Monday 10^th. March.

A footnote has been added to yesterday's.

Sadly the promise of clear weather is not fulfilled; as I open the curtains I am met by a low overcast: shame because from what I had seen late evening, from the right viewpoint, the mountains and pure white snowfields would have been stunning. This is the West Coast where it is supposed to rain all the time and I have not seen any rain at all since Milford Sound and the first day on the western side of the Routeburn Track. 

I take a morning constitutional up to Fox Glacier, which since 1750 has receded by about 3 km. but is now actually extending again by about 1 metre a year.

 

I forgot to take my camera so these photos from mobile phone not so good, but you can see the depth and area the glacier used to cover.

Have a very close encounter with a very tame Kea: do not feed them as they will lose the habit of fending for themselves and they are a relatively endangered species.

 

 

Although the murk thins a bit, it is obvious that it will take a long time to clear, so head north, and during the morning the overcast lowers, but it doesn’t rain. This is good weather for the West Coast where it is supposed to rain all the time.

I meet relatively more traffic of which about 50% campervans, but it is a pleasant drive with many fast straights and long curves – where I see a couple of dangerous overtakes just as in Lincolnshire – and an enjoyable winding hilly section, but not overly inspiring: much of the same NZ bush, interspersed with flat cattle country.

The overcast lifts up the mountainsides a bit, but as I turn inland for Arthur’s Pass, I am worrying that it will prevent me tomorrow from my aim of climbing the mountains from there. The pass starts as a wide long flat valley that appears to cleave South Island in two west to east, but that is deceptive to carry straight on east would be impossible, and after about 40km. you turn south and increasingly more winding and steeply upwards to the pass itself.

 

The actual pass section runs north south for about 40km. The pass is named after Arthur Dudley Dobson the civil engineer who heard of the Maori route and surveyed it in 1864. By 1866 it was developed into a horse drawn wagon route to the western goldfields, and today supports a full 2 lane highway and single track rail, and provides the most important transport connection between East and West Coast. I have here seen more lorries than anywhere else: 20 per hour in day time and a few through the night, freight trains every hour day and night, and one passenger train each way in the daytime. It is not so steep and winding that the relatively powerful 40ton lorries are slowed down too much: They are quite impressive.

Yes the modern day railway is supported by telegraph poles.

 

 2 X 20 = 40 tonnes

 

 Find a nice motel room for the next 2 nights, get info and a proper map of the mountain route I have in mind for tomorrow from the DOC (Department of Conservation which runs the National Parks and provides the Visitor Centres, and builds and maintains the walking paths, bridges and boardwalks, and the huts and campsites on the multi-day tracks: the best way to conserve is to manage the access)

Arthur’s Pass Village is a great little place, originally and still mainly a transport stop at the top of the pass. Railway Station, Café, Shop, Pub, YHA, Backpackers Hostel and 4 or 5 very small Motels.