What wonders this roads takes you to! Our first stop where we stretch our legs is at Castle Hill. These limestone rock formations are just amazing! With a very furtive imagination, you can see, dragons, elephants – all sorts! It’s quite amazing how they just seem to spring up out of the almost flat pasture land that surrounds them. Great fun to wander around. We stay overnight at a DoC site at Lake Pearson – this is a memory lane stop for us. This place really did capture my heart back in 2014. It has had a bit of a makeover since then with a much bigger gravel area for parking and more toilets but the essence of the place has not changed. It was great to be back and soaking up the peace of this place. Our next stop was a memory lane trip for Don who had visited Cass when he was at Canterbury University. Very cute railway station here! Our next stop after that was only 1km off the main highway but you could be so much further away. Down a gravel road and across the railway you come to Mt. White bridge. It spans an INCREDIBLY clear Waimakariri River, with snow capped mountains all around. Just so beautiful and I imagine most people will drive straight by the turnoff. We spent the night at the DoC site in Arthur’s Pass Village. We take a walk to see the Devils Punchbowl Waterfall. You can see the top of the falls from the road but the view from the end of the track is amazing. Yes you do have to walk a LOT of stairs (some say anywhere between 300-400) but my goodness is it worth it! Just behind Arthur’s Pass Chapel is the Avalanche Creek Waterfall. No where near as high as Devils Punchbowl but beautiful in its own right. We travel along the rest of the Pass in torrential rain. Sometimes it’s not bad being stuck behind two stock lorries! Our final stop on this part of the route was back in Hokitika. With the weather so bad, only one thing to do, visit the cinema. Which we do. We had the whole place to ourselves! Had another fossick on the beach and find some more serpentine stones. Who doesn’t love the beach here?