Drive Drive Drive
Day 8 – Franz Josef to St. Arnaud
Having gone to bed so early, Tory and I were both astonished when we woke up at the relatively late time of 8:30. We were both so utterly exhausted that we’d slept well over nine hours. After a typically brief breakfast, we packed our bags in the car and set out towards the unknown. Truth be known, we had not the slightest idea where we would end up this day, only that we wanted to make it about half way to Pichton. We’d already been forced to change our rental car reservation to allot us enough time to do everything and go on the Queen Charlotte Track. We looked at several options, but nothing between Franz-Josef and Pichton was particularly appealing. We did stop at Punikaiki to check out the strange rock formations on the coast known as blowholes and pancake rocks. We also stopped several other places along the West Coast highway to stretch our legs and look at the river and waterfalls. Ultimately we decided to drive most of the day so we would have a short journey to Pichton the following day. We drove all the way to St. Arnaud, which was only a couple hours southeast of Pichton. After checking in at the YHA there, we went to the nearby lake and took a 3-hour track up into the forest and back along the lakeside. The area supposedly had kiwis (the birds of course), but unfortunately there were none to be seen. I did manage to spot several other birds, for the area was a virtual cornucopia of birdcalls. Still early in the evening, we decided to explore some other places. We drove back towards Murchinson, which we had passed on the way to St. Arnaud, and checked out the other side of the lake. There was a hill that took us high up above the lake and gave us a nice vantage point. After that we took the highway even further back towards Murchinson and eventually came to the first lake’s twin. There we got out for a stretch and took some pictures, but the sand flies were so atrocious that we didn’t stay long. The sun had already begun to set as well, leaving us with little time to hike or explore. Thus we headed back for the YHA, arriving there just as it was getting dark. Since we generally went out for dinner, we decided to use up some ramen noodles we’d had since early in our vacationing. After dinner we looked at our options for the next day and wrote down some numbers for the various places that offered accommodation along the Queen Charlotte track. By this time it was getting late and we decided to relax a while in the TV room. The hostel had to VCR, but I connected my laptop and we watched O Brother Where Art Thou. We spoke with another girl who had been studying at the university in Christchurch for the past year and was now traveling with her sisters. Apparently she wasn’t too fond of the movie though because she left about half an hour into it. We watched about two hours of the movie, but shut it off just before the end because Tory was tired from a long day of driving and wanted to sleep. I was pretty tired as well and decided to follow suit.
Tags: Driving, Franz Josef, New Zealand, St. Arnaud, Travel, West Coast
gregbilsland
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