Chronic's Views of New Zealand Mountains

• Temple Basin

Temple Basin

On state highway 73, between Christchurch and Greymouth is a [sarcasm] tiny [/sarcasm] place called Arthur's Pass. Sit comfortably now because we're going on an interesting long journey of this beautiful place.

On a Thursday morning, 15th Feb for accuracy, Dutch Melle, Wayne and I set off merrily from an overheating Christchurch through the city's mid-morning congestion all the way to the supermarket. After far too long was wasted deliberating over noodles or pasta, we pulled out of the "Big Fresh" car park and headed for.....a short-cut. According to the map this was to cut from one big highway across suburbs to another big highway.

Stopping at a dusty, quiet crossroads, we filled up with petrol, yet another delay before our travels could fully commence. Then onwards across the outer suburbs of sweltering Christchurch to a presumably noticeable state highway. 20 minutes the raod turned to gravel and then came to an abrupt turn in the centre of a barren field, we felt it time to turn around and inspect some road signs. The quiet, dusty crossroads which seemed incidental to the petrol station we had stopped at, was our desired route. Studying the map, we were soon on our way along a short cut veering us diagonally towards the required highway and Springfield.

...to be continued