The Long Lost Last Two Days

The next morning my computer packed it in, disallowing us to share our throbbing excitement on this blog (such a gruesome name: blog). But after returning to what a number of Kiwis referred to as ‘New Zealand’s most western island’, we had it patched up by a clever nerdy fella and so here it is…

Our drive back to Christchurch took us through much of the central spine of NZ, the long Southern Alps, as we zig zagged to and fro. There were two main objectives on what was to be our final days of driving: see central Christchurch’s buildings and to see as much of that glorious mountain range as possible.

The weather cleared a bit, the powerful wind gusts still threatened to lift the unwary off their feet but the Sun kept peeking through the shifting clouds. As we drove out of Twizzle (actually Twizel) we caught fleeting glimpses of the sharp tip of Mt Cook in the distance, sheer white faces that cut through the mists and pointed symmetrically to the blue atmosphere above.

The roads that the amazing Navigatrix located wound through enormous valleys and past roaring rivers, up crumbling dry and stark mountains then around the banks of high alpine lakes. She found a dusty dirt back road that meandered through tussocky scrublands that clung tenaciously to the fragile slopes, which then connected us up to the magnificent Arthur’s Pass.

The diversity of environments we encountered on that wonderful alpine drive had us cooing in awe. There was a wide variation from the flowing dry scree slopes of the eastern and central mountains to the mossy beech forests of the sharp western slopes, a dramatic change that transitioned over just a few short gullies.

Waterfalls abounded, thin streams tumbled over towering precipices to splash upon the mossy green rocks below. Everywhere were glorious views to indulge in as we stood shivering in the howling gales to appreciate the vistas spread out before us.

By the time we reached the west coast it was getting late so we searched for a lovely Airbnb that we had stayed at on the way through that region earlier in our trip. Unfortunately something happened with the booking and when we showed up it turned out that we had booked for the NEXT night. Luckily the lovely host put us up in another room (she actually vacated her own bed for us) and we had a comfortable stay anyway.

The return trip the next morning over Arthur’s Pass was all clouded in and rainy until we reached the drier central region, but we pushed on to get to the city of Christchurch in time to check out the sights. In that busy hub there were large amounts of reconstruction going on following the big earthquake a few years previously, but we found a restaurant where live music played and I had my last expensive Kiwi beer ($10 a glass it is there! No wonder you don’t see any public drunkenness!).

The botanical gardens were an exquisite treat to wander about in, the gates shut at sunset (9:00 pm) so we ambled about looking at the lovely cold climate flowers and gorgeous twisted old tree trunks. The big old redwoods and sequoias were quite impressive.

The long flight back to NZ’s western-most island began in the wee hours of the next morning.

We adored the South Island of New Zealand – the scenery was amazingly fantabulously incredibly beautiful and all of the people we encountered were warm and friendly and welcoming. Georgie even convincingly stated that it’s her new favourite place (apart from the sand flies) and she could definitely live there – well… in the summer anyway!

Click to big the pics up