Arthurs Pass & Punakaiki

Day 3 - 14th Oct 2011

The NZ journey officially started today. With a mere glimpse of Christchurch, we packed out bags and headed to the glaciers. We passed through the Canterbury plains with farms land rolling towards the mountains. We got excited just looking at the sheeps and cows. Rhys was probably thinking..."Ah! I've seen this all the time..ZZZ"

We passed through these peculiar looking mountains littered with large jagged stones. Rhys said the battle scene in Narnia was shot here. (Hmm...I got to watch that movie again)


After looking at far too many farms with sheeps and cows, our eyes started to close. When we woke up, we were in Arthur's Pass. A small town that became a base for explorers into Arthur's Pass National Park. It was drizzling so we scurried inside for a warm breakfast.

In case you're wondering, these are gigantic scones.

Halfway through breakfast, TH suddenly disappeared. We thought he was taken away by the Kea.

Oh well, it's just a small bird.

Although it's small Alpine parrot, it's known to be a smarty pants. Look, it even posed for you in all these shots.

We drove a little further and along the coastline. It looks like the 12 Apostles from here.

And the 5 "sua-ku"

Unlike the crowded beaches in Bali, there was no one here. We had the place all to ourselves.

After a few breather, the journey continued along the coast line ...

The highlight of the day was Punakaiki. The location to view geographic wonders of the pancake rocks and blow holes.

We met this curious bird (I forgot what it's called). It almost looked like a duck to me.

With the neat layered formation of the rock, they named it the Pancake Rocks. I'd call it "kuih lapis" (layered cake) instead.

The three angels of Punakaiki...hehe

Jason unleashed his hidden talent. David Blaine, you are not alone.

Enough of the posers! Where was I?
Oh, we had now moved on to the blow hole called the Chimney Pot.

Now, it looked like steam from the hill. Our geography teacher will probably knock us on the head and said this.

"Boys and girls. What you see is not steam. Powerful waves traveled across the narrow rocky crevasse and abruptly stopped by the rocky wall. The impact sent water surging up the tiny hole inside the body of the rocks and exit through a small opening at the top making it looked like smoke from the chimney"

We marveled at the natural wonder while waiting for powerful waves to come by in order to capture the blow hole in action.




We heard a loud noise nearby. It sounded like a dinosaur groaning in Jurassic Park. This huge pool (Surge Pool) was the one making the noises. The powerful waves hitting against the four walls, sending out deep growling echoes.

The waves had slowly cut out some strange shapes in the rocks.
Do you see a man's head and a four legged creature?

One of the best treat we had was the Kapiti ice cream. The chocolate and raspberry flavour was mmm....heavenly!

Next stop is at Lake Lanthe. A serene lake that we had all to ourselves too.

We met this puffy little bird. Quite a friendly one too as it allowed us to take close shots of him.

The scene was so inviting that Jason suddenly went to practice his Wu Shu

Our drive continued along the farm lands. The rain had subsided and look here... Two rainbows ending on the farm. Fairy tales said there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. No doubt, I was straining to check if there's a pot of gold behind the cows. Oh well...



All of us had this question in mind. What will become of us if we stay in this sleepy little town? More importantly, what are we gonna do? I think there are only less than 20 homes in this entire town. Although it's a small town, there's always a clean public rest area available. That's one fascinating thing in NZ and I must applaud the Kiwis in keeping their environment clean everywhere all the time.

Lake Mapourika

I was getting hungry. Michelle had a leg cramp from the long ride and Jason had far too many lakes for the day.

After a long day's drive, we finally reached the glacier township.

The view from our motel reminded me much of Interlaken, Switzerland.

Though it's just a motel, we had a fully functional kitchen and large heated beds to cozy up. Compared to some 5 star hotels, we still had plenty of room to lounge around.

Hm...the bathroom looks like a hospital room

It was cold and peaceful outside. Occasionally, birds were heard. Singing a chirpy melody on top of a tree somewhere. The flowers were blooming and it was a nice time for a stroll in this tiny glacier town.






There was nothing much to eat here. Being a Penangite where food is a priority and available 24 hours a day, we started to panic and hurried into a local mart to stock up food as if we were going to die of starvation soon.

There were only two eateries to choose from and guess what we ended up with for dinner?





After enjoying a warm shower, we snuggled under layers of duvet. Jessica & TH thought I went nuts as I was literally rolling on my bed in glee. You know... the feeling of the warm bed was soooo nice in this weather!

We were lying on the bed flipping through channels and tried watching the All Blacks vs Argentina in the Rugby World Cup. Not knowing the rules, we were scratching our head looking at men piled up on top of each other, men pushing other men's butt, men carrying another men up in the air. It did looked interesting though and of course, we cheered for the All Blacks :)