The previous days rain had cleared and the skies were clear. The day for traveling back to the west coast was promising. After breakfast we packed our still wet tent and headed off.
It was still a little chilly at first but this meant there was no humidity and we could see the southern alps stretching out ahead of us over 100km away. Our return trip took us back over Arthur’s Pass. Before reaching the pass we stopped off at a place called Stone Castle which we’d seen on the way over. Here were some fascinating limestone rocks dominating the landscape. We parked the car to walk amongst them and climb up to Castle Rock which didn’t look to large sitting atop a small hill. It turned out to be a rather large rock sitting atop a pretty big hill so the hike up was harder than we thought. You’ll see from the pictures how awesome the place was. It’s even harder in photos to appreciate the scale of the place. A few pictures have people in them – try to find them, they’re usually tiny. The rocks we initially came to towered over us. When we looked down from Castle Rock they looked like pebbles.
The only event to mar this superb side trip was a was finding it’s way down the back of Helen’s dress. She was stung on her back and then somewhere lower down before we flushed it out. I showed my bravery by dispatching the wasp with my flip flop. Back at the car we had some stuff to ease the stings which was duly applied before we lunched and headed off.
As we crossed the divide and descended to the west the weather turned grim and we were back in the rain. This was as unwelcome as it was expected. Fortunately the campsite at Franz Josef was not too badly affected and we managed to pitch our tent in slight drizzle finishing just before it poured down. After a long day we ate out in the small tourist town here.
This morning the skies are blue and the sun is out. The pics above have a sneak preview of the nearby glacier which we’re going to hike to today.
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