Sorry for the lapse in posts -- things got a little hectic on the South Island when Mother Nature decided to wreak a little winter havoc this week. To jump ahead to the present, Alan and I are now resting easy in the major city of Christchurch (we just got here). But first, to catch you up on things. Thusday night, after our glacier hiking excursion at the Franz Joseph, we backtracked north about two hours to Hokitika for the night. Hokitika is a relatively quiet little town where bars serve men playing pool barefoot in cotton jumpsuits, play 80's music (think Bryan Adams) and hold nightly meat raffles (Alan and I politely declined). It was a great small town NZ experience. Friday morning we woke up ready to tackle the Southern Alps and return to civilization when we learned that high elevations all over the South Island had been smacked with a winter blast overnight and that accordingly, Arthur's pass was "chains essential." We soon found out that this was no polite warning, i.e., "No worries but we suggest you have chains on your vehicle but you'll probably be fine without them. Cheers!" -- No, this means that you have to go through a roadblock to get on the road
and you ain't gettin' through if you can't show your chains. What's worse, we weren't able to secure a set of fitting chains for our Mazda Familia until around 2:30 pm (at a painful price of $90). So, alas, we stayed a for second night in Hokitika and another round of meat raffles.
Chains at the ready, we finally got to tackle Arthur's Pass on Saturday morning. Those Kiwis weren't bluffing -- the road was bad.
Keep in mind too that this is a MAJOR road. Quite amazing. Anyway, it was slow going but we made and even made time for a short rest in the village at the top for lunch. On the other side, the roads were much better and we stopped at a protected area in Cantebury (I can't remember the name) where the hillside is covered with outcroppings of limestone rocks that were once used by the native Maori as shelters. Very cool. After our short stop, we headed on to Methhaven/ Mount Hutt. -- Kelly
and you ain't gettin' through if you can't show your chains. What's worse, we weren't able to secure a set of fitting chains for our Mazda Familia until around 2:30 pm (at a painful price of $90). So, alas, we stayed a for second night in Hokitika and another round of meat raffles.
Keep in mind too that this is a MAJOR road. Quite amazing. Anyway, it was slow going but we made and even made time for a short rest in the village at the top for lunch. On the other side, the roads were much better and we stopped at a protected area in Cantebury (I can't remember the name) where the hillside is covered with outcroppings of limestone rocks that were once used by the native Maori as shelters. Very cool. After our short stop, we headed on to Methhaven/ Mount Hutt. -- Kelly
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