Day 204 – Hokitika to Christchurch
Before leaving a raining Hokitika, we visited the Hokitika Visitor Centre. Unfortunately as we had both sets of parents with us, we were unable to explore the Jade mining town in the rain, as we knew there would be plenty of protests. We therefore decided to drive up to the Pancake Rocks Blowholes.
After parking the car and walking down the path, the rain came pouring in. The rocks here are beautiful with very unique layers. I didn’t wait around until the blowhole erupted as we were drenched. However, I did see a post card in the gift shop across the road, and it probably would have been worth waiting around for it.
We then had to back track a little so that we could go through Arthur’s Pass. As always during this South Island trip, there were epic roads, viewpoints and scenery throughout the 288km drive.
Waimakariri River Lake Pearson
The last photos were taken, just before we found out about the Christchurch Shootings that occurred. We were still a few hours away, so we called the hotel we were staying at. They told us that we could safely arrive. We decided to buy some take away food far away from Christchurch.
Upon arriving in town, we were very anxious not knowing exactly what had happened due to the poor mobile signals for most of the drive, so we decided against exploring the city. We went straight to the hotel and settled down for the night.