Traversing the Alps

Short drives and three nights saw us going from Christchurch to Greymouth.  While we were waiting at West Melton for the traffic flow to quieten we cooked and ate tea: one of the bonuses of travelling with your house on your back!!! We had been hoping to get some fuel for the bus before moving into the mountains ( the bus is not environmentally economical going only 5km per litre of diesel and making it one of our biggest costs) but we couldn't find an open fuel stations by the time we got to Springfield.  Not fazed we camped up for the night in a lovely camping ground in the local Domain. Its only drawback was the proximity to the railway line, and there seemed to be several large coal trains during the night.

Lake Pearson

The destination we had in mind was Lake Pearson as all too often we have driven past this area and looked down on the DOC camping area thinking it would be a good place to camp. And it was. During the day it was a busy spot with lots of campers and vehicles driving in to spend some time, have a picnic or just stretch the legs. It is a very peaceful area with lots of wild life though we can't comment about the fish as Stephen had no luck there.

Avalanche Creek DOC campsite

Arthur's Pass is another place where we have wanted to spend more time so we decided that we would stay in the DOC camping ground at Avalanche Creek, directly opposite the DOC Information Centre.  After spending the afternoon walking some of the day walking track and having a lovely time enjoying the bush and the area in general we realised that staying here was not going to be the smartest move. There were two factors that would have changed our minds, had we only known sooner. As the afternoon wore on we came to realise that the road was getting really busy, and in particular with van loads of youngish people who were loud and obviously drinking. An email from my sister confirmed that the Wild Food Festival in Hokitika and this was the reason for the increased volume of traffic on a Friday afternoon.  Our camping spot was close to the large parking area and toilet/rest area and well into the night we were kept entertained.

Taking a rest beside the Bealey River

The second reason this camp is not a great choice is that it is extremely close to the railway  and tunnel entrance and of course there was even more train traffic than what we heard in Springfield. In all not a good night's sleep was had. (Note to selves to check sleeping hazards more carefully in future!!)
We decided that to avoid the Saturday morning traffic heading to Hokitika we would rise early (not something we are particularly good at doing)  and get over the Pass and down to Jackson's where we could turn on to the less popular route to Greymouth, and go to Iveagh Bay for breakfast. We enjoyed a lovely day in this beautiful spot before heading into Greymouth to catch up in our friends Shirley and Rami.

Picturesque view of Iveagh Bay