Blogs from Arthur's Pass National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 7

Day 543 (22.09.08) We were glad to wake to finer weather this morning and used it to wander down Gibson's Wharf in Hokitika where the old ships used to dock when this was a big trading town. On the end of the wharf we watched a group of local whitebaiters making the days catch as the tide turned and then we stopped briefly at the shipwreck memorial. We left town and began to make our way to Arthur's Pass, one of the major coast to coast routes across the South Island, where we planned to spend a couple of days doing some walking. We stopped for lunch at Londonderry Rock a large boulder carried down to it's position by a long ago glacial advance. Back on the road we wound our way through some great scenery ... read more

Throughly enjoying Christchurch, we decided to get some fresh mountain air and headed out. Although to our prairie eyes mountains are everywhere, locally they are merely hills and the mountains are . . the really big hills. On the map Kirby spotted an "x" named Mt. Armstrong, so with no particular place to go . . . we went toward Arthur's Pass to see if we could take a peek at the peak. Upon entering the pass, we came across fog and decided to spend the night in a rest stop taking pictures and listening to "Solid Rock", a classic rock station, which was heaps of fun as the commercials split our sides. The next morning the fog still lingered as we ventured further into the mountain range and once again found remarkable eye candy. Instead ... read more

OK... no, the title isn't meant to sound rude, but that is litterally what we were doing! Arthur's Pass is right smack bang in the middle of the Southern Alps. Tramping is what the Kiwis call hiking. The journey up from Christchurch was damp, but very scenic. There is the first photo of DJ posted here. Marvell at her beauty! Lots of rocks, hills then mountains very much looking like all the scenes from Lord of the Rings. We stopped for lunch on the way at Lake Lyndon which was a lovely place to stop and munch on our sandwiches. The overcast weather only added to the mood of the place. We then carried on towards Arthur's Pass. It is a tiny town which only really exists to cater for trampers like us and the train ... read more

Arthur's Pass was a bit of a disaster for us.....& we did just as the name suggested....we passed through fairly quickly. It just wasn't meant to be. After driving for most of the day to get there in our Nissan, we were lucky to get to the hostel hidden away in the mountains, miles away from civilisation. We'd been getting a strong smell of freshly baked bread for quite a while, which was getting progressively worse the more hills we had to climb in the car. I'm no Delia Smith now....I eat bread & love it but certainly don't have a mobile bread-maker with me. So obviously this was the car's way of telling us to give-up. Because the car really wasn't able for it.....it struggled up the hills with hardly any power & at one ... read more

We drove up the rainy west coast (15 feet per year) following switch back after switch back trying to cover ground and make our way to the Arthur's Pass. Our first stop was at the Devil's Punchbowl where we hiked to see a 400 foot waterfall. Next, we headed to Cave Stream that is aptly named as the stream goes through a cave. After a quick look at the oddly shaped boulders at Castle Rock, we continued through to Christchurch for another stay with Liz and Warrick.... read more