EC-Rider Travels

We bid farewell to Bob and Anne and the beautiful Rakaia Gorge to cross over to the ‘other side’ on the West Coast via Arthur’s Pass. Our SatNav was very much in the holiday mode and, despite there being only a handful of roads in New Zealand, it managed to find us the most ‘scenic’. We went virtually the whole way on shingle roads which were lined with the most beautiful wild flowers you have ever seen, including lupins of every colour (don’t tell Donna!). There were endless different daisies, hebes, foxgloves, flax, borage (different to ours) and so much more.

After bumping along for some time, and finally hitting tarmac, Mum spotted a sign to a ski-lodge, so back on to a shingle road, we drove for several kilometres up a gorge, lined with wild daisies to the Porters Lodge. The two sweet young girls running it were quite surprised to see us, as it was very much a hikers refuge in the summer and not sure often visited by anyone over 30 – but they gave us a delicious lunch.

We headed off again, with the landscape changing all the time from steep rugged mountains to soft rolling hills and then, all of a sudden, as flat as Norfolk. We came to Castle Hill which is covered in hundreds of smooth limestone tors rising out of the hills like castle battlements – pretty spectacular.

We then travelled through Arthur’s Pass which runs through the Southern Alps to the West Coast. It was discovered and crossed for the first time by Arthur Dobson and his brothers George and Edward in 1863. With the West Coast gold rush in 1865, a road was needed between Canterbury and the West Coast and Arthur’s route was used. It was quite a feat of engineering building a road through this rocky pass, which was overseen by his brother Edward.

Arthur’s sister, Caroline was married to Charles Franklin Todhunter (Great, Great Grandfather) – a little tenuous but we claim him all the same and was proud to see a monument to Arthur on one of the summits and a town also named after him. His brother Edward does not seem to get a mention and poor ol’ George was murdered by the Burgess Gang who thought he was a gold-dealer.

Many of the rocks in the river beds along Arthur’s Pass are covered in the most extraordinary red lichen which we had never seen before. After another little detour along a very narrow shingle road, we came down on to the West Coast highway just above Hokitaka where we were to spend the night. This was the first time since we had left, six hours previously, we saw a shop and a petrol or indeed a person!

We are staying in a really lovely B&B called Rimu Lodge, just south of Hokitaka. It is run by lovely Sue Ellen and is extremely comfortable and a bit of a treat.

I went for a short walk following the the ‘heritage route’ and learning a little about this funny little town. It was founded on gold-mining in 1864 and by 1866 was one of New Zealand’s most populated centres. Not any more, but it does have a pub where I had arranged to meet Mum for supper. An interesting experience – it was built in 1870 at the time of the above and I don’t think has changed much since – but served a good pizza!