The car is named! His name is Harry, he is so masculine it had to be a guy’s name 😮
Today we made a big trip over the Southern Alps via Arthur’s Pass. First place to stop was Castle Hill. There are strange rock formations, some of them look like molars of big prehistoric animals. In their shade we had a little break, enjoying the cool place under a hot New Zealand sun. From the top of the hill among the rocks we could see mountains in every direction. The sky was a bright blue, interrupted only by a single persistent cloud that always managed to pop up next to the most distant mountain.
As we carried on driving through the mountains we stopped several times to take pictures of the beautiful lakes, mountains, and scenery (of course!). At one of the stops we were able to walk off the side of the road, across the stones of the river bank and into the crystal clear water of the river. It was freezing cold as much of the water comes from snow melting off the tops of the mountains. We could still see a couple of small patches of snow even though it is summer and the weather is so warm. Further on I saw my first real kiwi sign. I thought it was only for tourists but E. reassured me that there really are kiwis in the forest.
The next stop was Arthur’s Pass Village where we went off walking on a track to Devil’s Punchbowl. Walking through the New Zealand bush I could smell everything around me – the leaves and resin of the trees, the smell of the earth and moss, and all mixed in fresh clean air. After climbing up 1000 steps, back down 300 and then up 800 more, we made it to a viewing platform beneath a 131 meter high waterfall. The water poured across the top of a cliff, dropping to the bottom in a long straight line made of continuous sheets of water. We could feel the mist from the waterfall drifting over our faces.
The parking lot had a sign warning of Keas, a native New Zealand parrot that is renowned for perstering tourists and damaging cars. Unfortunately we didn’t get to take any photos of the Kea, but we were also lucky that Harry was still in one piece when we got back.
We decided to keep driving on to the West coast and conquer the rest of the road through Arthur’s Pass. The hardest part was a long winding road down a valley that had a 16% gradient. Harry handled it like a champion!
Eventually we arrived in Greymouth, a small town on the west coast. We took a long walk along the beach and walked out to the end of a spit where we sat on top of a boulder and watched surfers riding waves. I was getting hungry, tired and grumpy after a long day of driving with very little food and not enough water. We bought some food and drink from a supermarket and went back to a different part of the beach for a picnic dinner. The beach was covered in driftwood and almost nobody in sight. The three people we could see in the distance lit a fire and we decided to copy them. I gathered driftwood from the beach and started a little fire using some pages from my notebook. The fire sizzled and burned and then in the background the sun set out over the ocean. The waves glowed in red and gold – wonderful, weird, nice, little
country!
