My Big Trip: Arthur's Pass

25-26.02

Saying goodbye to the west coast for the last time (kind of happy to leave Hokitika, not a bad place, but not exactly was I thought it would be) and heading to Arthur’s Pass, in the Southern Alps.

Arthur’s pass is in the middle of the Alps, and is a passage between the east and west coast. It was the South Island’s first national park.

The name come from the first European guy that “discovered” (I should say mapped) the pass, Arthur Dudley Dobson in 1864. The Maori were using this pass for a long time and it’s them that informed the explorer about the existence of the pass. The discovery of gold on the west coast made the construction of a road an urgent priority, and it open in 1886.

In the same year, they started the construction of a railway, still in use today. It was done in 1923 with the opening of the tunnel from Arthur’s Pass to Otira.

So, enough with the history lesson and move on with what I’ve done there and show you some pictures ;)

The best thing to do around here is tramping (in america we say hiking, but I’m starting to like speaking kiwi…)

First day, I parked by the visitor centre and followed the Arthur’s pass track, which basically follow the road I was driving on to get there. There is some shorts trails that start from the track and I did 2 of them.

Arthur's Pass

Bealey River with Mt Rollestone

Lake Misery

Otira River

Devil Punchbowl Falls

Next day, it was cold. Didn't’ wanted to get out of bed, but I really wanted to go to Avalanche peak. It was kind of foggy but by the time I was ready it was clearing up.

There is two track that go to the summit, so I decided to go up by the steepest one and go down by the easier one (at least that what they say in the booklet). After 1h walk, I arrived at the bush line and realized that the sun was gone. It was still clear so I kept going until the fog came back and you couldn’t see the summit. I already did a hike when you get all the way and can’t see anything and wasn’t feeling like doing it again, it’s not rewarding. I took a break to see if it might get better, but no, it was getting worst and worst, so I turn around and went back down.

I don’t like the feeling of not making it to the top, but for that one it was a safety reason too. It’s a hard track, steep and rocky, and the fog made it hard to see the markers.

The very bad thing was going back down that track, it was hard going up, and as bad going down, but I managed and made it safe back down.