Hidden Adventures

Blog Post #8

Woke up in our "commercial" campsite today, which meant SHOWERS!  Yeah!  Hot showers in six minute intervals.  Almost made it.  An official campground  also means electricity to charge everything up and the not-so-fun side of campervanning, which is the dump site.  I'm generous enough to leave that to Damon :)  This was a day of driving.  And driving.  And driving.  Headed south, picked up more groceries, and then west across the South Island.  It was interesting to see the terrain change as we hit an area that gets more rain - definitely  more green.

It is hard to describe the landscape here - the hills/mountains are very rounded and not like what we see in Colorado.  I think we are not getting a true picture of the colors given that everything is tan/brown (dead grass) and the rivers are empty.  We finally hit a place called Castle Hill - where apparently Narnia was filmed - there are a bunch of really out of place sandstone rocks (huge) there.  We parked and just went hiking around these crazy shaped rocks.

About five minutes down the road is another place that was recommended called Cave Stream.  Not surprisingly, it is a stream that runs through a cave that you can hike through.  There are signs EVERYWHERE warning people - dress warm, bring flashlights, etc.  Damon and I are very well prepared and went to the cave opening - they also warn you that it is chilly and the first pool tests your wiggly parts by getting you waste deep in frigid water.  I was a bit nervous about it being cold since you are walking in a river the entire time.  In a cave.  So, off we go.

It was SO COOL.  We are walking in what is essentially a slot canyon with a roof.  About 3-5' wide at any given point, you are sort of hobbling along the very rocky river bed with nothing but my flashlight and Damon's headlamp to guide us and no other people anywhere.  That is, of course, until my flashlight battery dies.  Now keep in mind that this is a battery that lasts about 1000 hours, and it chooses to die when we are halfway through a pitch black cave.  So, off we go with nothing but Damon's little headlamp - me gripping him for dear life.  I only slipped and fell once and only conked my head on a cave ceiling twice.  Some Germans finally caught up to us with awesomely bright lights, so I basically stayed on the guy's tail the rest of the way.  It was still one of the best experiences we've had here.

Back in the Duke for a lot more driving.  We went over Arthur's Pass - a very scenic drive with lots of twists and turns and really steep grades.  All of the bridges around here are single lane, so you are coming around a blind curve and then there is a single lane bridge and you just hope the other people "give way" when you are crossing.  There is an assigned order, but people don't always follow it.  There are tourists everywhere you see signs about what side of the road to drive on all over the place.

We reached the west coast and headed North to another attraction called "Pancake Rocks" - it is on the coast where the waves have exposed the limestone layers, ten meters high, that look like stacked pancakes.  We wanted to hit it at high tide (recommended) to see the full force of the water (it booms!) when it crashes into the rocks, and also the blow holes - we only saw one. 

At this point, it is about 8:30, getting dark, and we haven't eaten dinner and don't know where we are staying for the night.  We headed back south to a larger town (relatively speaking) and got there about 9:15.  Had big plans to make dinner, but we were so hungry and tired, we caved and hit KFC.  Embarrassing.  Made it to our camp site on the beach and once again, crashed HARD.

Tomorrow is another big driving day, but we hit the glaciers.  Until then!

BTW - It is very difficult to find Wi-Fi anywhere here.  Right now we are sitting in McDonalds sipping McCafe lattes out of china with metal spoons - seriously - but they have free Wi-Fi and clean toilets.  Done.