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:
Springfield doughnut:
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.
