We did eventually tear ourselves away from the coast the next morning, stocked up on trekking snacks and headed to Arthur’s pass, the route across the mountains in the middle of South Island from Greymouth to Christchurch. We stopped at the village of Arthur’s pass and settled on plans for the afternoon: it was too gorgeously sunny not to start with a proper walk. We decided on Bealeys spur, and started off up the forested mountainside. As it opened up, the views got better and better- snow capped mountains all around, with wide flat stony glacial valleys in between. We escaped back to the valley before the winds got up and camped by the river for the night.
The next day, we awoke to a gorgeous sunrise framed by the van windows and freezing weather! We cooked our first bacon butties to warm the van up and went to walk the devil’s punchbowl track to an impressive waterfall. After lunch, the rain hit and we made a start on the Otira Valley trek in driving rain before we wondered why we were missing out on such a perfect excuse to sit in the cafe on top of the pass eating cake and drinking latte so made a rapid escape. A couple of cakes and pies later, we headed back to our scenic campsite for an early night.
Our final day here dawned sunny as promised so after another spectacular van sunrise we headed out to the temple basin track. We got a good view of the mountains on the west side of the pass this time, including Mount Rolleston, the biggest in the park, as it briefly poked out of the cloud. With perfect timing, it then started to rain just after lunch so we hopped in the van to head towards Christchurch, stopping en route at Cave Stream (unfortunately too floody for the through trip, which we discovered after both kitting up in full neoprene and helmets) and then Castle Rocks, some nice limestone stacks. We settled for the night at another great free campsite near Sheffield (not that one!).
Parenting Responsibly 