Up and over Arthur's Pass and towards Abel Tasman National Park

Some mixed emotions as the end date of this little odyssey, for me at least, looms closely. Jaryn has a few extra weeks here and beyond so his adventure will continue so I look forward to hearing about his exploits after my return home. There is no time for reflection just yet tho (that will be the last blog entry!) as we have a fantastic week ahead in what we hope will be one of the highlights of the country...more on this later!

Our last night on the west coast was a wet and miserable one for me, seems my trusty old Voyager tent has not taken well to some of the temperature changes out here and all of the sealing tape has started to fall off - meaning the big rain storm that hit overnight in our cosy campsite near Greymouth left me feeling rather damp. I guess I should have just jumped ship and shared the double air mattress with Jaryn in his waterproof tent! The weather first thing in the morning was back to its normal gloriousness tho so after drying out the tents and making a quick fry up we were on our way again.

Jaryn has been looking for a place to get a haircut for about 3 weeks now and seems every time we find a town that could have a decent barbers they are either too busy or closed...I guess the J-Dog will have to remain unkempt for a little while longer!

As the clouds started to roll in gently off the western coast we headed up towards Arthur's Pass. I had been tipped off this was one of the nicest areas of New Zealand and it certainly did not disappoint. The cute 'village' of 50 permanent inhabitants is perched right in the centre of the spine of the mountains and therefore you get a whole variety of weather effects. The regular bands of clouds and rain coming from the west struggle to break the threshold of the mountains, meaning the east side of the mountains have significantly less rainfall than they get in the west. The vegetation and landscape changes dramatically as you cross over the pass from lush alpine rainforest to a scrubby dusty wild landscape. It is a mountain weather geeks paradise.

We found this fabulous little cabin called the Snowgrass Cabin which was all decked out in the colours of the fabulous Kea (the beautiful, adorable, intelligent and mischievous mountain parrot only found in the south island - a few of which took great interest in the windscreen wipers and aerial on our car!). It was a cute cabin and was like stepping back into the 70's with some antique appliances and furniture. It was however very cosy and we were happy to have some home comforts for a couple of days.

The next day we went on a walk we were recommended to do along a fabulous ridge line called Bealey's Spur rising up to about 1600 metres with stunning views across to the glacial clad mountains in the west and the huge brutal glacial riverbeds towards the east. It was a broody day out west but we were bathed in sunshine most of the day but we did get snowed on a bit at one point! I could have happily sat here for hours but the chilly breeze meant we had to come back down again some point - but not before another memorable interaction with a couple more Kea's!

The next day we headed east to pick up our dear friend Mij from Christchurch and then head northwards. It was a great drive through some quickly changing landscapes and I have no doubt there will be plenty of tasty New Zealand wine drank over the next few days as we head towards the land of golden beaches and inviting seas...