The last day :(

It was the last day. We had to check-in for our flight at 2pm. The mountains were between us and the airport. I predicted that the journey would take about 6 hours. Anna predicted something like 30 minutes! (I, actually, correctly assumed the trip would take 3.5-4 hours, which it did!!) In the end, I did manage to convince her to get out of bed before the sunrise (although I did have to get up even earlier to fill up the car and find some breakfast - she didn't approve of the breakfast). We watched the Sun rise as we continued our drive North and then turned East and headed towards Arthur's pass. Arthur's pass is "the highest and most spectacular highway across the Southern Alps. From Springfield the road climbs steeply to the 945-m Porters Pass before travelling through wide tussock-covered basins hemmed by mountains and past dramatic limestone outcrops." I'd still rate the Wanaka to Haast as the most spectacular way across the mountains (although that road probably isn't considered a highway). Anna probably disagrees ... she was in tears over the beauty of the place (it was my idea of heaven) (and probably because of the time I'd made her get up).

We found a turnoff called "Deaths corner" which seemed rather tempting, turned off up a very icy road and found a kea! The kea was very inquisitive and decided to sit on our car until it had inspected it fully. We couldn't get if off. In the end we drove off with it still on the roof (admittedly rather slowly because George was convinced he was going to run it over once it fell off).

To celebrate we stopped for another breakfast (a big, hearty one in front of an open fire) at the "Wobbly Kea" in the village of Arthur's Pass before continuing in the mist, snow and sudden spectacular views. As we started to reach the Eastern side of the mountains we ended up in forests of mountain beech (very different from the rainforests on the Western side) and then .... the mountains were behind us and were driving through the flat plains again.

We arrived quite early into Christchurch (sorry Anna) and got lost (Anna was map reading I knew exactly where I was I had merely decided to take the scenic route). In the end she found us a great pizza cafe for lunch. We then went to the airport (where, for future reference, they charge you 20 dollars to leave the country). We had our final views of the mountains as we crossed them again on the flight and then we fell asleep.

What a holiday! :)