Arthur's Pass

There were a couple short hikes we might have taken at Arthur's Pass, but we were generally underwhelmed, and, having seen the Pass, we reversed back east to head for Lake Tekapo and Mt. Cook, much more spectacular country.

Helpful models in the Arthur's Pass visitor center

Ditto

Top of the pass heading down west

Interestingly, the west side was studded with Pohutukawa trees
in bloom

Aka the Metrosideros Excelsa

Aka the New Zealand Christmas Tree

At the Pass, a monument to Arthur Dobson, the surveyor who
recommended the pass for an east-west road; the Maori had
told him about it; we were hoping for a small castle, maybe a
round table, some jousting...

The Pass's current residents...Kea, the famed New Zealand
alpine parrot (not to be confused with the Norwegian Blue)

In flight

We'll see more of them further south

There were some nice waterfalls in the area

But we were ready to move on

First Bite

On the west side of the island, one expects to fall victim to sand flies, whatever the precautions. So it was particularly disheartening to get my first bite of the campaign on Bealey's Track, well east of Arthur's Pass. It was a textbook case. I was wearing long pants and long sleeves and gloves and a hat and had even sprayed my neck and face. The fly got me just between the sleeve and my glove. First the sting, then the itching, the swelling and whelping, and soreness, and then...three weeks of itching. See illustration. The South Island has a lot going for it for people to put up with these pests.

Time to start marinating in DEET

Bealey Track

Our progress toward Arthur's Pass was slow, mainly since we wanted to do some serious walking and also see a few new sights. Bealey's Track heads up from the highway to yield, after a few kilometers walking and a thousand feet of elevation gain, some fine views of the out-wash plains of three or four converging valleys. New Zealand has some of the largest such plains we have seen, outside of Alaska and the Himalayas. And the Andes. Anyhow, too pooped to press on, we camped again on Lake Pearson.

Too cloudy...the distant snows in the center suggest much
larger mountains beyond our view

The whole place was a bit reminiscent of Mt. Sunday, Edoras,
which we visited in 2014

Castle Hill Rocks

We decamped Monday morning, January 15th, and drove into Christchurch again for some repairs to Rooby--air conditioner and fridge--handily taken care of by Daniel and Kylie, and then were on our way. For whatever reason, we were anxious to be back on the road again.Vicki wanted to see Arthur's Pass, one of just a couple roads that link the east and west coasts of the island, something we'd missed in 2014 due to foul weather. And so we headed west. We stopped, however, for a little hike among the Castle Hill Rocks, a DOC (Department of Conservation) site in the foothills east of the Southern Alps. We like weird rocks.

Trail to nowhere

Castle Hill Station (what they call ranches here)

Vicki stands for scale against a rock face

Limestone and differential erosion, unbeatable combination for
weirdness

Sad frog; behind a dog

Petrified tree trunk?

Little cylinder of relief up among the rocks

Three or four different collections of weird rocks in view

We free-camped that night on Lake Pearson

Skill-fully composed...there were probably 20 other rigs there
that night

Christchurch, 2018

After unpacking and moving into Rooby, our new home (it didn't take long), we drove from the Top 10 Christchurch campground into the city center. Much evidence of the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 remains, but the rebuilding is well underway and the downtown seemed to us now again more of a vibrant city place and not just a site for gawkers of the devastation. We spent an afternoon retracing steps from 2014. It is a beautiful city in a beautiful setting.

The container block, now much reduced and pretty much hasty
tasties

The cathedral

A Camper-Van Named Rooby...

This is our second camper rental in NZ, our third overall, and the first that comes with it's own name...Rooby. (Its Kiwi predecessor was the Millennium Bongo). I'm not sure whether Rooby is a Rooby Sue or a Rooby Tuesday. I think most likely a Rooby Sue ("Ain't that somethin'? She falls down a well, her eyes go cross. She gets kicked by a mule. They go back to normal. I don't know.") Anyhow, the best interior and other shots of Roobie are from the vendor's website: https://www.cruzycampers.co.nz/diesel-campervan. It's a bit cramped, even by our standards, but it's OK. We're still looking for the bathroom.

Return To New Zealand, 2018

 After nearly a month's very enjoyable stay in Menlo Park, Fiji Air flew us first to Nadi and then to Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand, where we will spend the next 3 months, more or less. It is our third long stay in New Zealand, a place we have always loved. We have rented a well-traveled van camper--a 2002 diesel Toyota Hiace (banzai!) named Rooby--from Cruzy Campers in Christchurch and have spent nearly a day moving in, sorting out, etc., at the Top 10 Holiday Park. Rooby is of course RHD, but, since it's only been 4 months since I was last keeping left and upside down, it's OK.  I'll post more pix and more detail as we get underway.

We began our orientation, moving in, etc., at Spitfire Square,
near the airport in Christchurch; it's a very late model Spitfire,
4 blades, squared off wings, but nonetheless meaningful,
especially since I'd watched Dunkirk twice en route to Nadi;
oh, that's Rooby in the background