Thursday arrives and we leave Christchurch and are going to make our way over to the west coast. We are going to be going over Arthur’s Pass with is the most dramatic of the 3 Southern Alps crossings. The pass is named after Arthur Dudley Dobson who found the pass after hearing about it from local Maori. There is also a railway that goes over as well called the TransAlpine railway. On the way across we stop at Kura Tawhiti which are large grey limestone outcrops. Some of them are enormous!
Arthur’s Pass village is a very small settlement, blink and you miss it, but as we pass the village there is a lookout and we stop for a look and I get to see my first Kea (3 of them). They are alpine parrots with lovely green feathers but are into everything and enjoy nothing more than pulling the trim off your car which they tried to do to ours!
Having cross the south island we start to head south again and decide to keep going straight to Franz Josef. Its been a long drive but the scenery has been amazing. Once we have found somewhere to stay we head up to the glacier. It is a long walk across the river bed with the glacier rising up in front of us. The river flowing from the glacier is raging along below us. It is incredible!! After our walk we are ready for our dinner.
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