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48H of Arthur’s Pass

Southern Alps Wilderness

By Javi Lorbada

August 18^th, 2019

Coming from a rough day where we almost lost the van keys, and totally changed our scheduled we ended up driving for an hour-long to Arthur's pass.

Road was amazing, it was late and getting dark, yet we could witness a memorable sunset on the road. Then, the night, clear sky, after having been in the rain for the day surprised me, and with the moon help the mountains were lighted up.

Took a few images, but it was cold, winter had arrived in this area of the Southern Alps a bit earlier.

Arrived at Bealey Hotel for the night, where we were told we could camp for free and the food was delicious.

Of course, we tried it! Oh boy! That burger was finger-licking!

After dinner went to the cold van, warmed up with dry clothes and sleeping bag. There was a weather window for the day after so we set the alarm at 4:20 and planned a 6h hike for sunrise.

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

Alarm clock rings at 4:20 am, I wake up, look out of the window, and it's raining, heavily.

Totally frustrated I tell Clara, sunrise mission has to be canceled, not only the rain but the clouds, we can barely see any mountains around us, then we sleep again.

Alarm is set for 7:20 hopping at sunrise things have changed, but no, not at all.

We started moving and headed to Castle Hill Village, there we stop for breakfast and check the weather forecast, sadly we see it's gonna rain all day long, so we had to change plans again.

At that moment New Zealand became the country where we had changed plans more often.

We decided to continue driving towards Springfield to see The Simpson donut and after that onto Christchurch, I could have never imagined we would drive here again.

But since we can do much in the outdoors we went to an Antarctica exhibition, that was cool, fun, and very interesting given our latitude. So looking at the bright side, we would have never ended up here if we had great weather.

Then at sunset, we drive back to Bealey Hotel, that day we didn't have the delicious burger, but we set the alarm for 5 am.

Weather forecast said there was a weather window for a day.

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

Alarm rings again at 5, immediately I went out of the van, and I see stars! Hallelujah!

Woke up Clara and got ready for the mountain. It was cold, probably below 0 degrees Celsius.

Once we are ready about 6:30 we started the Bealy track. Quite easy slowly going up through the forest, pitch dark. Forest took us about an hour until we walked in the open, there was light, skies were clear, awesome!

We kept going but started to walk on ice, slippery and a bit uncomfortable, so far safe to continue. Around sunrise we reached a saddle where we had a 360 view of the mountain range, stopped, setup the tripod and waited for the sun to rise. Of course we couldn't have it all and the sun started rising behind the clouds.

It was cold, pretty much, my hands and feet were frozen, after some time with pictures and drone flying, Clara was feeling cold and she got so mad at me we headed down no discussion possible. We didn't make to the summit, which I would have loved to, but I had to admit walking on ice and probably snow a bit after on negative degrees wasn't pleasant, and I was happy to have witnessed sunrise at the saddle.

Once we go down we see the sun and drive towards Kura Tawhiti Access Track, these are limestone rock formations perfect for climbing, we are not climbing but roaming around. It's wonderful, and pretty spectacular how these rocks have been changing their shape over the course of the years. Walked around for an hour or so, and then onto driving again until lunch.

After filling our bellies we continued driving towards Punakaiki, on the way we stopped multiple times to admire the scenery, I can say by now the Arthur's pass are it's on of my favourites and there are so many tracks I could spend here a week at least.

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

48H of Arthur’s Pass

THANKS FOR READING ♥️

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Footnotes

Fujifilm X-T2 + 16mm F1.4 + 18-55mm F2.8-4 + 55-200mm F3,5-4,8 + DJI Mavic Pro

FootNotes

Fujifilm X-T2 + 16mm F1.4 + 18-55mm F2.8-4 + 55-200mm F3,5-4,8 + DJI Mavic Pro

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