The gods of nature had their fun yesterday, pouring rain on us the entire day, often with winds and torrential downpours. It continued into the night so we could not even stop to see the pancake rocks near the hotel.

This morning we awoke to sun and blue skies so we retraced our steps to the rock and blowhole area. It is truly unique, limestone rock with a softer material between layers which has eroded over the eons, leaving a structure of stacked rocks that resemble a stack of pancakes. Sea erosion has also created sea stacks offshore. The tide was not high enough this morning to create any action in the blowhole area, but the seas remaining from the storm did create some interesting booming waves crashing against the rocks. This location is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.

Although it is still the summer tourist season the traffic on the roads has been surprisingly light. All the roads are only two lanes and virtually all the bridges over the rivers are one lane bridges; vehicles simply take turns crossing over. Drivers are also very good about pulling over into “slow vehicle bays” to allow cars to pass. These are needed because I saw very few straight highway sections where one can safely pass. The roadways seem to be made of nothing more than a series of curves! As a result travel is slow and you cannot maintain normal highway speeds.

As we head eastward from Greymouth toward Arthur’s Pass (and Christchurch) we passed through some lovely pastureland occupied by herds of cows. There seems to be very few sheep in this area of the island.

Arthur’s Pass is only 920 meters high but with a 16% grade coming up one side! The surrounding hills are tree covered and we could see higher peaks in the distance, although none of them exceeds more than 1500-1700 meters.

Once you enter the valley on the east side of Arthur’s Pass the climate and vegetation changes dramatically. It is drier here, there are fewer trees and there is much more brown rather than green. By about 2:30 PM we were down on the flatlands driving due East to Christchurch. There are more sheep, irrigated fields, cars and straight highways. We are almost back to civilization.

Suddenly traffic became heavier and housing projects loomed ahead. We are in Christchurch, the scene of a devastating earthquake in 2011. We reached our hotel right at the predicted 4PM arrival time. People said their goodbyes and retired to their rooms to prepare for their onward journeys. We chose to have a quick dinner at the hotel.  We will have some time in the morning to explore a bit before heading to the airport.

By the way I neglected to highlight a sighting we had while leaving the Cardrona Hotel back on March 24.  About a mile from the hotel is a monument that only the kiwis would create. A bit of background to set the stage. There are many locations around the world that have created “locks of loves” sites where lovers have put a lock on a bridge or fence as a commitment to their love. Well, here in New Zealand someone decided that a more appropriate display would be a “bra fence”. Yes, I said bra.  Sure enough we passed a long fence decorated with all colors and sizes of bras. None of the ladies on our bus volunteered to add to the collection so we continued on our way. I did manage to grab a quick photo as we passed by to prove its existence!