Arthur'S Pass Village Motel Arthurs Pass

... 1492;פארק ממוקם על הדרך ההיסט 93;רית בין קנטרב 93;רי במזרח והחוף המערב 97; הפראי. דרך ז ...

... Duck (you cannot beat that) in Sunmer, along the south coast of Christchurch. The houses overlook the bay and it just sounds fantastic to live up the hill where windsurfers enjoy the sunset.

In the early monring, Adam, Nico and I take off west toward Arthur Pass passing through some more lakes, and slowly making our way to higher summits. Great drive to wake up in the morning.
We knock down the way up in 1H40 ...

... we were very nervous about this road! With at least 90+kms between villages for 'help' if we did break down, its a pretty scary thought! By this point too we only had a quarter of a tank of petrol and hoped we got to the village ok!!! Jo read her lonely planet and with relief found out that there was a petrol pump at arthurs pass village, around 70kms away at this point! Jon was rolling it down the hills and very lightly pressed the ...

... giving ourselves enough room for a hasty retreat if they got upset as they have pretty large teeth and weigh about 140kg, and took some photos. Just has we had finished the heavens opened so we got pretty soaked as we scrabbled back across the rocks to the van.

At the time we didn't know, but as long as you don't get between a seal and the sea you are OK as they have an escape route. They also stink. Of rotting fish.

... keepy uppy with it when the girls had enough of catch!

We then got showered but ran out of water when Lauren went in so had to drive to the tap and refill the tank whilst Lauren sat in the back of the van wrapped in her towel covered in shampoo! It wasn’t easy as the tap was not the same size as our hose connection but we managed to get just enough water for her to finish off her shower!

... see how frozen it was. We stopped for lunch surrounded by mountains and fir trees, and discussed how much we didn't want to leave New Zealand. Just before Arthur's Pass we stopped at the Otira Viaduct for fabulous views of the steep sides of the pass and the road on the viaduct running through the gorge. There was even a chute used to divert a waterfall away from the road. We admired the view and a few curious kea came to say hello. They ...

... glaciers. The reality was, however, slightly different. Anyway, along the way we pulled over at some lookout points, so the day wasn't that boring. To Franz Josef Glacier we arrived in the afternoon and as the first thing we booked for the following day a half day guided walk on the ice. The village was much more lively than Arthur's Pass. Also accommodation competition was quite strong. We stayed in a nice backpackers.

... in an enclosure by the site. The west coast is one of the most wild and isolated regions of NZ, known for its excessive rainfall (ten times that of London) and wild, variable conditions. Quite a change from the past 5 weeks of gorgeous sunshine! Native to the west coast (and only found in NZ) is the kea bird. Basically a non-tropical parrot, the kea is known to be more ...

... amount of shunting, chugging and hooting at night but we rather like the noise, even if it does sound like the train is just outside the window.

En route here we found a neat little cut through from Methven, via the fabled Lake Coleridge - which we didn't actually see in a maze of gravel roads! We did find NZ's oldest hydro power station though - we're now well versed on the subject having ...

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)
< br>I had to go and claim the ball from the office just before we departed, where the manager confessed that she quite enjoyed making me feel like a 10 year old when I asked to get it back off her. With the booty safely in hand there were some ironic cheers from the gallery as I stepped onto the bus. Still, I can't quite see where all the complaints were coming from, as quite a few ...