The Crossing of the Alps

We spontainiously decided to change our plans and to cross the southern alps after all. The Arthur's Pass is quite famous for its stunning landscape and we didn't want to miss this.
But before driving to the pass we took a road that leaded deap into the alps (the last 40km where only rough gravel road). Our goal was Mt. Sunday aka Edoras. It's a small hill in the middle of a huge flat. For the LoTR-Movie the film-team built the city Edoras on this very hill.

To get to this mountain we had to cross three icecold rivers that were swollen due to rain of the previous day.

But the view from the top was worth taking off our pants... :-D

By crossing Arthur's Pass we passed Castle Hill Rocks. A fascinating place where huge limestone formations stand out and look from the distance like a castle. It is fun to climb up these rocks and enjoy the view from above.

The remoteness of this area is just fascinating!

On the pass itself we saw this Kea, an indigenous mountain parrot.

The weather on the west side was as expected bad, so we took today the Lewis Pass which took us straight back to the east coast where the sun was shining.

In Kikoura we make rest, where we saw a seal colony from close up.