On our way down to Christchurch recently, we decided to break the journey with a stopover at Lewis Pass. For years we had driven past the small motels, halfway between Springs Junction and Maruia Springs and often wondered what they would be like. They were great! Friendly service, warm and comfortable, and superb surroundings. Here are some images from that stopover.
The view from our front door was impressive: well-tended farmland leading on to beech forest and the beautiful Mt Haast.
Our host recommended the walks around nearby Lake Daniels and the Marble Hill camping area. We were interested in one piece of scientific research on display there. Back in 1963 a scientist buried a deep concrete wall across the main Alpine Fault, hoping to use the wall to track its movement. Here is the top of it:
You can see that the fault doesn’t move, it jumps (and hasn’t done so in the past 50 years).
The birds around Marble Hill were very friendly:
as was this baby bush robin back at the farm:
Some of the larger animals were quite photogenic too.
I’ll continue with shots from the next morning in my next post, apart from yet another of Mt Haast (that’s a dusting of fresh snow on the beech forest in the distance):
