The view over Arthur's Pass from the path up to Avalanche Peak
From Punakaiki I'd been planning to continue north, but the weather decided that it was going to be miserable, so I turned round, went back to Greymouth and turned inland towards Arthur's Pass, along the road back over the Alps to Christchurch. After a night in a rest area, I arrived in Arthur's Pass to surprisingly beautiful weather, and made the most of it to scoot up Avalanche Peak, a fairly steep track up to the top of a mountain with wonderful views over the pass and surrounding mountains, and well worth the effort in good weather. My timing was impeccable: as I sat at the top, chatting to a couple I met there, the clouds rolled in, and the visibility changed from tens of kilometres to tens of feet. It just goes to show that carrying all those spare clothes, even on the shortest tramp, is a good idea, because I went up in T-shirt and shorts and came down in trackie bottoms, three layers and my Gore-Tex top, and I still felt bloody freezing...
It stayed cold and miserable for the rest of the day, so I hung out in the public shelter and met plenty of interesting and chatty people (public shelters obviously being the place to be in shitty weather) and that evening, when the skies cleared temporarily, I managed to do the Arthur's Pass Historic Walk, a short jaunt round a number of plaques that describe the history of the place. The driving wind only convinced me to head back indoors, and after putting up the tent (you can camp at the Arthur's Pass public shelter quite legally) we yarned the night away while the wind whistled around the eaves.
Mt Rolleston from Avalanche Peak
Wednesday 22nd saw no change in the weather, but a group of five of us battled up the walk to Temple Basin, a pointless exercise seeing as the views were non-existent and the rain freezing. However, one good thing did come from the morning jaunt: it made us than happy to stay in the relatively pleasant shelter, and the rest of the day passed into history in the same way that my first few days in Mt Cook National Park had. Never mind: I'd been incredibly lucky with the weather so far in the South Island, so I couldn't really moan.
Thursday continued the rainy tradition, and I aborted my plans to visit Craigieburn Forest Park on the way to Christchurch and just drove straight to the east coast, where the weather was hot, clear and a big relief after the storms of the Alps, and proved a typically English subject for conversation as I tried to dry out the contents of the car.
