We woke up to rain this morning in Christchurch and resigned ourselves to a day of wet weather. Originally we planned to take a train trip over Arthur’s Pass in the Southern Alps, but one of use (ME) did not do their due diligence and so we ended up driving instead. This was one of those happy accidents - we had the chance to see some wonderful things that we would not have seen from the train.
The rain let up as we drove out of Christchurch and by the time we got to Castle Rock we had sunshine and blue skies. Castle Rock is amazing. These are limestone pillars formed by erosion; since it’s an arid climate, they are more resistant than the surrounding material (yes, I’m traveling with a geologist. Why do you ask?).
The pictures don’t do it justice. Speaking of which…we kept driving west toward’s Arthur’s Pass and shortly after entered the park we took a hike to the Devil’s Punchbowl waterfall. And I do mean hike. There was a short walk to an overlook and then a lot - a lot - A LOT - of steps to the base of the falls. It was totally worth it.
Here’s the video to go with that last shot.
We caught our breath in the village at the base of the hike with coffee and a snack. I wasn’t the only one who wanted the snack.
The bird is a kea, the only mountain parrot in the world. They are endangered and also far too comfortable with people.
We drove out of the mountains and to our home for the evening, a lovely mountain cabin. Tomorrow: back to Christchurch and maybe a hike en route depending on the weather.
Everyone likes snacks!
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