The Cloud Has Lifted

Finally, after 40 days and 40 nights we woke to a brilliant blue sky. I knew it was going to be so when I opened the door around 4am this morning and the air was so crisp and clear, it felt like I could reach up and grab the twinkling stars that were spread out across the sky above us.

I spoke too soon in the last post re ‘wallowing in mega gigabytes’, the internet went down yesterday afternoon and we were unable to re-connect before we left. Talk about frustrated! And we’d only just bought another $5/10gb worth. But we're back on the road and have mobile internet tonight.

I know I’m jumping the queue again, but I wanted to show you where we’re parked up for the night- at the DOC camp at Arthurs Pass village. I don’t know how much sleep we’re going to get, what with the main highway on one side and the rail line on the other, I’m sure it’s going to be an interesting (interrupted) night. But still, we wanted to overnight in the village so we can do some of the walks tomorrow, and we used to have a rail line at the bottom of our garden, so it should bring back a few memories. In fact it already has, the last two trains past have been coal trains exactly the same as travelled past our garden on their way back and forward to Tauranga Port.

That’s the historic Arthurs Pass rail turntable just behind us and out of picture, to the left, is the beginning of the 8.5km rail tunnel through the Main Divide.

It was too difficult to stop at most of the carparks with ‘Out There’ on the back but we did manage to fit into the Death’s Corner lookout carpark high above the Otira Viaduct.

Where we were greeted by, not a pesky weka, but a pesky kea, who promptly set about removing the tow ball cover!

We stopped at Arthurs Pass Village for lunch, we hadn’t quite decided where we were going to stay at that stage, but as it’s turned out, is was just across the bridge in front of us & only a few metres down the road. Just as we were about to leave the ute to walk to the cafe a guy approached David and introduced himself- I was in the van and didn’t see him arrive.

It was a wonderful surprise to meet a fellow photographer who follows me on Flickr. Francis also takes great photos of the South Island and he regularly favs and comments on my photos. We both post our historic photos to the same groups so it felt like I was meeting an old friend. Francis told us he saw the rig (he was in the village doing some work) and recognised it but was still a little unsure if it was going to be me until he saw me cross the road to take a photo of the Arthurs Pass Chapel- that sealed it. He knew it was FlyingKiwiGirl, my screen name on Flickr.

It was a great pleasure to meet you Francis, may our paths cross again. And thanks for all the tips on what to see and where to go locally.

I’ll post more on Arthurs Pass later, in the right timeline.

'Red sky at night'......... fingers crossed