Today we said farewell and thanks to Franz Josef as we started our journey back towards Christchurch, where the Motorhome is due to be returned in 2’days time.
Our route would take us over Arthur’s Pass, at 920m, the highest of the 3 main passes over the Southern Alps🏔️
We therefore chose to make that our destination for the day and booked a place at Jacksons Alpine Retreat 🏔️🙂
Heading north up the coast on a cloudy/14C morning we soon had to reprise the 8km of twisting hairpins over the appropriately named Mount Hercules 🏋🏽♂️🏔️😉
If you’ve never driven on this type of road before, we hope the following gives you some idea of how it is when you are also passing through a native rainforest (NB these unedited shots are all in strict chronological order too 🙂)
After it flattened out across the plain we stopped in the wee settlement of Ross, which was a former gold mining area; we had lunch in the historic Empire Hotel, which was built in 1866 in response to that surge in mining and we immediately felt thrown back into that era, or, at the very least, 100 years ago!
Adorning one of the walls was this poster for Speights beers, which, although meant in jest, probably included more than the proverbial grain of truth in it’s sentiment 🤔
Although we had already spent some time in Hokitika our route took us back through this cool wee town; and since they were hosting their annual Driftwood & Sand Sculptures competition this very weekend we were keen to see how this was panning out, as they certainly ain’t short of the materials required 😉
Turning South East we were heading straight for the mountains on, what we have now become accustomed to, another section of their dead straight State Highways …
..and stopped to refuel (both us & the MH😉) in the tiny settlement that’s Kumara Junction…
At it’s peak, in the Gold Mining era, it’s population was in excess of 4,000, but has steadily declined since then to less than 300…and it has that “where’s the tumbleweed” feel about it…🤔
Replenished, we made our way up Arthur’s Pass to our campsite…
…and what an inviting sight it was too as, like the Orange Sheep campground we’d left in the morning, this site had also been carved out of the rainforest, but, this time, at over 700m above sea level!
This is the pitch and view we were allocated 😉
We took a stroll round the site thinking we’d found our own wee gold mine, such was its stunning setting 🙂
Then, right on cue and very much in keeping with its location, it began to rain…very heavily…and still is 4 hours later..🌧️🌧️🌧️
BTDU 
3 responses to “Friday 26 January 24”
We visited Arthur’s Pass by train from Christchurch in Jan 2013. It was about C25 that day 🌞
LikeLike
Nice post. We rode up Arthur’s Pass but can mostly remember it putting the rain in rain forest. We could barely tell if we were at the top of not (pre-Strava so there is no proof).
When our campsite asked us if we’d like a pitch with a roof I think we realised what that part of the island was all about.
Thanks for showing us what it really looks like.
LikeLike
Sorry to hear that was your experience Malcolm..the site we stayed at had covered pitches too in the shape of an open – sided barn, about 20 m long…not seen that before, so wonder if that might have been the same site🤔 What time of the year were you here?
LikeLike