ASHLEY GORGE — ARTHURS PASS CROSSING, 8th March 2021

We couldn’t have had a better day to do the Arthur’s Pass Crossing. No wind and clear blue skies and very little cloud. Left Ashley Gorge about 9.00am. A little colder down between the mountains early morning. It took longer for the sun to come up over the hills. We decided that we wouldn’t  stay over at Porters Lodge tonight. As the weather was so great we felt it better just to keep going incase the weather closed in tomorrow which would have been disappointing for the crossing of Arthur’s Pass. Tomorrow will tell if we did the right thing. But we still visited Porters Lodge for a chance to get further up in the hills to be amongst one of the ski resort areas. Off cause there was no snow but we could imagine just how beautiful it would be in the winter.  Spend a little time up there talking to one of the staff which was interesting explaining where the ski lifts are and where they ski from. Which I will point out in the photos below. Porters Lodge is in the Castle  Hill area a 30min drive on the East side of Arthur’s Pass Village.  By this time we had missed a morning coffee so continued our beautiful drive through the Pass. We found a spot next to Lake Pearson and made lunch and a coffee. Drove on until we were passing a placed called Castle Hill Village . We remembered that we stopped at this village years ago when the area was just been developed. It’s out on its own between the mountains  not far from all the ski fields. We think it might be mainly used as holiday homes to be near to the mountains to use in the skiing season. Very picturesque little village. Continued on and had a stop at Arthur’s Pass Village. PT decided he felt like a bowl of hot soup. Although I had made him some lunch earlier on. So far we had been slowly increasing  height after we had been on long flat roads early this morning. After Arthur’s Pass Village, which was just short of 1000metres we then started decreasing down rather steeply and quickly. As you will see in the photos. It took us about half an hour to drive from Arthur’s Pass Village to arrive at our next stop for the night called Jackson’s Retreat Alpine Holiday Park. This is the place we were heading for tomorrow night when we had planned to have a night at Porters Lodge. Heading off tomorrow to Ross on the West coast. It’s 7.00pm time to turn the heater on and warm up the van as the evenings get quite cool down between these mountains. PT says he doesn’t think that sun will come over the mountain, we are tucked under, until about 10.00am. We will be on the road well before then.

The left hand red dot 🔴 is where we stayed last night. 

On our way,  our first crossing over the Waimakariri river which we will be following through the day.

Above and below photos

Looking over the other side of the bridge. I had to walk back over the bridge to take this lovely photo. It was only a one lane bridge so it was a bit scary when the big trucks passed me not only shaking the bridge but me too. Had to hang on tight.

Lake Lyndon

We have now

 turned off to travel 6km on a gravel road up to Porters Lodge higher in the hills in the Castle hills area. 

This is the Lodge were they have accomodation  and a restaurant 

etc.

Inside the lounge.

Standing up in the Lodge looking down on the car park / overnight camping.

Looking up to the skiing area. If you zoom in onto the light colour which is stone that is the skiing area. In the middle valley is the start of the chair lift then it turns left and continues to the top of the hill.

Looking down the valley the other way. All very Barron up there.

Now continuing on our way heading for Arthur’s Pass Village which is 30 minutes away. Castle hills.

These big stones are a lot taller than they look here. They are about 200 metres from the road but there is a track out to them. Would have loved to walk up to them but we had been stopping so much taking photos and looking at places on the way we felt that we should just keep going. 🥲

We have now arrived at Castle Hill Village,

Magical little  Alpine village. It looks like they could be build for  mainly holiday homes  used in the skiing season.

Continuing on great scenery 

Lake Pearson where we stopped and made lunch.

Still at Lake Pearson looking the other way

Just beautiful scenery 

First glimpse of snow

Still heading to Arthur’s Pass Village

following the Waimakariri.

Arthur’s Pass Village above and below.

One of the two cafes.

The other cafe where PT just felt like a bowl of hot soup.

Otira  Viaduct — Arthur’s Pass

Coming down the other side of the viaduct very steep

Still descending.

Now arrived at the Jackson Alpine Retreat Holiday Park. Beautifully laid out most sites have these private screened off areas.

The park covers a big area. Lots of walks, waterfalls and glow worms. 

One of the many bridges cross over all the little streams.

Looking across to the hills from our site.

We were really lucky with such a great day to do the crossing. Fantastic area one of the best.

When we got up looking roughly the same way as the above photo. Earlier when we first woke up the clouds were right down to where the bottom cloud is couldn’t see any hill or sky. It wasn’t that cold last night as we had this big blanket of cloud tucking us in....

The van is very warm at night if we are in the hills or where ever if it’s a bit cold we just put the heater on until we go to bed and it stays warm all night. Now just packing up to head for Ross  down the West coast.

I didn’t get the blog away last night as had problems with uploading the photos even though we paid for their stronger wi fi connection. Once the clouds lift it looks like another nice day.