The final day of the adventure took us from Greymouth back to Christchurch via Arthur's Pass. It isn't as treacherous as Haast Pass, and the weather was a bit more friendly. Pat and Jeanette has set off separately as they weren't planning to stop and had to detour via Ashburton on the way back.
Arthur's Pass has it's fair share of random waterfalls but nowhere near the scale and quantity of Haast.
The pass is set up well for tourists with plenty of rest areas and car parks for trail heads and lookout points. We stopped at one lookout point where we are greeted by a cheeky Kea.
These alpine birds are very smart and brilliant scavengers. This one knew
exactly how close to let us come before we became a threat. Even Kerri
was impressed and she isn't a bird fan by any stretch.
Soon after we crossed the Viaduct that is relatively new. The road before the structure was built was apparently dreadful.
Overlooking the Viaduct is another lookout and car park. There was a camper-van parked up with the occupants cooking breakfast. A family of Kea's were hanging around picking off scraps the people were giving them (despite all the signs saying "Don't feed the Keas").
Less than a kilometre from the Viaduct is the summit (background of the photo above). From that point, the road descends into the forest down to the township of Arthur's Pass. The township is pretty much the only civilization in the national park and is a base camp of sorts for hikers and day trippers alike. We had decided to hike up to Devil's Punchbowl waterfall. The trail starts just at the edge of town. The trail leads to a bridge that crosses the stream that runs down from the foot of the falls. The falls are clearly visible from the bridge (below) but we were heading up the the foot of the falls.
This would be a fair test for Harry's hiking skills and stamina. The trail has a couple of hundred steps and is quite steep. He handled it very well and I think he even enjoyed the challenge.
We all made it pretty easily in the end. There's a good platform to have a really good look at the falls without danger. It doesn't, however, stop you from getting a bit wet. Devil's Punchbowl falls was definitely one of the most impressive of the waterfalls we saw on the trip. I still think McLean Falls, all the way back in the Catlins was my favourite but these were an easy second.
The walk back was much quicker, as to be expected. By the time we arrived back at the car, the Kea's were busy being a pest. Fortunately they were being a pest on other visitor's cars and not ours. I'm sure Julie would not have been impressed.
The rest of the drive back to Christchurch wasn't especially interesting. The rugged forested mountains quickly become smooth treeless hills that are more enticing for skiers than sight-seers and hikers. I imagine the scenery is much more interesting when the grey dusty hills are covered in snow in the winter months.
We arrived back in Christchurch mid afternoon. Harry was pretty happy to ride his trike and run around a bit. I think we were all a bit over being in the car.
