Day 15: Kaikoura to Arthur’s Pass: Beach to Mountains

Christmas Eve was a drive day and our chance to start the move from the northeast side of the south island to the west side. Today’s destination was Arthur’s Pass Village, which as the name suggests, is in a mountain pass.

Packing up “Blueberry” to leave the beach town, view from our room

Like all of our drives in New Zealand, the views continued to be spectacular.

SO MANY one lane bridges to cross everywhere we go

We made a pit stop at Castle Rock. It doesn’t really look like a castle, but there are bizarre extra large rocks in the middle of this green hillside so we stopped to stretch our legs and get some energy out. We got some Stonehenge vibes here.

My thoughts on daisies: eyes = beautiful, nose = smell like poo 🙂

Can you find my 3 guys at the top middle right on top of the rock?

After the 4+ hour drive we watched the Kiwi Christmas movie that happened to be on and then spent some time exploring the property, including the hammock and swing.

Christmas Eve dinner NZ style: Bean and cheese burritos, quesadillas and peppers, with water out of fancy glasses to celebrate the occassion.

It stays light out so late here (around 9:30 p.m.) so we opted to do a hike after dinner. Devil’s Punchbowl Waterfall was our destination, just a few minutes away.

We think the background looks like a fake backdrop here

Finally remembered to have the kids take a picture of us, too

The boys are all snuggled in for the night, and Santa has left some treats in front of the fireplace by the end of their bed. He was a resourceful one in New Zealand using the boys’ holiday socks to double as stockings for all 4 of us this year 🙂

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