After an early breakfast we packed the remainder of our gear and headed out by 8am for the long drive over Arthur’s Pass to the northwest coast of the South Island. We took some of the longest straight roads we’ve been on since we got to NZ! The Canterbury Plains are famous for that I think! The Plains are comprised of the fields left behind by the glaciers that carved the mountain valleys to flow to the sea. The Rangitata River to the south, the Rakaia River in the center and the Waimakariri River to the north all flow into the Canterbury Bight of the Pacific Ocean. The flow of these rivers provides irrigation for the most productive farmland in the country. The fields were bright green with grass, dotted with sheep and dairy cows and divided by the huge well manicured tree-hedges we’ve seen all over the country.
At the mouth of the wide, braided Rakaia River we stopped at the rest area before crossing the longest bridge in NZ. We admired the huge salmon statue (bottom left picture) that the town is so proud of. Chinook salmon eggs from the McCloud River in California were introduced into the NZ river in the early 1900’s for sport fishing. Past that river obstacle we proceeded over Porters Pass to Castle Hill (bottom right picture). These rock outcrops are sacred to the Maori of the area, they have been used as backdrops to Lord of the Rings and Narnia movies, and they are popular spots for climbers to freeclimb and ‘boulder’. A great story with some history is HERE. Finally we entered the Waimakariri River Valley on our way up to Arthur’s Pass (top panorama picture).

We stopped at the small Arthur’s Pass Village, a store, a restaurant, a train whistle stop and a few other buildings house the 48 or so permanent residents. There a lots of tramping tracks radiating out from the Village though, this being an accessible spot in the midst of the Southern Alps! We had lunch at the restaurant and perused the gift shop, watching diners being pestered by several Kea parrots, then proceeded down the other side of the pass through the Otira River Gorge with 16 percent grade!

The viaduct (bridge) opened in 1999 improved what is known as Deaths Corner!

Deaths Corner was named for a rock landslide that occurred about 2000 years ago that dammed the river. The river finally cut through it creating the gorge.

We still had an hours drive to Greymouth to do our grocery shopping, then another hour to the Airbnb. But it was worth it! A warm ocean breeze, a clear sky for a fabulous sunset. I’ll let the pictures tell the story!

Another beautiful day! Off we went to the Mt. Somers Track to do some walking in the beech forest. We drove up the short gravel road to the trailhead and headed to the Nature Trail. We thought there would be reading panels with information about the nature around us. Nope, it was a trail that just led you into nature along a creek!

We ended up at the mangled ore cart up the embankment from the stream and took that track back to the carpark. We attempted more of the Mt. Somers Track but it was too steep for us today!

We then drove the few miles to the trail we were going to do yesterday, the Lake Emily Track along the Stour River. A nice flat river valley track! We intended to do a timed walk, but then saw we were just a quarter mile from ‘the Dell’. The track was out in the open until we got the the Dell where a stream flowed out of the hills to join the Stour River. We walked up and into the forest to a beautiful small boulder strewn canyon with a cold stream flowing over the moss and fern covered boulders while birds chirped and sang around us from the boughs of the beech trees!

The water was so refreshing when we splashed it over our heads!

We headed back to the Airbnb for our last dinner there and to pack up for another move tomorrow. After packing what we could we went out into the garden and explored the ‘secret garden’ behind the small house. The garden is filled with whimsical statues, gnomes, beautiful flowers, sitting areas and vegetable patches. Our host even shared with us the green beans he picked this morning!

The small houses with tubes are bee houses for the solitary native NZ bees.

Another beautiful, bright sunny day, tempered by a cool south wind to relieve your exposed skin of the heat from the sun! We planned to go for a short 5 mile flatand hike until we looked at the map at the trailhead and saw we could drive to several high lakes! We hit the road, which quickly turned to gravel and turned into a high country valley that is mesmerizing! We had no idea! Called the Ashburton Lakes, the high country of Central Canterbury district in the South Island is reminiscent of Nevada; stark, dry, surrounded by mountains, seemingly empty. We crossed a rocky braided river bed and drove past one or two farms (what we consider ranches) to the largest of the lakes, Lake Heron.

Lake Heron at 2277 ft. elevation, with the Southern Alps as a backdrop!

