Camping at Lewis Pass

We thought we should mention that along the highways here you see this sign with astonishing frequency:

In some sections of highway, there's one every kilometer or so. When you follow the sign, it usually leads you to a nice picnic bench. Often under a tree. Usually (though not always) with some breathtaking view. Jen and I like to imagine that New Zealander's really hate to drive, and can't go for more than a few km without feeling the need to pull over and have a nice rest in a beautiful place. We have no idea if this is true about New Zealander's, but we think it's a nice image.

On the way to Lewis Pass, we stopped for lunch at this lake. But we quickly hopped back in the car because we discovered that the lakeside was infested with swarming sandflys! (That bite!) So we continued on to our campground, which was set at the edge of a beautiful valley.

About a 10-minute walk from the campsite, we found this river:

See what we were saying about /all/ the rivers in NZ being so clear? Here's the same river a little further along...

And, around the bend, it slows down, deepens, and somehow becomes much bluer!

Nice, huh? Dave thought this looked like a good place for a swim. He waited until fairly late in the day to start, but not to be swayed from his purpose by diminishing sunlight, he indeed did take a nice 30-second swim. This may seem a short amount of time, but if you try to immerse your entire body in ice water and count to 30, you will find that it can actually be quite a long time. Afterwards he felt very refreshed.

Dave also walked an hour or so along a trail that followed the river, giving more great views of it.

The next day, we both went on a kind of undirected ramble, which took us to the side of another shallow stream.

Here I am, philosophically enjoying one of Jen's excellent cheese scones, which she baked on our last night in the hostel.

And here is where we decided to sit and read for awhile. We're starting to really like the model of hiking where we make regular reading stops at beautiful locations.

Our next stop after camping was the in largest town on the south island's west coast: Greymouth. It turns out not to be a very large town, but it does have an excellent brewery. That's all for next post, though...