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Arthur’s Pass – January 2020

May 2, 2020 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Today, I’m bringing you the final installment of the tramping pictures I took while taking walks with some friends back in January!

I have decided that mountains are my most favorite terrain. Ever. Even if I end up with burning legs after walking nearly 18 km (11 miles) or so in them in a day. They are so gorgeous! So, I apologize for the number of pictures in advance. I couldn’t whittle the number down further.

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 01

We left fairly early that morning, bound for the mountains about an hour and a half away. Part of the route we took went past Lake Brunner, so we drove down around to have a look at it. The lake was so beautiful that morning! Though I’ve gone past there many times, it was actually my first time going down to the beach!

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 02

Only one brother accompanied us this day. I convinced him to pose by some of my favorite summer flowers—tiny red ones that are scattered all over the West Coast! Then it was on again, up to Arthur’s Pass. We stopped at the information center there before starting our walking for the day, so we could take pictures of the large maps they had and could plan our routes better.

After that, we took off up behind the old information center, and walked the (very short) Millenium Track, to an overlook of the Avalanche Creek Falls. I love the plaque they have on a rock at the viewing platform! What a wonderful verse to put up there, although I wonder how many people catch that it’s actually from the Bible, and talking about the Lord!

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 03

The beautiful Avalanche Creek Falls! We climbed up to the base, because why not if you’re there anyway? I found out later that Arthur’s Pass chapel is built in such a way that when you sit in the pews, you get this same view. What a lovely reminder of God’s awesome glory! I don’t think I’d ever get tired watching waterfalls.

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 04

On our way back to take the car around to the base of the walk to the Devil’s Punchbowl Falls, our next stop, we were serenaded by this beautiful bellbird’s song!

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 05

Then, around mid-morning, we got to the Devil’s Punchbowl Waterfall track! It’s not long, but it’s arguably one of the most taxing short walks around. It’s easy at first, but then you hit the stairs. I counted 389 in all on the track (and that was one-way), and at least 100 of them are straight up in a row.

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 06

But it’s worth it—SO worth it!

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 07

This waterfall is 131 m/430 ft tall, and while it isn’t the tallest waterfall I’ve ever seen, it’s pretty impressive. We walked up to the base of this waterfall as well (even if it isn’t recommended…we found out later that sometimes large boulders come crashing over these falls! 😮 ). It was cold down in the basin under the falls, with the mist swirling around and the sun not yet there to warm the area up.

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 0

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 09

After walking up to the Devil’s Punchbowl Falls, we walked out along the Arthur’s Pass Walking Track, hoping we could get close to Bridal Veil Falls, which is the next one along in the mountains. Unfortunately, what we didn’t realize was that you can only see it from a distance, but while we were on that detour, we did get to walk through some beautiful NZ bush!

Then it was on to the Bealey Valley Track, that runs up along the Bealey River. This river is the one that flows from the divide down toward Canterbury from Arthur’s Pass, and eventually joins the Waimakariri River, which is the main river that flows past Christchurch (the largest city on the South Island).

I love this track—probably because of all the different kinds of terrain you walk through as you work your way up to the river itself!

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 10

And then the riverbed—a jumble of rocks descending from the peaks. And you could TELL the water came from those places up there where snow still determinedly held on!

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 11

Our feet were all hot and sweaty after a morning of walking, so we decided to cool off in the river. Unfortunately, “cool off” equaled sticking your feet in for a few seconds until they started to ache to the bones from the cold, pull them out to warm up, and stick them in again. I managed to lose a sock when I was doing this, and my shoe accidentally fell in the water. I was thankful I was able to rescue my shoe before that flowed away, too! The water was rushing through here pretty quickly!

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 12

When we got back from the Bealey Valley Track, we headed back to the Arthur’s Pass village to refill our flagging water supplies and have lunch. We enjoyed lunch under the shade of some huge old trees next to a campsite, then headed for our last walk of the day—the Dobson Nature Walk, and Lake Misery Track. This is another favorite of mine; in the early spring, there are the most beautiful flowers along this walk. Unfortunately, when we went in mid-summer, there weren’t that many, but it was still lovely.

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 13

We got to see one lake with a little water in it!

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I assume the whole string of little lakes in this area makes up “Lake Misery”. (Correction: Looks like I was right. I found this pictorial walk-through of the track, and I agree—visiting it in early-morning fog in late November/early December would be wonderful! Be sure to click the green arrow button in the lower right-hand corner, so you can see all the pictures. I also really want to try the Otira Valley Track now. . . .)

Unfortunately, most of the lakes were dry while we were there, but we had fun exploring the lakebeds anyway!

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 15

And I found an interesting flower on the Dobson Nature Walk on our way back. It reminds me of a daisy, but has very fine petals! It was beautiful, whatever it was.

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 16

By early afternoon, we were all fairly tired. We’d covered a lot of walks, and decided we’d had enough for the day. Pretty much everything else that we could have done was 3-6 hr return tracks, and we weren’t up to that!

So, we headed home and stopped at the Otira Hotel on our way back. There are some weird and wonderful things in there (including a stuffed two-headed duckling), but I particularly enjoyed this sign in the women’s bathroom:

Arthur's Pass – January 2020 17

In all, the Arthur’s Pass day trip was very enjoyable, and I’d love to go again one day and explore the area more. Or show other people around, who haven’t been there before. Of all the tracks we did that day, the only ones I hadn’t been on were the Punchbowl Falls Track and the Arthur’s Pass Walking Track. All of them are highly recommended, if you’re ever in the area! 🙂

What kinds of scenic spots can you get to from your place without having to drive too far? I know it’s sometimes easy to ignore those, but I think it’s important to know what there is around you, so when you have visitors, you can take them there if they like to do sight-seeing!

