Arthur’s Pass

January 28, 2023

“It is sterile, bleak and savage enough to be the haunt of Kuhleborn himself, with attendant gnomes and sprites, for it’s flanked by majestic precipices of rock scored with channels, down which the watergod comes in great cascades.”

- Archdeacon Henry Harper (1866)

Running across the center of the South Island are the Southern Alps. Rising like the spine of an enormous dinosaur they shoot upwards with imposing walls of granite reaching as high as 12,000 feet. Traveling from the East coast to the West side has not been easy since people first came to the island.

In 1864 an explorer with the delightful name of Arthur Dudley Dobson (Almost Dobbs!) set off with his father Edward to find an easier way across the island. He was following a trail of the Maori that already appeared to have found a way. And at that time, Maori warriors were quite hostile to the Europeans. They wanted to find an easier route to the gold fields.

It was difficult work that took months to complete, but eventually they found a workable pass across the great alps. To celebrate they decided it needed a name. So after careful consideration Arthur came up with the unlikely moniker. “Arthur’s Pass”.

His father Edward, who also completed the harrowing journey and actually received the original commission to do so, reportedly replied, “Genius”.

Today was another driving day. We traveled through Arthur’s Pass. The journey, which took months for Arthur and Edward, today takes a little over 3 hours if the weather is good.

It didn’t start off promising. We learned why Peter Jackson used these hills as “The Misty Mountains”

Gradually it cleared and we could see more.

This is Castle Hill - A sunning outcropping of limestone rock boulders over 30 million years old. In fact, with insincere condolences to fans of Ken Ham, if you were here at that time you would have been under the ocean. The Tectonic plates that would form this part of the island had not yet pushed skyward. These great pillars are collections of sea shells and sediment that over the millennium hardened to stone and were pushed to the surface by the volcanic forces below.

700 years ago this plain was populated by the giant Moa birds and Pouakai or Haast’s Eagle. Pouakai were the largest eagles that ever lived. They had 9 feet wingspans. As the Moas were hunted to extinction so to fell the eagles. The loss of their primary food source led to their extinction as well.

Some of you may recall this famous scene from The Hobbit films where the heroes were chased by evil orcs through a boulder strewn landscape.

Yeah, well none of that was filmed here.

But, it should have been! I digress.

As we moved through the pass we came across several broad river plains. A great deal of the water rises from under ground. An excursion here offers you a chance to plunge into the cold water up to chest deep and move through a darkened cave to explore.

No, thank you. We moved on.

The landscape, as it always does with New Zealand continued to change. Through the pass you found glacier lakes and more wooded areas began to appear.

As the canyon walls narrowed we encountered spectacular waterfalls. This one is called Devil’s Punchbowl. It was so named because it is a devil of a vertical climb to get to it. But after ascending 45 stories of elevation you are rewarded with a magnificent display.