Arthur's Pass, Parrots, and NO CADBURY CHOCOLATE?

The top of Avalanche Peak, Arthur's Pass
(Crow Glacier, Mt Rolleston/Kaimatau in behind)

 It was SUPER windy early this morning! Lots of trains go through Arthur's Pass (its pretty narrow, so the tracks, village, and road are all smushed together), and part of the time you couldn't tell if you were hearing a train or wind! Except the train-noises were pretty short-lived, and the wind kept going. :p 

One of the last beech trees
before the tree line

Even right around dawn it was still pretty gusty, but it had settled down by the time we'd finished breakfast. Destination: Avalanche Peak.

Now, the DOC (Department of Conservation) is pretty conservative in its estimates of hiking time - usually I'll do a hike a bit quicker than they tell you it takes - half an hour or an hour less than their lower estimate, say. But not today. And it wasn't just me - there was a guy from Perth and three other girls from the hostel headed up as well, and it barely took two hours up, and another two down, on a "6-8 hour trip." Hmm. But it was nice!

PARROT! Haha. No, really, it is!
Its a Kea :)

On the was up I saw a few Kea - the world's only mountain parrots! They sound like parrots... which makes sense, its just not the noise I'm used to coming from a bird in the mountains. They're top feathers are relatively subdued dark blues and greens and yellows, but they've got really vivid red and yellow feathers under their wings.

View of the mountains from Avalanche Peak

There was lots of high cloud, so it wasn't too hot, but we still got the lovely view of the mountains from the summit. No sunshine, but some pretty cool clouds, at times. The track can be done as a loop; we started off on the Avalanche Creek trail, which is steep and rocky (yay, hands!) and pretty much goes straight up the side of the mountain. When it comes out of the waterfall-dotted forest, it follows up a tussock-covered ridge which eventually slopes down into the side of a higher, rocky ridge. This ridge runs up to the top of the mountain, with steep drops to either side, and lovely views of the surrounding mountains. Big, scree-filled bowls scoop out of the sides of the mountain below the peak (during the snowy season, these house the namesake avalanches).

Low clouds in Arthur's Pass proper

A lengthy (also rather chilly) stop at the top for some pictures and a snack, then back along the rocky ridge to where the Scotts Trail splits off. This trail runs down the next ridge up the valley from the one we came up. The trail isn't quite as steep, but I was nonetheless very grateful for my poles. Seriously. They are the best things ever - for going up and down. So thank-you, whichever of my parents wanted them in the first place and introduced me to their extreme awesomeness.

Can you spot Tuck? :D

The trail down gave a great view of some of the big waterfalls on the other side of the valley, including the Devil's Punchbowl falls (yesterday). All in all, a lovely hike.

Also a lovely hostel - in fact, its time for another round of spot-the-Tuck! I'll give you a hint. He's parked in front of the hostel. Which has a bright red roof. :)

Trail following a ridge through some tussock
 above the tree line but below all the
rocks.

The radio here ("here" NZ, not "here" Arthur's Pass... no radio here here) has some pretty hilarious advertisements and commentators (or whatever you call the people who do the talking between songs). Most of the time I just chuckle to myself and keep driving, forgetting what was so funny 20k down the road, but a few things stuck out. At one point they talked about an "old boy band, which is really now a middle-aged man band," while I heard an ad several times for "New Zealand's only pub with a well in the middle!"

While chatting with some people who did the same hike we did today yesterday (if that makes sense...), it came up that one of the guys pretty much crawled the last leg because he was afraid of heights... which prompted someone's comment of "afraid of heights? He's 6.1!" I wonder if anyone is that afraid of heights. Probably not.

Also, appalling discovery! THEY DON'T HAVE CADBURY IN THE STATES! No Cadbury chocolate! (No Tetley tea, either... do I sense some anti-British tendencies?) Hershey is their big chocolate producer. I knew they didn't have smarties, but no Cadbury? No dairy milk? No MINI EGGS???? Mini eggs are the BEST Easter chocolate. And the Hershey's "candy coated eggs" really don't come close to matching it. Nor do Hershey chocolate bars come close to Dairy Milk bars in tastiness. And I'm moving there! I'm definitely going to have to go cross-border chocolate shopping... Also, I must remember not to bring in any Kinder eggs...

I do have some probably pretty nice panorama shots, from here and elsewhere on the trip, but this poor little computer can't handle photo editing so they'll have to wait until I come home.

I'm currently nice and warm, sitting curled up on a couch by the fire in New Zealand's "oldest purpose-built hostel." I like this one, lots! It is bizarrely chilly today though, after how hot it was yesterday. Making use of some Lambi house fire-building skills. :p