A long drive to Arthur's Pass national park and back again. Last minute research I found the drive described as 'majestic and beautiful but can test of nerves for the driver' on Wiki Travel, but I didn't find anything wrong with it. The real challenge in the beginning was not falling asleep while driving along the same flat, straight road for about an hour. Made a quick stop in the town of Springfield because they have a big donut in the playground.
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| Springfield. |
The first real stop of the day was at Kura Tawhiti conservation area. Had some huge limestone rocks all over the hills which was a bit peculiar. Driving again and reached the mountains, so lots of that annoying accelerating and braking and sharp turns, only got stuck behind one truck I think but finally got some good scenery.
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| LET'S ROCK |
The next stop was at Cave Stream scenic reserve, there's a one kilometre underground cave you can walk through, but you're supposed to take proper safety equipment like a head lamp and you would get wet going through it, so didn't attempt that journey. Stopped nearby at Lake Pearson for lunch instead, got swarmed by ducks wanting food, otherwise not much happening, it was more just like a rest stop.
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| Somewhere above the cave. |
About 50 kilometres still to get to the actual Arthur's Pass village, just a few shops and a visitor centre. Lots of different walking tracks to go on, took the shortest one called Devil's Punch Bowl for some reason, which ended at a big waterfall after about a thousand steps. Also went to Bealey chasm and Bealey valley which was a longer path, ending at some river. Unless I was mistaken, it looked like they still had mountains with snow not far away.
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| Village map. |
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| False advertising, no kiwi. |
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| Punch Bowl waterfall. |
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| Is that snow or white dirt? |
That was about it for the day, another long drive back to Christchurch, some roadworks meant part of the road was only going one direction at a time which slowed things down a bit. Only other highlight was getting a bag of one dollar donuts at Coupland's - kind of like a Dunkin' Donuts.
Steps: 19000
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