Finding our Station

Well, I had been writing journal entries in Word all last week, supposing that I could simply copy and paste them into the blog--but it seems not! So, here goes, retyping it all...this could take awhile and may not all appear at once--be patient with the 'ol two-finger typist here...

Sunday, Jan 22

Today was a driving day but the scenery was so spectacular that the day went by in a flash. The mountains of Arthur's Pass are more varied than those of Lewis Pass. Much of the land here is loose gravel scree, crisscrossed by braided rivers. It's a drive requiring concentration, but is frequented by lots of vintage cars like this 1938 Bugatti we came across at a lookout point.


It was a spectacular view back along the mountains at that point, but I think the term 'lookout' was really directed at the tourists in relation to the keas, a large member of the parrot family. I had no sooner put my foot out the door and one hopped up and searched my jeans' cuff for food! The sign says "Please do not feed the keas" but if you have food out, you get little choice.These smart little devils are a menace to backpackers, I'm told, managing to undo the most tightly-laced sack and wreak havoc with the contents. I also hear that they have a fondness for the weatherstripping around car doors!


We made the mistake of thinking there would be a regular grocery store in the village of Arthur's Pass, which is the last one before the wilderness of the sheep stations, but instead there was one cafe/ grocery/liquor store charging King Arthur's ransom for everything! Our week's supplies cost us much more than we had intended, but we pushed on and soon forget about it in the excitement of getting closer to Ryton Station.

Along the way we began to see lots of lupins, an English flower that has escaped to colonize this area and become a pretty pest. For those who have commented on the few photos of me on this blog--here's one of me with a lupin.


There's only one sideroad leaving the motorway on Arthur's Pass Road, and that's the gravel one into Lyndon Lake. Twenty-two kilometres along this road, we reached the Ryton Station homestead and checked in, then drove for another 20 minutes to the top of Lake Coleridge to find our cottage. Imagine our surprise at finding this three bedroom suburban home! It has everything we could want or need EXCEPT TV, CD player and radio reception--or neighbours--it'll be a very quiet week.


The Harper River rushes by the cottage, and water is crystal clear, as you can see...

Within 2k is beautiful Lake Coleridge, looking like a setting for a fantasy novel. Despite all the LOTR-driven tourism hype, much of NZ is still an undiscovered gem.