ARTHUR'S PASS - Sunday, July 14th, 2019
I may be stupid, but the itinerary puts me here
at Arthur's Pass for basically the next 5 hours. It is a tiny tiny little
place, but it does have some hiking trails and some beautiful scenery. I love
this kind of challenge... I'm in the place where everyone else has left and
it's just me now. So that I done my challenge is to EXPLORE and NOT BE STUPID.
THIS Hobbit Hole!!!
The instructions I got a the temporary visitors
center were... Walk to the end of town and they're will be a sign for the path.
Follow that sign and follow the path. So that.. We'll see how that works.
Stop at the little restaurant in town to get a
coffee... Wow I really love having make coffee for me here, but I really miss just
being able to go in and order coffee without waiting 5 minutes while they use the espresso machine. (hourly coffee rant)
GENERAL rubbish only.. Not SPECIFIC rubbish.
Specific rubbish does NOT go here.
I would be afraid of something called the
Devil's Punchbowl, but I've seen Devil's Punchbowl before... However, this is
new Zealand. Not Virginia. In general, I'd say things are a little bit more
wild there. 😊
And looking at the mountain beyond the trailhead of
the Devil's Punchbowl. 
When you've got all the signage that's referring
to new Zealand is is Kiwis, it's really hard to take seriously that lawsuit
from Australia where the new Zealand woman was accusing someone of being discriminatory for calling her a Kiwi.
Main objective of this hike... Keep my feet
dry. I have a second pair of shoes, but they're not good for hiking. And I'm not
going to be at all comfortable if I have to wear wet boots for the rest of
today. It's not super cold, but the temperature is also probably around 11
degrees Celsius up here.
Correction, just checked the weather on internet
that.. 3 degrees Celsius. For those of you on English antiquity... That
translates to about 37 degrees Fahrenheit.
Oh dang it... Not named for King Arthur. Arthur
Dudley Dobson. 1864.
BIO GEEKING TIME!!!
Some crazy large parasitic lichen type plant
growing on the lower trunk of some of these trees. Also some cup like mushroom
formations mixed in with the lichens. 
fungal cups ---->
Really interesting hardwoods... Very tiny leaves
makes it look like and English boxwood that's grown a trunk... The bees are
definitely not Foxwoods. Leaf shape is different and obviously tree, not bush.
From a distance they have a structure of evergreen, but they are definitely
hardwood.
So hard to get good pictures of those distant
Mountain that are up and the mist.
I don't think Bilbo's Trail was quite
this neatly maintained.
Even in the mountains I can be identified as
American because I keep drifting to the right when people pass me.
There really is no picture that can take the
place of seeing a thing itself... No video that can capture quite the moment...
No canvas that can transport you to that fantasy world far far away. They
can try... And they can come close... But they will always fall short of the
reality. It is so important for us to care for the things we have. They can't be
replaced when they're gone.
When you go out and explore the places that have
been laid out by others... The other who have gone before don't exist in your
mind. There is only you.
There's this moment where you are the Explorer
discovering this place for the first time. And it is magnificent! 
And it's not
untrue... No one else is been here in this exact moment with your exact background
and leave exact condition and this exact position pondering things as you are
pondering them. Because no one else is you.
That's the magic of exploration in
Discovery... You are AT THAT MOMENT the ONLY person in the whole world.
The real magic is if you can take that wonder
and sense of discovery and transfer it into your everyday life. Because then
you can begin to see the Monday and ordinary from perspective of someone else
who is never seen these things before or experience these things before.
Because the place you were at was mundane and ordinary to those people passing
you. But to you it was a unique and magical play. It was a transformation on
moment. And you will use that touch point to reflect forward on all things to
do from that moment on. 
And maybe every so often you go back to that point and
remember, because it gives VALUE to those things you have. It makes you look at
your life again every so often and say "How do I remake my world into a place of
magic again? How do I return value to my existence?"
Because the
world is a magical play... You just need to go find it. Some of us have to go
very very far to find it. But I am sorry for those who do not or cannot
DREAM. For to me that would be crushing.
Then sometimes it is not the SUMMIT that is the
most
transporting to you. Sometimes it is just a very very SMALL thing.
And now it is time for my very squashed croissants
sandwich for lunch. And then down the trek. It's 1:20 and I have until 4
before I need to be back at the train stop. Plenty of time to do a little EXTRA exploring.
Whoops! Almost forgot to do my required selfie
at the top of the hike with the waterfall. Got to go do that.
There's not much wildlife that I'm seeing
up here, but there are these pretty little gray and white birds... Something
about the size of sparrows... They seem not put off by human, but also don't
stick around on the branches close by long enough for me to get a picture of
the. I'm hoping I can track them down later. <Gray Warbler>
Funny thing about these Mountain tops is I can't
really see the top... I can see the snow caps and some of the summit... But
there's always another one behind it that's a little bit higher that the camera
won't photograph all the way to the top... And I can't see the summit.
Remember, want to see important things about
climbing down... You're looking at things from a new perspective. Climbing up
your running out of breath trying to reach the top. Climbing down, you trying
not slip. I don't know how much that has to do with what you see or how you see
it, but things somehow look new when you're going back to your beginning.
Arrived back at the branch where the devil's
Bowl went up and Arthur's pass went to the right and a little down. It's 10
till 2, so if I go down this for about an hour I still have plenty of time to
get back and to the train stop. That's the plan anyway hahaha... Best laid plans, right?
No... Seriously... Sticking to the plan.
No... Seriously... Sticking to the plan.
May have got a pic of that bird… [posted above]
Sun shining through the mist for just a moment then disappeared again.
These tiny leaves of trees are definitely deciduous.
The trail is covered with them. I don't know if they ever lose all their leaves
completely or if, like live Oak, they just shed them in their own good time.... but
there's a lot of leaves down here on the forest floor. Tons of moss too.
Punch bowl power station looks like ruins could
have been from Roman days. Amazing how quickly water can work it magic of
weathering!
Rock closer to the river has green and white
lichens in addition to the normal colors. At that very bright green and white
as opposed to the yellow green or off white colors we normally see. I'm going
to check them with the UV light too. I've seen lichens react strangely to UV in
the past, but I'm not sure that I will be able to see that in the daytime.
Heading back down... I'm sure the path continues
somewhere, but I wasn't sure which direction or it was going to get to small
for me to say yes or no. I don't like continuing on a pass if I can't recognize
the official path from a deer trail.
Roots of these trees with the tiny leaves are
red underneath. Some of the exposed route is brown, but it's definitely red
where the bark is thin. 
Oh, I have been going down the Arthur's past
historical Trail... Not the walking trail. The Walking trail is very well
identified.
It doesn't matter... I'll never be able to take
a picture of it captures the beauty of this place.
Brr…. Train was due at 4:25, just arriving now
at 4:50. I've been at the unheated train stop since 3:50 with a large
party from China. At 4C it wasn't so bad when I was moving, but I'm a bit stiff
now. Glad of my coat - it's definitely kept me more comfortable than most
of my fellow waiters.
Looking forward to a warm ride back to
Christchurch. 🔥🔥
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