01/29/2014 Cross the South Island from west to east
When my alarm clock rings at 7.30am, it's completely overcast outside. Damn. This could be fun with the Arthur's Pass. My clothes from yesterday's laundry are not only still quite damp, but also completely covered in lint. Apparently, some idiot washed tissues with them. Plus, half of the laundry powder is stuck to the clothes, the stains from one polo shirt are not gone, and there's a hole in the black one. Great - two can be disposed of and used as a nightgown until then. I take advantage of the early hour with bad weather to write in my diary until I get a "visit" from the hotel owner at 11:00 am and really have to leave. I quickly get something to eat around the corner - as always a "flat white", which is a coffee with milk, and coffee here is made in a professional machine in every diner, which can sometimes be annoying because each coffee takes up to 5 minutes. But it usually tastes very good.
Unfortunately, Hokitika doesn't say goodbye in a beautiful way, but I still take a few photos of the old houses until I leave the city to the north at 11:30 am. The road is straight as an arrow and partially covered with wild red flowers.
The drive mostly follows the water, but after some drizzle, it soon starts to rain heavily. What a mess for a pass drive. I soon turn right inland and the road runs between fields and hills, there are no villages here either. Sheep, cattle, and vastness. Over and over again, you pass one-lane bridges that mostly lead over dry riverbeds with a lot of debris.
Signs indicate steep inclines that are not suitable for cars towing others. However, trucks and truck trailers pass by me at full speed and occasionally overtake...
The drive is quite long and the curves are eventually enough. Shortly before Arthur's Pass, there is a lookout over the Otira Gorge. Up there, it's not so much the misty view, but again the highlight of Keas.
Otira Gorge
These Keas are not attached to rubber but to human food. Shortly afterwards, I reach Arthur's Pass, the place consisting of around 20 houses, all of which offer something for tourists. Since it's already 2:00 pm now, I treat myself to a sandwich, a juice, and half an hour of internet because it didn't work well at the hotel yesterday.
The Keas here are quite clever and sometimes annoyingly pester the guests.
A few last photos of Keas in front of the restaurant and I continue driving. I pass through vast plains that are so deserted that I wonder what happens if you have a breakdown there in the evening. At least there are still cars passing by. Around me, there are plenty of mountains. And while the ones I have been driving through since the West Coast are covered in lush greenery, the ones ahead of me are bare peaks in brown and gray-green, with low vegetation - lunar landscape.
I still have to drive several kilometers up and down and in endless loops until I reach a fertile plain with black and white cows, green meadows, and plenty of orchards. Plenty in this context means about one every 10 kilometers.
This morning, I considered where to go since I don't want to go to Christchurch for a whole day. Then I decided on the Banks Peninsula, which is practically an extension in the sea behind Christchurch. The whole bay is actually an old volcanic crater, and the towns on the peninsula are located on its rim. What I didn't quite consider is that the Banks Peninsula is also very hilly. In addition, the roads are sometimes very narrow, and at the end of this day of driving many curves, it continues like that.
I'm getting tired and the town of Okains Bay, which I marked on the map and thought it sounded like an old pirate town and would fit well, just doesn't get any closer. About 1.5 hours past Christchurch, I give up because it's already 7:30 pm and I don't even know if Okains Bay has any hotels. I turned onto the Tourist Route many kilometers ago, which doesn't lead to hotels but is rather a Scenic Drive that takes you high above the bay through the hills.
Curve after curve. Suddenly, a sheep stands on the road. It's a good thing that my car can't take hills + curves very quickly, otherwise I would have a sheep accident tonight (you probably don't say wildlife accident with sheep :)). At a crossroads high above the bay, which is by the way a fantastic photo opportunity, and where you can also see that this is a volcanic crater, there is a signpost to Akaroa. I actually don't want to go there because the ship goes there and I want to see specifically what I can't do from the ship. But the town is well-known and surely must have hotels.
I arrive in Akaroa at 8:00 pm. Akaroa has around 500 inhabitants and is thus the culturally vibrant heart of the Banks Peninsula. The history of this French-influenced town is quite funny. On August 11, 1840, the English raised their flag on the Banks Peninsula. However, during that time, a Frenchman had returned to France and had encouraged people to settle here in a French "colony". By the time his new expedition arrived here on August 17, 1840, the peninsula had become British a week ago. So they simply founded a French settlement in Akaroa. Today, Akaroa is proud to live with a bit of French history and to have some European culture with French street names and flags. One special feature of the town is the presence of a small group of Hector's dolphins, the smallest dolphins in the world. But more on that later, as I only saw them when I was on the big ship.
The first motel is already no vacancy. The second one wants $155 and the woman kindly sends me to the Grand Hotel across the street, which might be cheaper. So I get my first night under $100!! For $98, I get a nice, large room with access to the old balcony that surrounds it, like in old sanatoriums.
Grand Hotel Akaroa
The floor creaks, the bed feels like it's only 5 square meters. But I still want to take advantage of the evening sun, so I wander around the town with my camera, which actually consists of two parts separated by the beach, which is a crescent-shaped bay. In the supermarket, which looks like it's from a Western movie, I buy water and continue strolling through the main street until I find a seat outside a bistro for dinner.
Akaroa
Akaroa General Store
Akaroa
A chowder for $17, a terrible white wine (did they put sugar in it? This was supposedly the dry one), and an amazing dessert follow, and I walk back to the hotel, get in my car to maybe see the lighthouse in the sunset, but then decide that after today's winding road, it's too far. It's about 10 km from the town. The lighthouse in the town doesn't work and is perhaps just a prop for tourists.
In front of the town library, I soon sit in the dark car and connect to their Wi-Fi to chat a bit with G. At the hotel, I'm at 11:00 pm, read for a bit, and fall asleep at midnight.
