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On Wednesday morning, in order to begin the long journey home, we were up and on the road by 7am. We first drove over the
Crown Range which is the highest tar-sealed road in Australasia and stopped for a short while at the Cardrona Hotel (made famous by Speight's beer ads). We made it through the mountains to
Lake Wanaka in time for second breakfast.
Most of the day was spent driving through the mountains to the west coast - along the shores of
Lake Wanaka and
Lake Hawea and passing through the
Gates of Haast. We stopped at
Fantail Falls and
Thundercreek Falls before breakng out of the rainforest into
Haast itself, where we fuelled up and made a quick side trip to the beach. Driving north, we passed through
Fox Glacier (quick stop for strong coffee) and
Franz Josef and finally arrived late afternoon in
Okarito where we had discovered a fantastic backpackers -
Royal Hostel. It started raining heavy but we were happy after a long drive to settle down in front of the log burner and spend the evening playing scrabble - the fact that Em won 331 to 175 is irrelevant!
Thursday was pretty uneventful.
Overlooking Arrowtown
We took this same photo four years ago...except without the pandaThe rain and wind continued and we drove 8 hours straight to get back to Christchurch in time for work the next day. We had a lunch stop in
Hokitika and skidded the car 2 or 3 times on the gravelly roads - including an amazing 270 degree Starksy and Hutch style spin off the main road, perfectly into a parking space at
Arthur's Pass. Even in the rain the drive through the pass was dramatic, with waterfalls flowing at full capacity.
Overall, a great Easter break.
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