I imagine the landscape was more brushy before European settlers, but the only trees seem to be non-native plantation pines or huge windbreak pine hedges. Maori were never permanent residents here, only seasonal migrants to collect food, fibre or mineral resources. There are trails across the land here that the Maori used to cross the Southern Alps to access the best sources of the coveted pounamu or greenstone, a type of jade that is very hard and carved for tools, weapons and jewelry. It is considered a valuable taonga, a treasured possession of cultural significance. So valuable that the Maori name for the  South Island is “Te Wai Pounamu (‘The [land of] Greenstone Water’) or Te Wahi Pounamu (‘The Place of Greenstone’).” “Pounamu is found only in the South Island of New Zealand”.

A series of smaller and more reedy lakes called Maori Lakes had more bird life.

The flat, grassy tussocked land must have seemed ideal for lifestock to the Europeans who arrived in the 1860’s when gold was discovered in the area. The Gold rush was short lived and the miners turned to farming.

It turns out that the Merino sheep breed is best suited to the high dry country. They are the only sheep farmers that are making a living now. Meat and lower grade wool sheep breeds have virtually no value now.

As we returned to the paved road we stopped at the Hakatere Station, a restored ‘ranch’ that was one of the first to be started in the Ashburton Lakes region in the 1860’s.

The top building was the shearers/single men’s bunkhouse. The bottom stone building was the original ranch house.

Amidst all the natural and cultural history to read at the Station is the admonishing to take care of the environment!

Today is our first day staying at our new Airbnb in Mt. Somers, a small village in the foothills of the Southern Alps. The nearby Mt. Somers, the actual mountain that is, is volcanic in origin, different rock forms than the nearby Southern Alps which are the result of the eastern Pacific tectonic plate sliding past the western Australian tectonic plate, causing a rise of the alps about 10mm per year, about .394 of an inch! There’s great hiking around the area, established and supported by the Mt. Somers Walkways Society, but now managed by the Department of Conservation. We hiked part of the eastern Mt. Somers Track to Sharplin Falls back on Day 111, Jan. 16. Today we are closer to the western side of the track and drove the 15 minutes to the Woolshed Creek carpark. Immediately when we got out of the car we were enveloped by the sweet, slightly-burnt caramel and rosewater scent of the scale insect infested beech forest covered with black sooty mold. We first encountered this on Dec. 27 Day 91! The hairlike anal tube structures of the insects protrude from the tree trunks and exude drops of sweet nectar that attracts lots of native bees and invasive wasps! We had to be careful as we walked to not smack a bee or wasp! We started on an easy track along Woolshed Creek, walking through the sweet smelling shady forest, then started heading uphill and reached the tangled wreckage of an old ore cart from a coal mining operation further uphill. A steep track continued up to the old mine site which was worked off and on from the late 1800’s to 1968!

Views around the old mine which is now boarded up.

We continued past the mine and emerged from the forest above the treeline to the grass tussock environment in full sun, but thankfully with a cool southern breeze (straight from Antarctica!)

Looking over the ridge down on the Stour River Valley and out towards the Southern Alps with patches of snow visible!

Checking our google maps route and a hiking app map we discovered we were only about a half mile from the Woolshed Creek Hut! We now had a goal! Over another short ridge we spotted the hut down in the valley with the creek flowing in front of it.

The track continued across the creek then divided, going northish and southish.

We saw that the southish track went into a gorge, and was that a suspension bridge down there? (not visible in the picture)

By golly it is! and the narrowest one we’ve encountered yet! Looking up stream you can see Emerald Pool, kind of small because it’s been a pretty dry summer here!

We decided to follow our trail back to the carpark rather than chance the very steep looking loop route! It was mostly downhill back to the car and we were happy to get back into the woods for half of the trip!

Robert pointed out our trail, almost 7 miles round trip!

Last night was magical. The water was calm and reflected the lights of the small settlement across the harbour as well as the lights of Highcliff road on the spine of the Otago peninsula.

Our last night near Dunedin.

We packed up the last of our gear this morning and headed north to Mt. Somers, a 4 day stop before our final month stay on the west coast. On the way we drove along the east coast stopping at several viewpoints to see sealions or beautiful beaches. One stop was to see the famous Moeraki Boulders, huge spheres on a beach, some partially covered by sand and some just emerging from the sandy banks. There are several theories of their origin, but I like to think of them as ‘marbles of the gods’!