Day 2 - Arthur's Pass
On the first full day of our round-trip guided tour of the South Island, David took my parents and I west from Ashburton, over Arthur's Pass, through Greymouth, Hokitika, and on to Franz Josef for the night
November 30, 2004

01-Ashburton On Tuesday, November 30, 2004, David took my parents and I on a four-day round trip of the South Island ... we started out in Ashburton (about an hour south of Christchurch), where David & Karen live ... Mount Hutt is visible in the distance 02-SouthernAlps The Southern Alps bisect New Zealand's South Island, and there are only three passes for roads to go through the entire length 03-MountHutt Mount Hutt, one of NZ's premier ski slopes 04-CanterburyRoad A road in Canterbury, the pleateau region in the middle of the South Island east of the Southern Alps 05-RakaiaGorge Rakaia Gorge 06-RakaiaGorge The glacier-fed Rakaia River cuts through this gorge 07-RakaiaRiver Rakaia River 08-RakaiaGorge Rakaia Gorge ... all the water in central New Zealand was this cool turqoise colour, due to fine particles of rock that were ground up by glaciers being suspended in the water 09-RakaiaRiver Rakaia River 10-Bridge One of NZ's numerous one-lane bridges ... some of the one-land bridges even had railroad tracks going down the middle! 11-Alps Southern Alps 12-Road Road 13-Hill Big hill 14-CattleStopSign There were heaps of these exclamation point signs all over NZ, but each had a different message ... this one is warning of an upcoming cattle stop (a grate across the road) 15-GravelRoad The gravel road we took as a bit of a shortcut through the mountains 16-Hills Hills 17-LakeLyndon Lake Lyndon 18-LakeLyndon Lake Lyndon 19-Road Road 20-NorthCanterbury Northern Canterbury 21-NorthCanterbury North Canterbury 22-LWWLocation A filming location for the upcoming 23-CaveStream A cave and a stream 24-BrokenRiver Broken River 25-CaveStream Cave Stream 26-TorlesseRange Torlesse Range 27-GorgeHill Gorge Hill 28-SteepSlope Steep slope 29-BrokenRiver Broken River 30-Ravine Ravine 31-CaveStream Cave Stream 32-LionWitchWardrobe Tents for 33-LionWitchWardrobe 34-BrokenRiver Broken River 35-CraigieburnRange Craigieburn Range 36-SecurityGuard In addition to the movie tents, we saw helicopters lifting wardrobe closets to hilltops nearby, and security guards patrolling the ridges like this one 37-LakePearson Lake Pearson 38-FoggyRanges Foggy ranges of the Southern Alps 39-River Some unidentified mountain river 40-Road Road 41-OtiraViaductLookout Just over Arthur's Pass is the Otira Viaduct, a massive bridge that significantly reduced the danger of travelling the road (it used to be a narrow two-lane road that hugged the mountains, with heaps of curves and switchbacks) ... in the foreground the park service left a sign warning people not to feed the kea ... kea are the only type of alpine parrot in the world, and their inquisitive beaks will peck out every bit of rubber on the outside of your car if you leave it unattended when one's in the area! 42-OtiraViaduct Otira Viaduct ... east of Arthur's Pass the weather was dry, and the landscape mainly consisted of grasslands, but as soon as we crossed to the west side of the pass it started raining, and the landscape suddenly changed from grasslands to dense rainforest 43-OtiraViaduct Otira Viaduct 44-OneLaneRailBridge Another one lane bridge, only this one also had set of railroad tracks! I guess it's a bit more economical to build only one small bridge..... 45-Flower On the west coast of the South Island, near Greymouth, we stopped at David's uncle Jack and aunt Jeanette's home, to get a tour of their gardens and pick up some whitebait for supper (more on that later in the photo album) 46-PinkFlowers Flowers 47-Gazebo Jack & Jeanette's rose gazebo 48-Chairs Chairs 49-Rose Rose 50-MagentaRose 51-YellowRose Yellow rose 52-PinkRoses Pink roses 53-OrangeLilies Orange lilies 54-Garden Jack & Jeanette's garden ... they said that on the west coast they typically get around 5 meters (17 feet) of rain per year! 55-Garden Jack & Jeanette's garden and house 56-Rose Rose 57-Garden Garden 58-Daisies Daisies 59-Garden Garden 60-HairyLemon-Greymouth The Hairy Lemon Backpackers Hostel and Bar, in Greymouth ... an interesting name of a place to be sure 61-HokitikaTower A clocktower in the center of Hokitika, the jade capital of New Zealand 62-WhitebaitBatter We stopped for the night in Franz Josef, where David cooked for us a New Zealand delicacy, whitebait ... this is what it looks like beforehand in the batter ... whitebait is basically a bunch of pre-fish 63-Whitebait Whitebait after it's all fried up and ready to serve ... while it didn't look very appetizing in the previous picture, it looks and tastes very good when it's like this ... one of these whitebait patties would cost upwards of $30 in a restaurant, but David made three for each of us!