Arthur's Pass to the West Coast

New Zealand is a fantastic country to drive through. There's nothing better than having the flexibility to jump in your car and drive and visit the places that you want to see. We hired a car for our two week jaunt in Aotearoa and it was worth every cent.

After a three night stay in Christchurch, we jumped in the car and headed to the wild west, soaking in the magnificent sights of Arthur's Pass as we made our way through the mountains. I think this trip will remain in my memories forever - it was the first time I ever saw snow!



Despite the sunshine in the photo, it was incredibly cold! So cold in fact that a nearby lake was frozen solid. And I mean solid - there were people driving their car on it! Crazy...


The views as we drove through the Pass were fabulous. Some parts looked familiar - I thought that maybe some scenes from Lord of the Rings had been shot there.

We stopped at a little hotel on the way through for lunch. It was pretty much the only establishment on the way - Arthur's Pass is also a national park, so you won't see a lot of shops around here! It was lovely though - we sat outside in the sun trying to warm up, enjoying the scenery of the mountains and the rivers. We kept moving, but we stopped at a nearby lookout and I had my first encounter with the famous Kea bird... Apparently these birds have a reputation for being very cheeky and they are fond of attacking cars! Of course the bird that I met was eating the aerial on some person's car, which I thought was rather cute. So I started talking to him... He was most intrigued by this strange person talking to him... So he decided to follow me to my car and he started to attack the rubber seal around the door frame!! Well, I was no longer trying to be friendly - I started yelling at him to shoo away, to the amusement of the other tourists at the lookout. The damned bird didn't budge until we zoomed off down the road at a speed...

After the Kea incident, we continued driving through the winding road of Arthur's Pass towards the West Coast. After a few hours of driving we crossed from East to West - it was amazing to see the blue ocean after we had just been surrounded by snowy mountains! We drove through to Hokitika and stopped to have a gander at the crystal clear waters of the Hokitika Gorge. I don't think the photos illustrate just how clear the water was because the sun was starting to set and there was a serious lack of light. But the water is so clean and pure - if it weren't so cold I would have gone for a swim right there and then!
This was the last stop before we drove towards Franz Josef Glacier, our resting place for the next two nights. After 5 hours of driving, I was ready to chill out in my hotel room! It was a long drive, but incredibly enjoyable and entertaining. I would recommend that anyone drive this route while in the South Island, the views are breathtaking! I would like to go back one day, maybe in summer, to see how the landscape changes. There's a lot of rivers through the national park but I think they were a little dry, due to it being winter and all. Still, there was a lot more water here in the dry season than there is in Brisbane right now!

Stay tuned for my next post, all about the icy wilderness of Franz Josef Glacier! Heaps of cool photos I promise!