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: Friends, Pictures, Traveling

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020

March 25, 2020 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Finally, I’m back with another installment of the trip I took with friends back in late January! I didn’t realize how quickly time has passed since my last post, but here we are again with more pictures!

After walking up to view the Franz Josef Glacier, we headed further south—about half an hour’s drive, I think—to the Fox Glacier. There, we were all quite hungry, so we sat on the rocks bordering the temporary car park and had lunch together. After walking for several hours, even sandwiches are appealing! Only made better with a bit of delicious salami, fresh tomatoes, and salt and vinegar chips, of course. 🙂

This is the Fox River and highway bridge, taken from our picnic area. Notice how the sand and gravel are contoured; if I remember right, the water came most of the way up to under this bridge when there was heavy rain in the area last year—the bridge further north, over the Franz Josef River, was washed out at that time.

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 01

Did you notice I said “temporary” car park? This is why:

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 02

I was rather confused about our bearings for a little while, but when we got here, I knew where we were. I was hoping to show our friends the lookout at the end of this track, but what I didn’t realize was that the original road that went out to the glacier had to be closed because of extensive slips. As in, I’m not even sure it’s open yet for people to drive back to get to the glacier face itself! What we were walking on here was the glacier outlook road, but instead of driving it like we used to be able to do, we had an hour or two’s worth of walking.

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 03

The road was really damaged with all the flooding, and those of us who had always ridden past these spots found it quite interesting to see all the changes!

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 04

Then we got up to the viewpoint itself, and—woah. The track had to be rerouted at least once, and I couldn’t believe the amount of gravel, rocks, and boulders that had been washed down this river  during the flooding. This used to be a fairly flat riverbed; in places, it looked like it had risen 1-2 meters in depth! The slip about in the middle of the picture is on the access road to the walk to the glacier face, which I’ve been up before, but weren’t able to go to this time.

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 05

And one of my favorites: A fern tree! Unfortunately, the clouds hadn’t lifted in this valley as they had at the Franz Josef Glacier, so we weren’t able to see the Fox Glacier itself.

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 06

On our way back, we took a detour on a narrow little track that created a loop from one point on the main track to further down. It added some time to our walk back, but we were happy for a change of scenery, as it really felt like we got into the bush from there! I thought it was interesting to see the glacier terminal signs, and wondered how people would have been able to figure out the dating for these!

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 07

This was sort-of difficult to see in real life (I wasn’t entirely certain which tree was which) but I thought the sign was funny!

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 08

Moraine Walk. Highly recommended—probably one of my most favorite tracks that day!

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 09

And we were exhausted. The boys found a soft moss-covered rock to rest on for a bit.

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 10

On our way home, we stopped for a short look at Lake Matheson—but after walking about 18 km that day, we decided we had had enough and wouldn’t add another hour and a half to our day’s total. I’d love to explore that area more some other time, though!

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 11

So we stopped for a picture at the photo stand (I’d love to see what this looks like when the weather is clear!), picked up some coffee from the cafe, and headed home.

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 12

Crossing the Franz Josef river on the temporary bridge (this was the one that washed out last year):

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 13

Getting to one of the many roadworks between Franz Josef village and Hokitika (this little tractor was pretty neat!):

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 14

And stopping in Harihari for a short break. While there, we looked across at a little park and decided to explore a bit before heading on.

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 15

They had a mosaic maze there! We met the woman who masterminded the project, a local who does a lot of work with pottery and other crafty things. She provides the tiles and other materials, you draw your message or picture on it, then she’ll fire it and place it somewhere in the maze.

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 16

There are lovely shard mosaics around the outside, as well as these fun “stepping stones”:

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 17

And the maze itself! I didn’t actually go all the way through it, because I got distracted by reading the individual tiles. The pillar in the middle has a sundial on the top, and the sides are made from pieces of old china cups, plates, and saucers.

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 18

Some tiles were sad:

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Some were fun:

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But put together, it was beautiful! The woman who works to keep the maze up also does a lot of the gardening around, and she was pulling weeds while we were there. She says that as she has time, she’s looking forward to putting a lot more flowers and shrubs in on the grounds.

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Another sad tile:

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Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 23

And some were sweet:

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I loved the pillars that graced the outskirts of the park, too!

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020 25

In all, the Harihari park was a lovely place to stop and stretch after traveling for a while, and I’d love to spend more time exploring there! It was a lovely end to a long day!

After being gone all day, we were ready for a bit of a break—but Thursday, we headed up to Arthur’s Pass to explore! I’ll share those pictures next.

Have you seen a mosaic maze before? I remember right after the Christchurch earthquakes that people got together with all their old family china that had broken, and they made mosaic pieces out of them—but I don’t remember seeing any of the resulting works of art.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: Friends, Pictures, Traveling

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Hi! I’m Esther, lover of the Lord Jesus Christ and brainstormer behind helping families find good books (read more about that here). My goal is to live a purposeful, fulfilling life—whether that is in what I read, write, cook, design, or do with my wonderful siblings. My life is full and often messy. But God is good. Welcome to the adventure!

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