Arthur's Pass

We drove through the lovely Otira Gorge homewards towards Christchurch. The rata trees were in bloom and covered the mountainsides in a magnificent red.



This is the Otira viaduct - the only one in the South Island! I used to be very impressed with it, but it's not so much of a novelty for me now I've visited Switzerland. We stopped at 'Death's Corner' to view the viaduct and also look out for kea. We could hear them in the forests but they weren't curious to visit us in the carpark, there must be something in season for them to feast on in the bush.



Dave and I decided to walk up the Temple Basin track. It's a steep, scree-filled slope hike up towards the Temple Basin Ski Field. Clare will remember it as where we spent 3 days at age 16 catching grasshoppers rather unsuccessfully for our 6th form Biology field trip.



It was a great view of Mount Dobson and Rolleston...







There were giant dragonflies about, too. This one was almost as big as my hand.



After a gruelling hike, we went into the village and went on a slightly milder trek to Devil's Punchbowl waterfall.



Then we drove eastwards through the Pass...





A train slowly makes its way across the incredible landscape - route of the TransAlpine Express.





Castle Rock



It was a stunning summer day. We were soon back in Christchurch and putting our feet up, recovering ready for the next adventure! For anyone interested, here's a map of our complicated South Island travels - a little back-tracking occured due to our long stay in Invercargill:


View South Island Travels in a larger map