunning quilts, my favourite being based on an Amish design which was heavily hand quilted. (more info from www.byhokiquilts.blogspot.com)
Talking to her gave us a different perspective of life in NZ - she had been a senior teacher at a predominantly Maori school in the North Island and her husband is a policeman (currently on peacekeeping duties in East Timor). She much preferred living in the South Island, and said when they first bought their house a few years’ ago,
there was no key because no-one had ever needed one. Interestingly, it appears that lots of people are moving from to the South Island. There is only one Maori tribe in the Southern Island, as they don’t like the cold!
Eventually we set off on our way and were soon driving up through forests and mountains. It was absolutely stunning - the clouds were clinging to the mountain sides, giving an almost ethereal feel to the scenery - all in grey of course! (we did say that we’ll probably try some of the photos in black and white, although they’re almost there already anyway!). And John was in raptures! There’s nothing John loves more than a good waterfall ... and what does NZ (and this road in particular) have in spades ... waterfalls! He was driving up mountain passes as 15 kph looking up down left right (all at the same time) whilst saying ‘wowee’ every 2 minutes! His only irritation was the fact that the naughty Telecoms company had followed the train track and put their telegraph poles along the easiest route ... thus ruining many of John’s photos. Never catch BT doing that now would you? (tongue
in cheek)!
We stopped at Otira Gorge to take photos of the waterfalls shooting over the top of the road (what else?!), but quickly became enthralled by the antics of some Kea (pronounced keee-a), New Zealand’s mountain parrots - they have incredible reds and blues when they fly. They were incredibly cheeky and reminded me of visits to Safari Parks in the UK with the monkeys jumping all over the cars - they were nibbling away at the rubber round the doors and managed to twist off our aerial in seconds flat! I gave in and cut up an apple for them to chew on instead. After my penguin gaffe a couple of days ago I shouldn’t comment - but I thought it was hilarious when an Indian family arrived and asked ‘are they kiwi?’, quickly followed by ‘are they sea eagles?’ ... I would have smirked if it hadn’t been for the penguin...!! The next place we pulled in had big signs up saying ‘don’t feed the kea’ (oops!) as it makes them dependent on humans (I think ours were already!). The sign also gave some facts - kea were once shot in their thousands - for killing
sheep! They’ve been protected since 1986, and any that kill sheep now are moved elsewhere. This was a bit of a shock, because they had seemed relatively harmless - more like really cheeky comedians.
Onward and upward, and goodness it was getting chilly! Arthur’s Pass is at 924m, and two of the mountains around it, Mts Rolleston and Franklin stand at 2271m and 2145m respectively. We had lunch and then drove on towards some sunshine. On both Islands it appears that the west always gets more rain, and we could almost see a line drawn with sun on one side and grey drizzle on the other. We had been rather hoping that the sun would follow us back when we turned round, so that we could see the Pass and the mountains in different aspects ... but we could barely see them at all - the rain just fell out of the sky! It was like driving through a car wash.
We stopped at Greymouth Library to upload a couple of days’ worth of blog and then drove down to a site we’d noticed on the way through. And as we drove, the sun came out and what
a difference it made! The makings of a fine sunset, with those grey mountains suddenly developing a pink tinge. We pulled onto the site that gave us power and facilities all for $15 (I rather think they threw the railway line, trains and highway in for free!). But we had a great time - there was a communal kitchen and TV room, so we cooked dinner and chatted to a German couple who were having a bit of a time of it - they’d been trapped down in the Sounds for 4 days with really bad weather, and they were desperate to see some sunshine! I also took the opportunity to wash all our bedding and clothes, as we’re never quite sure when we’ll get the next chance. The people that run the site and collect the monies on behalf of the owner live in a ‘5 wheeler’ - a huge ‘rig’ of a van with pullout sections that make it even wider. Alan came and chatted to us for quite a while and was giving some good advice on places to stay. And the excitement - we got to watch the TV - It’s the latest we’ve stayed up
since we arrived in NZ!
And the Creeks: Puzzle, Thirsty, Big Slip, Yorkies Point, Nellies and of course Debenham (for those who don’t know, a village outside Ipswich)
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