We awoke early after our one night at the Franz Josef Oasis (aka Bates Motel with an art gallery) to insistent rain. It had started raining the night before and with this being the tropical side of the island the rain just seems to never end. Since we were worried about getting over the Arthur’s Pass in the rain (or snow?) we wanted to leave ourselves a little extra time today.
So we got on the road by 8:30am with a 5:30 pm flight to catch from Christchurch which was a five hour drive. That gave us a nice buffer as it allowed us to stop and take pictures along the way. We headed north along the coast to a town called Hokitika where we were able to see a live kiwi bird. No photos were allowed but here is what they look like.
We also took advantage of their public beach to catch one more glimpse of the west coast before we crossed the Southern Alps back to Christchurch.
The beach was deserted and really gorgeous.
After this stop we turned east into the mountains where soon we found ourselves in the thick of a tropical rainforest complete with rain.
The road wound up the mountainsides crossing back and forth over the Otira River as we cut through the stunning Ortira Gorge.
At points the gorge was so narrow that the roadway was carved into the mountain and waterfalls were rerouted overhead.
The bridges were opportunities to pull over and snap some photos in the drenching rain.
After about 30 minutes of climbing higher and higher we reached the summit and were in snow. From there it’s a high country drive through valleys and fields of unspeakable beauty.
Everywhere you turned there was a photo opportunity.
The mountains looked like chocolate cakes with meringe frosting on top. Because the air is so clean they also looked extremely close.
It was as though you could reach out and touch them.
Seemed like someone was showing us photos through our windshield. Very difficult to believe the scenery was right in front of us.
Bridges were long and one lane only.
Fortunately as you’ve seen traffic is not an issue. You can go 10km without seeing another car. We drove nearly 150km this morning before we saw a car on our side of the highway.
Even the sheep were content with the scenery.
These sheep were incredibly photogenic although anti-social. As soon as each one became aware of our presence they turned their backs on us so that within five minutes we were looking at a field of sheep butts.
As we descended down the eastern slope of the Southern Alps the vegetation turned from lush to scrub. At times we felt we were driving through Montana or Colorado. So weird!
Soon enough we were down the eastern side of the mountains and still had time to drive through central Christchurch. This was the area that was most damaged from the earthquakes. The entire central business district is under construction and so in order to help keep small business afloat while they rebuild Christchurch the government has set up container cars for shops to reside in in the meantime. They are recyclable and entirely earthquake-proof.
Ingenious solution.
As the afternoon wore on we had to get to the airport for our flight to Wellington. Soon enough we were onboard Air New Zealand and flying our way up to the north island for the remainder of our trip.
Tomorrow we drive half of the north island from Wellington to Lake Taupo.
