Day 37 Arthur's Pass

Sleep great and the bath in the lake instead of shower is also okay. I start around 09:30 am to Arthur's Pass with a round of coffee and muesli. Passing by a few other beautiful campsites on the road and also through several construction sites. The road is widened in some places. Of course, I'm already thinking "I've seen it all before, somehow it looks familiar", but then the beautiful plateau appears and I'm glad I invested the time. At Arthur's Pass itself, there is an i-SITE from DOC, a nice little DOC campground, and a railway station. A train from Kiwi Rail is passing by. The internet reviews are sometimes devastating. From a 3.5-hour approach, only one hour is interesting. Everyone has to assess and decide for themselves. But what I notice is that 5 to 7 carriages are pulled by three diesel locomotives and pushed by three more. I still have to find out the reason for this. On the way back towards Christchurch, New Zealand weather strikes again. Suddenly fog sets in and the mountain turns out to be a weather divide. Behind it, it is no longer sunny but slightly to moderately cloudy. In a smaller town, I take a lunch break, fill up with gas, and top up the oil. Then I continue towards Kaikoura. There I would like to see whales and explore the wildlife on the peninsula. Kaikoura has a very privileged location on the east coast north of Christchurch. There is a deep-sea trench with plenty of food for the whales. At the same time, the even in summer snow-covered peaks of the Alps reach almost to the beach here. A truly mystical place, something very special. But here too, the earth is alive in New Zealand! And sometimes it shakes too. In October 2016, an earthquake hit the small tourist town so severely that SH1, the country's main highway to Kaikoura and further north, was buried and completely destroyed. In some places, the earth has risen by 8 meters. In Kaikoura itself, the sea level has risen by almost 2 meters. The town was completely cut off from the outside world. In the past twelve months, great things have been accomplished, the so-called inland route has been expanded so that a widened, partly very makeshift route allows at least supply and initial tourism in Kaikoura. But at the moment, you really have to want to go to Kaikoura because a total of 8 construction sites and narrow, almost everywhere patched roads and temporary bridges make the drive really exhausting. I sometimes meet the construction workers who repair the tar and fill the potholes and depressions in the evening at my camping spot at the motel. Very nice guys! The campsite is only one third full and you can already tell at the reception how much people are looking forward to the tourists coming back after more than a year. At this point, I begin to understand a little bit what was going on here. On the first evening, I stroll through the town, some buildings are still supported, others are demolished, there are gaps and many buildings and shops are feverishly working on reopening. According to the current forecast, it will take until mid-December for the large number of tourists to hopefully return. Then the coastal road will be drivable again.