Coast to Coast

SOUTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND

If not for the 10 am checkout time, I might have been tempted to stay in bed all morning. It is true, I am in this beautiful, amazing country, and I ought to not spend my time sleeping, but I could really use with just a few more hours under the covers.

Instead I peeled myself from the sheets, and packed up the contents of my bag which had somehow ended up scattered across the giant motel room which I occupied for exactly 17 hours.

I stopped for breakfast supplies at a nearby grocery, and then headed to the USAP headquarters to pick up my bags before heading west. I followed Rte 73 west through endless pastures until the mountains rose up in front of me. The Transalpine is surely one of the loveliest paths across New Zealand. I had followed the route by train several years back, but today was the first time I’d actually driven the highway. 

Every turn on the winding highway opens up new and amazing views and the Southern Alps and the braided rivers that wind through them. Just as the road began to climb, the raindrops began to fall. By the time I reached Arthur’s Pass, it was a steady downpour. I opted for a hot chai latte instead of a hike and continued west. The relentless rain was tiresome, not to mention interfering with the views down the Otira gorge. A few hours later found me on the west coast, the scenery having changed drastically, but the weather not at all. After filling up the car with gas, I pulled into the grocery store parking lot. I dashed into the store, my chin tucked against the cold rain, thinking “Man, this sucks!” But ten minutes later, cheese and tangerines in hand, I stepped out into a warm sunny day with blue skies and only a few puffy clouds.

The improved weather sufficiently improved my mood, and I headed south to Hokitika. There, driftwood sculptures dotted the beach, set against the backdrop of a violent gray ocean. But Hokitika was not to be my final destination, and so I headed south on the windy highway, weaving inland slightly, on to Fox Glacier.