Today, we had to say goodbye to Taylor at Christchurch. She flew from there to Auckland where she planned to have dinner at a great restaurant with a friend from Culinary School, and then leave at 7 AM the next morning for New York. We know that she made it safely to the states, but haven’t heard any details about the dinner.
We had a long travel day; however, it was not nearly as arduous as we had originally planned. Today we crossed the third of the four passes across the Southern Alps that can be done by car. (We will cross the last of these two days from now driving to Abel Tasman.) After lunch with Taylor, we dropped her off and drove north from Christchurch through pasture land made dramatic by threatening skies.
We then headed west, along the Waiau River to Lewis Pass, which you can see below. Our destination was just on the west side of the pass, a “motel” situated on a working cattle farm. Although this place only had three units, one of which was empty, and it was situated in the middle of a farm, this was definitely not a “farmstay.” It was not really possible to walk anywhere on the farm becuase everything was fenced off. Also, unlike everywhere else we have been, where the proprietors have been incredibly friendly and eager to talk, here a woman met us, took our money, showed us to our room, and that was the last interaction we had with her, although we did see her spreading some fertilizer on the pasture in front of us in the rain.
The next morning we continued on to Murchison, a two hour drive, where we had made reservations for the night several months ago. Originally we had planned to drive here from Dunedin in one day, a drive that would have taken 10-11 hours. By avoiding the long drive, we were able to get to Murchison before noon. Murchison, at the confluence of several wild rivers, is a center for hiking, fishing, and water sports. We had hoped with a free afternoon to go hiking; however, the threatening bad weather of the day before, although forecast to clear out, held on as intermittent rain showers today. Given that it was going to be a wet day, we decided to go with the flow and try white water rafting. Perhaps because it was Sunday afternoon or simply because the weather was not great, we were the only ones to go out with Tim, the owner of Ultimate Descents rafting company. In the picture on the right, Tim is instructing us in useful skills: how to paddle, which we didn’t have to do much of, and hold on. Although the rapids were fairly tame, becuase the river was low, it is clear in the picture below that we had a good time.
That night we stayed and had dinner at the Murchison Lodge, a wonderful bed and breakfast that might be our favorite of all the places we have stayed.
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