Rakaia Gorge, 2018

Our route toward Lake Tekapo took us past Rakaia Gorge, a bit of which we walked in 2014. This time, despite intermittent rain, we walked a bit more, although I can't say the views change or improve much. More impressive than the little gorge is the river itself, now in mid summer flow, carrying tons of glacial flour and other debris down from the big mountains to the west. After Rakaia, we shopped a bit in the pretty village of Methven and then carried on to a DOC campground named Arundel. Arundel was founded in 1067 by Roger de Montgomery, one of William's pals, and has for the past 900 years been the traditional stronghold of the Dukes of Norfolk. Wait; no....

Typical DOC signage; if nothing else, New Zealand is very well signed

The river

Massive old tree, undercut to hold two sizable shelters

Environs

Glacial flour

We walked on another 30 minutes or so

These two trees must have been oozing sap or something; both
were covered with buzzing
honey bees

Big sand and gravel beach

Rooby at Arundel; that's Vicki's yellow poncho drying out

Not a long white cloud, but just enough to catch a bit of rainbow from the west

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