Arthur's Pass

After finishing the Banks Peninsula trek last week, I took the most beautiful drive in New Zealand--from the Banks Peninsula to Greymouth, through Arthur's Pass). Greymouth is just 30 minutes north of Hokitika (the site of the Wildfoods Festival, which is the topic of my previous blog). I had to share the following picture that I took on the road from the Banks Peninsula to Greymouth. It's a classic New Zealand picture, of hundreds of sheep crossing the road and holding up all traffic! It's such a chaotic scene--the dogs are barking to get the sheep moving faster, and the sheep are going in all kinds of directions with looks on their faces like they don't know what's going on. Poor sheep. :(



Anyhow, the day I drove through Arthur's Pass for the first time (on the way to Greymouth), the weather was gorgeous and the scenery was dramatic and amazing. I knew I'd be coming back to Arthur's Pass a few days later to spend some more time there, so I didn't stop to take many pictures, though I did take a few. After spending a few days in Greymouth and attending the Wildfoods Festival, I drove back through Arthur's Pass, and stayed for 2 nights. This time, it was pouring rain and the morning I left, it was actually snowing on the ground (!) because the town is at a high elevation. Here are a few pictures I took of Arthur's Pass my first time through, when the weather was nice.





On my second trip through there, even though it was raining alot, I managed to take a short hike up to the Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall during the few hours the rain let up a little and the sunshine came out for a minute. Here are some pictures from my trip to the waterfall, which is 130 meters high. The first picture is of the waterfall taken from far away, at the start of the walk. And the second picture is taken up close, after the 30 minute walk uphill to the waterfall.





And here are some more pictures I took in Arthur's Pass on that rainy day. Because of the weather, some of the pictures are a bit misty, which I think also looks pretty cool by giving the mountains a more dramatic look.