We traveled from Hokitika to Christchurch; our last full day with the van.

Here’s an interactive map of our route, with some of the stops marked:

The town of Kumara; amusing as that is also the Maori name of a sweet potato:

One lane bridge:

Taipo River:

Taramakau River:

Otira Stagecoach Hotel, with Gollum on the roof:

Another one lane bridge:

Roadworks light with a countdown; nice:

16% downgrade:

Interesting avalanche guard:

“Thank you for not feeding me”:

Otira Viaduct Lookout:

Alpine Parrot Cafe for a coffee and slice:

Kea:

Kea info:

Arthur’s Pass National Park Visitor Centre:

Arthur’s Pass:

My beard having “main character energy” as the kids say:

Dusty:

Interesting rocks:

Castle Hill rocks:

Springfield doughnut:

Sheffield Pies:

Perhaps the tastiest pie I had in NZ:

Christchurch Fanfare Sculpture:

Arriving at Top 10 Spencer Beach:

Our site:

Pre-loved items bin; a good idea, since a lot of people end their trip in Christchurch (as we did); we had too much stuff to fit in that bin, so we took it to Red Cross before dropping off our van:

Shower:

We went out to a laundromat to do a last load of laundry:

And got takeaways from Kaikanui Fish & Chip and Chinese Restaurant next door:

Which we took back to our site (not the best, but the last):

This was our last night in the van.