We had a beautiful day for crossing the Southern Alps on our drive to the West Coast. As we left chch and started to climb the landscape turned barren and rocky with many shades of brown, orange, and gold. There were few opportunities to pull off so pictures are limited from the climb.
The road was better than most but still required Tom’s full attention. Notice the water and rock fall redirection and the double semis that frequent all of these roads.
We stopped briefly in Arthur’s Pass Village for a coffee. That was our first warning about the keas.
A bit further on we stopped at Devil’s Punchbowl to see the falls. Tom did the full hike which involved many stairs and I enjoyed the view from the bridge.
The Kea story became clearer at another scenic overlook. As we pulled in we saw this sign.
The resident kea trotted right out of the woods and came up to the car to see if we were either lawbreakers or had not noticed the no feeding sign. He quickly left when we didn’t feed him but we watched him do the same thing with two other cars that pulled in to the lookout.
Our accommodation in Hokita is a one room cabin right in front of a small menagerie with goats, ducks, rabbits, chickens, a pig and an alpaca. The two goats were having a great time chasing each other and playing king of the hill (or small pile of rocks).
All that with a short walk down to the Tasman Sea
It’s good that the accommodation is cozy cause we are in for a spell of bad weather in Hokitika. Our month long weather luck has finally come to an end and we will not be riding the West Coast Wilderness trail as planned. The forecast is for rain and wind the next few days and riding in that is not our idea of fun so it’s back to Ben and Jerry “if it’s not fun, why do it”.