Paul and Cindy, New Zealand 2015: Arthur's Pass

Two of our folk dance friends, Katy and Alastair, invited us to spend the weekend at Arthur's Pass (in the Southern Alps) in a cottage owned by Lincoln University. As the weekend approached we were a bit hesitant as the forecast was for snow and rain storms, high winds, and low wind chills. But, we threw caution to the wind, Katy and Alastair put extra food and tire chains in their car, and we headed up into the mountains for a three-day weekend. We were glad we did – the snow storm never happened, and we had some clouds and chilly temps but overall fine hiking weather, while Christchurch had rain.

Our home for the weekend

After arriving at Cockie's Crib (the name of the bach, or cottage), we built a fire to warm the building and headed out for a hike. The Arthur's Pass area is in a valley nestled in the mountains, and is named for Arthur Dobson, who took the first party of Europeans over Arthur's Pass to get to the west coast. We walked on the Dobson Nature Walk, then drove a little further up the pass to see the view from the Otira Viaduct Lookout. The main road across the Southern Alps here goes through the Otira Gorge, and for years the road clung precariously to the side of the mountains. The viaduct makes driving through safer, though there was a major rockslide closing this road the week after we were there.

Tussock on the Dobson Nature Walk


Otira Gorge Viaduct - you can see the old road path on the upper right (and you can see why rockslides are a problem here)

A few cheeky kea were hanging around the car park at the Viaduct lookout

On Sunday we took several more walks, starting up to the Devil's Punchbowl Falls, where we saw a Rifleman (a somewhat uncommon bird endemic to New Zealand). We spent most of the rest of the day walking along the edge of the valley through the rain forest on the Arthur's Pass Walking Track. We finished with a walk to the Bealey Chasm through some old beech forest.

At Devil's Punchbowl Falls

A fantail

On the Arthur's Pass Walking Track

Beech forest along the track

Bealey Chasm

Katy sings to Alastair's tambura, while we listened and danced on the side

On Monday morning the sun came out, and we did a four hour hike up the Bealey Spur, which gave us wonderful 360 degree views of the mountains and high valleys.

View from the Bealey Spur

Ice crystals in the Bealey Spur track

Getting close to the high country

After packing up and heading out of Arthur's Pass, we stopped at Castle Hill - what looks from a distance like the ruins of an old castle are really limestone boulders. These water-eroded remnants of limestone were formed 30-40 million years ago when present-day New Zealand was covered by the sea. The front of the Christchurch Cathedral was made from Castle Hill limestone.