We were reluctant to leave our beautiful spot overlooking Lake Pukaki and the mountain, but the weather is supposed to be turning yuck tomorrow and we wanted to drive the Arthurs pass while it was fine. It was another glorious sunny day and a beautiful drive. 

Tekapo looked lovely, but too many people so we kept on driving. Jenny had told me about a pie place in Fairlie, so we were keen to make it by lunchtime.

We arrived at the Fairlie Bakehouse about 11.15 and there was already a queue of about 4 people. So I left Mike to order and went and got a table outside. It didn’t take long and he arrived with our Pork belly and Apple pie with crackling on top. We decided on one to share, and if we liked it we could get another one.

It was absolutely delicious. The buttery pastry, and the tender pork and apple all paired amazingly together. It was very rich though, so I’m glad we didn’t get one each. And I’m even more glad that we didn’t want another one as when the left, the queue was up the street! We’d timed it perfectly!

We continued on, then made my first mistake of the day. I decided on a tiki tour to the Ashburton Gorge and the lakes. But it was a lot further than I expected. We ended up on a rutted gravel road full of potholes and corregations and it was really slow going. It was a beautiful area though. A large flat area surrounded by mountains and it felt like remote prairie land. The TA trail comes through here too, so maybe Susan has walked through here.

At the end we came to the Heron Lake, which I think would have looked amazing on a calm day with reflections of the mountains, but today it was all roughed up and looked ordinary. So that little detour took 2 hours out of our day.

So we backtracked and continued on, determined to see the Arthurs Pass on a nice day. And it delivered. What an incredible drive. I felt like I’d been transported back to Alaska (but less snow). Beautiful riverbeds surrounded by mountains, and probably the most scenic drive we have done on this trip. 

After that, it was time to find a place to camp. But there really wasn’t anywhere so we ended up pushing it all the way to Greymouth. Because our of little detour earlier, it was almost 9pm by the time we arrived. Of course, the freedom camping carpark was full. But we had intel from last time. There is another (better) area right next to it where we saw people camping up there last time. We drove up a short gravel drive and there is a huge gravel carpark overlooking the beach. It’s an absolutely magnificent spot. Driftwood guy was here again, in his driftwood castle with his beach fire burning. And we managed to catch the last of the sunset. A nice quiet night.