Feb 26-March 2: To Arthur's Pass and Christchurch

 

February 26, 2025 - Drove to Te Anau, back through the tunnel.  

Views this direction different and even more dramatic.  Missed the roadside stops we also missed on the way in.  Gas at Te Anau but then headed straight to Kingston on Lake Wakatipo south of Queenstown.  

Made a note to next time do some water activity on this Kawarau River flowing into Queenstown--such a beautiful gorge!

Our Kingston Top 10 campsite provided free bikes, and after messing around with small helmets and flat tires, we rode out on the Around the Mountain bike trail.

It was a climb and we made it to an old Scottish homestead before turning around and coasting downhill for 10 minutes until we were all the way down.  We were out of snacks so went to the one quicky mart in town and got huge ice creams around 5pm, that served to keep us full until a very late dinner.  Went to the end of town in the car to hike a short trail but it was very short and lead to a steep very long trail so we just walked back along the lake.  Planned our next few days, ate salad dinner, took a shower, did blog, etc.

 

February 27, 2025 Drove to Lake Tepako today, going past Lake Pukaki with vistas of Mt. Cook (which we decided not to visit). 

We passed a king salmon fish farming operation with a booth selling sashimi salmon to tons of Japanese tourists.  Got to lakeside campsite in time to walk to lake and talk to a couple with a four room tent and two young kids.  

Our only scheduled activity for the day was a scheduled star gazing trip with Silver River Stargazing at 9:45pm. A five minute drive took us to a dark sky hill with telescope. Dan the astronomer taught us how to find the Southern Cross and its pointer stars Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri (all pictured behind us in this photo), plus we saw Jupiter and Mars and the constellation we are very familiar with, Orion. It was near the equator so can be seen in both hemispheres. The Milky Way was also looking good.

 

February 28, 2025 - Lake Tepako is a cool town and the lake is swimmable but we did not have time because we had our longest drive yet…..to Arthur’s Pass. Our only stop along the way except for gas and picnic was at Rakaia Gorge.    We hiked a trail up the gorge to a vista point but the trail was narrow and filled with roots and rocks and the flora was blackberries, thistles, grass, Scots broom, and northern hemisphere weeds, so not very impressive. We turned back instead of going further upstream to another “gorge.

This gave us time to get to Arthur’s Pass campground, Klondyke Corner, in early evening. It was just a big grassy field near another big gravel bed that was supposed to be a river but was dry. We were startled at the dry, snowless mountains driving there  and the barrenness of our campsite. Saw two jack rabbits.  Drove up to the town of Arthur’s Pass and looked it over but it was dead and visitor center was closed so we went back downhill the 8 km to our campsite.  It was very windy but we spent a little time outside looking at the stars again.

  

March 1, 2025 -  Debated whether we should even bother going up to Arthur’s Pass again because one of the hikes we wanted to do was closed and the other was to a waterfall that we figured would be busy  and mostly dry.  But we did go back up and a helpful ranger told us we could do the nature hike we wanted to do and also explained the cave hike we were curious about.

Dobson’s Nature trail at the pass was totally not what we expected.

It was dense with the craziest mix of plants imaginable for a normally snowy environment.

There were tiny succulent ground covers...

 Big round leaved plants that belonged in a swamp grew along with yucca that belong in a dessert... 

Tiny star flowers grew next to big mountain daisies...

 Shrubs in bloom with typical tiny white New Zealand flowers smelled like sage.

We had fun examining everything.

This trail merged with Beagley Chasm trail that led to a cascading river through a dwarfed beech forest---a mostly board walked trail.  

We were glad we did both. Beside the delicious water drunk from the river,

We found soft red lichens on the rocks ,

 and tiny carnivorous sundews living amongst strange tiny succulents

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Here is shot of the sundew with their surrounds.

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After finishing our manuka honey with our PB sandwiches, we drove down the hill to the Cave System Reserve.  This is a tube cave in limestone with a river flowing through it that you have to wade through and also climb up intermittent water falls, possibly along with fresh water eels. If we had had good flashlights we would have done it but we hiked to the entrance and watched several parties enter and met a family with two elementary aged boys who had just finished.  Next time!! There is a good swimming hole there too!

 

Dirk on the descent.

 The entrance

                                                   

    Inside looking out.

                                            

The exit.

                                                            

Then off to the Castle Hill rock formations where we found we were almost too tired to fully enjoy it but it was so fun to climb among the rock formations and watch some people hiking in with giant mats on their back so that they could “boulder” climb on some of the boulders. 

Lots of fun places to roost and scramble.

A loop trail leads through the formations but it is OK to wander and explore off trail.

Needed more time to play!

But we cut our exploring a bit short so that we could head down to a campsite en route to Christchurch that would have the water that we needed too badly to stay at the primitive DoC campsite another night. 
 We backed the caravan up to a fence facing a cow pasture. The campsite has twinkling colored lights strung about the facility, to compliment the stars!  Spent the evening organizing our stuff, cleaning, and getting ready to say good bye to our RV tomorrow.
 

March 2, 2025 - Time to turn in the RV. Don’t want to do it too early as all we have to do tonight is sit in the hotel and rearrange our luggage and the awful logistics of online “checking in.” Asked a guy walking his dog how to get to the Kowai Bush nature trail and found it---  was narrow and a bit overgrown but pleasant on a day that was already becoming hot.

  

Most noteworthy was the aggressive and totally terrifying fantails in this forest, who came closer and closer and then flew at us.  I attempted to wave arms and yell to frighten one off, but like a typical NZ birds, it was not phased and continued its aggressiveness, flying within a couple of feet of my face. Another did the same to Dirk, who was calm and collected.  I now hate them almost as much as Australian masked lapwings.

Saw more of the black moss beech trees with sweet sap and honey bees and a pleasant aroma.

 

Drove on to Darfield to get a diesel fill up and to get our propane tank refilled ($13.20 NZ =$8 approx) before turning in RV. Also stopped at McHugh’s Forest Park there to walk the grove of Douglas Fir planted about 180 years ago and now quite large. Infested with ivy.....and fairy homes!! A good transition to going home.

At RV place, had to pay a $200 tax on using diesel (not charged at the pumps) and over $180 for the dings in our windshield (see above)---might have had to pay more for the huge ding we got when car in front of us turned off onto a gravel shoulder. Got a lift to our airport Sudima Hotel and here we are.

 

Am ending the blog with some items of interest to me:  small square one story homes that are the typical dwelling in NZ.

There are a lot of sheep and cows here and soooooo much pastureland.

   

Windbreaks made of pine trees that serve as walls/fences between many of the pastures in this region.

There was a strong Maori influence in everything and learning how to pronounce Maori place names is essential.

There were clean, well supplied public toilets all over the place, in stark contrast to Europe.  Fresh drinking water stations are set up at all restaurants and/or pitchers of the stuff are brought to the table, in stark contrast to Europe!

A hedgehog roadkill, one of the many introduced species of mammals that are problematic in NZ--a pioneer brought them here to give a feel of Europe in the late 1800's. Stoats and possums are much bigger problems.

                                 

Thanks to Dirk and his safe and skillful driving on the left hand side of windy narrow single lane roads, we did not end up like the dead hedgehog or the many squished possums we saw!

Looking forward to returning to family and friends and planning our next adventure!