Feb 25, 2020

A beautiful day riding through large tracts of farming land forest and incredible mountains and our troops cannot believe that the awesomeness we promised is even better than they expected. Just glorious sights in every direction!

 

The quirky geography sights begin with a chilly and overcast morning.

 

Yay, the sun came out as we started to climb.

 

Climbing, climbing, first chance to pull over and look back and we only just got back on the bikes in time to beat a labouring truck.

 

More great sights.

 

The road opens for a bit.

 

Castle Hill, we didn’t walk to it because those who did looked about the size of ants from the car park.

 

Ski areas peel off from the road at regular intervals.

 

And then in the wilderness the Flock Hill Station established in 1857. Must be a rugged existence.

 

Making a mile and the troops are coming.

 

And down a big hill and we find another farm.

 

Awesome glacial valley.

And yep that’s snow in the distance.

 

Arthurs Pass Post Office and book exchange in an old fridge. Very quirky.

 

Lunch at Arthurs Pass. We had called into the historic Baileys Hotel, but it wasn’t opening until 3pm so we weren’t hanging around.

 

At the Otira Viaduct opened in 1999.

 

And here is the Viaduct with a 16% grade. We had to stop on it for quite a while waiting for  broken down truck to be rescued and we were all leaning well back in our seats.

 

And the next lookout and wow! Was great to ride through it.

 

Our accommodation for the night, the Bella Vista Hokitika, compact but functional, nice and clean and hosts very helpful. Walking distance to wherever we want to go. Some awesome buildings here, will try and get some shots in the morning but we will be on a mission to get to our helicopter flight over the glaciers … so we will see.