Around The World In 80 Waves

I’m not going any further south on this trip so I head eastwards towards Christchurch, which entails crossing the Southern Alps. The van and I are climbing steep hills almost as soon as we leave the coast.

The route through the mountains I am taking is known as Arthur’s Pass and the scenery is simply epic. 

Using this road you can access many of New Zealand’s ski ranges.

Stopping for my first ever ski in the southern hemisphere would be very tempting but time is against me and I need to push on.

It seems that around every turn in the road the mountains are even more majestic that the last ones. 

It had to take a picture whilst travelling the length of this particular valley. After all I am in New Zealand, which is known as the land of the long white cloud to the local Maoris, and this cloud must have been five miles long.

It was hard driving and only a few days previously the entire area had been covered in snow. The campervan hire company had even equipped me with snow chains to traverse this road, but I was grateful not to need them.

The route across the island takes several hours but I loved it and once more am reminded of the rugged beauty of back home in North Wales.

The mountains here are are very similar to those in Snowdonia back at home, and were used as the location for Mordor in the recent Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy.