Castle Hill, Cave Stream, Arthur's Pass

April 10th
We left Christchurch and headed towards the glaciers, straight out west. Of course, to get there we had to go over a mountain range. On the way we stopped off at this spot known as Castle Hill. It had a lot of cool boulders in this large valley-like area. Parts of The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe were filmed here (cool, eh). We had lunch on the rocks and took off.

While on the highway (just prior to Castle Hill, actually), I had a bit of an incident on the roads. It takes a little getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road, apparently, and as it was my first day I was still getting adjusted to being on the right side of the vehicle as opposed to the left (throws off your alignment). We were behind these two trucks for a little ways and since the spiffy Pulsar doesn't quite have the pick-up one would appreciate when passing vehicles in the oncoming traffic lane, I had been hesitant to pass. Finally, however, the two trucks edged over to the left side of the road, giving me the sign to pass them on the right (the proper side in this backwards land). I was hesitant still since there was a turn coming up, but I thought I could make it in time. So I punched the gas and pulled out into the oncoming lane and just as I do this Jake yells out something akin to, 'oh shiiiit!'. Thinking that he is just now seeing the turn up ahead, I concur with his sentiment and think that I need to really punch it just to be safe, so I try my hardest to speed up and in doing so fail to get as far over into the oncoming lane as quickly as one would like. BAM!. a loud metallic smacking-like noise rings out and I keep flooring it, assuming that it had something to do with the hitch of the truck we were passing as it went over a bump. Looking over to my left however, I realize that what had actually happened was I smacked the side mirror against the back of the first truck we were passing. Thus realizing that Jake's excited utterance was due to the fact that I was speeding up more than I was getting over and coming too close to the truck. Long story somewhat short: the mirror folded in, left some scratches but was already scratched up, and everything ended just dandy.

After that they still let me drive and we headed just up the road to Cave Stream (they don't have very many imaginative names out here, for instance Hole in the Rock ends up literally being a hole in a rock). Cave Stream was cool. It was a stream going though a cave, surprise surprise. You walk down a decent hill to the bottom of the cave and enter in through that way, making your way up through the cave exiting the mouth near where you parked. At first I thought it was just going to be a little stepping in water and climbing some steps, so I was justifiable concerned when I saw people putting on wetsuits in the parking area. Turns out that you are immediately wading in waste-deep water in pitch black darkness. I had my phone flashlight, but it was still dark as hell. The water level goes up and down, never getting below your ankles and never too far above the waste, but it was cold as shit as well. You end up climbing up some small waterfall areas, going through some quick-rushing water, we saw a spider that only exists inside that cave and one other place on earth, and at the end of the cave there is a 6meter straight up rockface wall that has metal bars inserted so you can climb your way out of it. Pretty cool. I hit my head a couple times on the rock ceiling but most of the time you couldn't see the roof it was so high.

Then we made it up to Arthur's pass. Here is where I met two of my most hated enemies on the trip. The first being the Kea. They didn't really do too much personally against me, but I could sense the mutual hatred between us. The one in the photo below started walking over towards my feet, certainly looking for a tasty toe snack. Just look at the evil in its eyes. These are the only Alpine Parrots in the world and they have an insatiable curiosity of all things human that leads them to destroy anything they can, particularly rubber like windshield wipers). As you can see from another photo below, we didn't come as prepared as we would and we had quite a pitiful tent, especially this first night out. We also picked a spot riddled with my other foe, the sandfly. These are little gnat-sized insects that just land on you and bite the hell out of you, mostly arms and legs, then the next morning you awake to find all these itchy red bumps where each one bit you. Bastards.

The next morning we awoke and did a little hike that ended at the Devil's Punchbowl. A pretty cool waterfall that had a spot full of turmoil and swirling water that I assume was the punchbowl part. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty good so I didn't snap any photos.

Upon leaving Arthur's Pass towards Franz Josef Glacier we stopped a couple times along the way to see sites like the Otira Gorge Viaduct, Lake Ianthe, Whataroa Valley, and had lunch in Greymouth. All in all, still a pretty good trip, got in some good sites and did a couple hikes.

Evil Kea

Castle Hill was labeled as the spiritual center of the world by the Dalai Lama

Pretty good lunch spot too, popular for 'bouldering'

Of course I ended up on the side w/o the tarp coverage and it rained that night plus the ground was pretty soaked, but don't fret, we gradually improved our tent over time

Otira Gorge Viaduct, pretty cool, you drive under the falling water there and through the viaduct thing, reminded me of a course from Gran Tourismo or something

Whataroa Valley - I liked the monster-like remnants of a bridge. There was also this creepy old gold mining camp that reminded me of a Scooby Doo episode

Greymouth beach was grey - not too dissimilar from Humboldt's beaches at times

Of course I went to the brewery, but alas, our schedules did not align and I was merely restrained to a perusing of the gift shop; denied the pleasures of a good brewery tour

Christchurch & Lyttleton

HERE IT IS! Finally, I'm getting around to posting up the beginning of the south island trip with pics. The beginning isn't the best part so it's just a teaser for ya. I actually really enjoyed the sites and thought it was cool, but only because I didn't realize what was coming up.

April 8th-9th
We flew out on Easter Sunday from Auckland. At the airport waiting for our departure we met a group of old Korean couples on vacation. We talked to a couple of the older gents who were trying to brush up on their English; conversation was strained, but enjoyable. During our conversations the wives would come by and hand us Korean candy, and then sit back down and giggle while we ate it. We talked about a few common things to keep the conversation going but their eyes didn't light up until I mentioned Soju (Korean rice alcohol, similar to vodka perhaps). I've had soju a couple times at Korean BBQ places, and apparently these guys have had a lot of soju. They even mentioned that it was expensive in New Zealand so they brought their own big jug of it to supply them for the trip. One guy got up to go get it so we could do some shots but then realized the airport had made them check it in their luggage.

When we arrived in Christchurch, one of Jake's friend met us at the airport and gave us a ride to her place where we were staying. We drove a little bit through town but since it was Easter we couldn't get any alcohol and all the bars were closed. After failing to catch a bus we decided to make another trip into town and wait for midnight. We entered a liquor store and found about 8 guys waiting for the beer cooler to be unlocked. These guys were already hammered too, one of them was telling us how much we had to get this "Flame" beer and then started hugging on Jake and kissed his neck. It was weird. So we got this "Flame" beer, I guess they like it since it's 5.6% or something like that, strong for these parts, but it tastes like crap. We taught the horse races to a couple of the local Christchurchians (actually Americans studying there, but whatever), and they loved it.

The next day we went to the Botanical Gardens. They were very nice. We walked around the square and watched a performer and then decided to head over to Lyttleton. You take a bus out of town and go through a long tunnel in a mountain to get to Lyttleton which is a port town. We walked around the port area and small town a little and then decided to climb up the hill that the bus had driven through (as seen in pictures below). From atop the hill you had a good view of all of Christchurch and a good view of Lyttleton while climbing up the hill.

We came down the hill and had a beer with the locals and then caught our bus back into Christchurch. The next morning we went to pick up our rental car which seemed to be out in the outskirts (sketchy) part of town, but it served us well. More on this later.

Christchurch is very uncharacteristically flat for New Zealand

Both that driver and the bike rider are in for a world of pain

Christchurchchurch, why not?

Very cool statue beside the church, both on the main square in town

Quaint port town of Lyttleton. Attractions include Major Hornbrook Trail, Cemetery with a view, and the Leper Island (not pictured due to censoring)

Like the picture is titled, we climbed it 'cause it was there (and not much else was). Major Hornbrook Trail starts off to the left and zig-zags up the hill mostly coming right.