13D12N South NZ - Arthur's Pass

Day 1 - Arthur's Pass

It took us a few months to plan out the route that we will be taking for our 13 days trip to south New Zealand. As we only have limited time to spend here, a detailed planning is critical to ensure that we maximise our trip and do not waste time planning for the journey from day to day in NZ. During this period, we also monitored Grabone and Grabaseat closely for offers and discounts on our activities that we have planned.

In brief, our 13 days journey covered Christchurch -> Arthur's Pass -> Greymouth -> Fox Glacier -> Mount Cook -> Lake Tekapo -> Dunedin -> Te Anau -> Milford Sound -> Queenstown -> Christchurch.

I landed at 1.50pm at Christchurch airport. The airport was very empty to my surprise and immigration was smooth and quick. Within minutes I was out of the airport and walked straight to the ground floor of the multi building car park where I was supposed to wait for my friend to pick me up to start the journey. The multi building car park is just outside the airport, in fact, opposite the airport as you exit. It is really a short walk away and this is where drivers can pick up and drop off the passengers for free.

We head off to New World Supermarket to buy some food and fruits for our breakfast and meals the next few days. We were told that food at Arthur's Pass is expensive and we should prepare our food before our trip to Arthur's Pass. After the shopping, we wasted no time and head straight to our first destination, Arthur's Pass which is 2 hours drive away from Christchurch.

Weather was gloomy and it started to drizzle not long after the journey. The road to Arthur's Pass is relatively easy to drive. It is a straight road throughout. Initially I didn't know that we were already driving on the highway until my friend told me and I saw the speed signage. Back home, highway is a minimal of 2 lanes up to 4 lanes but here, highway is just a one lane road. Anyway, drivers here are courteous and careful unlike the Schumacher drivers back home and the journey to Arthur's Pass is a scenic one. We stopped by the roadside a few times just to snap some photos before continuing our journey.

These are the various spots along the way to Arthur's Pass.

We reached Mountain House Arthur's Pass at around 7pm. For reviews of Mountain House hostel, refer to the hostel section in this blog.