Arthur's Pass

We flew to Christ Church and had two days before the conference started and since it was Susan's birthday, she chose to go to the ocean. We went to the AAA and they set us up with a bus and hotel in Hokitika on the west shore of the south island.

The trip over was really pretty due to an early snow in the mountains. Our bus driver was a great guy and was very patient in answering all of my questions about the area. When we arrived, it was sunny, so we took a walk down on the beach before dinner. When we awoke the next morning it was pouring rain so we had a nice breakfast, and since we had some time before the bus back was to leave, we took a walk around town.

Once back, we stopped into the transportation office and found out that our bus was delayed due to the rain which was snow up in the mountains. After a few hour delay, a taxi van came and picked us up and we headed to the end of town to pick up one more passenger. Here is where it got really interesting. The taxi drive did not know the persons name or exactly where he lived so he ask some people out walking if they knew were and old man lived (hey, this is a vry small town). The gentleman, who was in his 80's, came riding towards home on his bike and after grabbing his suitcase, feeding the cat and making sure the house was locked, he finally climbed in the van. The tax driver said we could continue as soon as someone told him a dirty joke! We were then taken to the base of the mountain pass and dropped off at a tavern to wait with the locals until the bus came. Another hour passed and we loaded our gear onto a waiting bus and got ready to go. The bus we came over on showed up so be took all our gear off the first bus and loaded it up on the 2nd bus and finally headed up the pass. The snow was pretty bad and just before Arthur's Pass, we had to stop and put on chains. This was a very tough drive back and our driver did a fantastic job. We were suppose to arrive back at the hotel at 3:45 pm but did not get back until after 9:00 pm.