Arthur's Pass and More

ranoodle31
Feb 6, 2016
4 min read

I started my day with the intention of doing a bunch of walks within the Arthur’s Pass area. This started with a nice walk to the Devils Punchbowl and their falls. The walk was fairly easy although there were a bunch of stairs. I guess I should be used to this by now if I am going to see waterfalls, since most of them are up pretty high haha. This was really pretty although the amount of water that comes down and settles in the bowl creates a huge mist with the wind so the falls are partially blocked. Still stunning to see such power in the middle of nowhere. I ventured down on a few rocks to get different views and vantage points for my photos I was taking. This hike was about an hour give or take with all of my photos and just enjoying the sounds of nature (except for people who couldn’t talk soft of course, lol)

From here I went on to check out Bridal falls, which I could only manage to see from the track and their rocky area where the water ends up. They were still beautiful even still, I think I have a thing for waterfalls, if you haven’t noticed from my photos and talking about them.

My next stop was Bealey Chasm. This was a nice walk to a bridge where you could either end or continue on to check out more. The view from the bridge was really nice, you could see the river just tumbling over all of the huge boulders and tossing the smaller ones aside as it went down. I love listening to a river as it runs over rocks, it has such a calming feeling, which is the opposite from what it is if you think about it. I walked over a bunch of roots and uneven rocks and thankfully there was also a huge stretch of a boardwalk that was put in place over a marshy area for quite a bit of the walk. So after all of that, I finally reached the chasm itself. It was great! It has the river that runs through it and it is fairly loud due to the pressure of the river coming down and hitting all of the boulders. I can imagine how soft the rocks are under all of that water from the hundreds or thousands of years of running over them.

I made my way back to the car park with the intensions of doing more walks. BUT, this is where my walking gets cut short. Most of the walks are not posted very clearly so I missed the Dobson Nature Walk which I was looking forward to. Oh well, things happen for a reason right!?

I continued on and decided that I was going to check out a little town called Hokitika which was heading towards the Franz Josef Glacier. My intension was to head that way but after all the driving I had done, it was another 2 hours south to get there, then I still had to head north the day after. I found a lovely toilet to use and next to it was a museum. I figured I would check out the place, but I didn’t want to pay so I only made it to the gift shop….uh oh a shop!!! Yes yes I bought something, but it was a book! I was just about finished with the book I as given called “The Book Thief”, so I needed something else to read, so I bought something that is based in New Zealand and is written by a local writer.

So after this northward I went! I actually stumbled across my next destination kind of by accident. I had read about the Pancake Rocks but totally forgot they were up in the area I was heading to. No one is really sure how these rocks are formed. They are literally layers upon layers of rock that are stacked one on top of the other and you can see each individual layer. There is a brief walk around the area where you can see different formations and some of them are being destroyed by the sea waves and levels. There was a blow hole there too that you can hear and see when the time comes in. I was in the right place at the right time because the tide was high enough and still coming in that I got a cool video of the sound, it was kind of loud which the other ones I didn’t get on video weren’t so this surprised me.

I headed back on the road and found a sign for a seal colony, so I decided to head there and figured I might be able to spend the night in that area. Well, there were no seals and no camping was allowed, so kind of a wasted trip except for the fact I was able to get some cool beach shots with the sun setting a bit and some great driftwood. I really can’t wait to view some of these pictures on a larger screen! I now needed to find a place to sleep, so along the route north I found out of the corner of my eye and few cars and campers parked under a bridge, so I joined them and settled in for a good night’s sleep.