Arthurs Pass

It was early winter and the school holidays. My friend and I decided we were going to take the kids away for a few days, So we hired a bach (holiday cottage) in Arthurs Pass. Arthurs Pass is a very little settlement in the middle of a National Park in the Southern Alps. This settlement was created, when amazingly, they built a rail tunnel through the mountains in the late 1800's. The area is quite mountainous with lots of Native Beech Forest and sub- alpine areas.

So here were 2 adults and 5 kids heading to the mountains. Just getting there was an adventure in its self. The Snow had yet to arrive but there had been quite a few severe frosts, consequently the roads were quite icy. I learnt very quickly not to follow my friend too closely - Cars tend to slide in ice (we don't use salt in NZ).

The Bach was really quaint. It had power, but not much. You could have only one, or if you were lucky, two appliances on at the same time. This included the lights, otherwise you popped the fuse. There was no running hot-water, but there was a potbelly stove to heat the bach and the pots. In the main part there were 2 ½ rooms. 1 room held 2 sets of bunks, rather wobbly and on a lean, and if it rained, as was often the way in Arthurs pass, the sheets on the wall side got wet. The ½ room held an old bath, which if you remember - no hot water, hence was filled by hand. The second room was the main living area. This consisted of everything else required in a bach. A sink, table, stovetop, potbelly stove and ancient horsehair couches, chairs and divans. Attached to the garage out front was a bunk room about 2 meters sq., which held 2 more sets of bunks. The toilet was outside in the "Outhouse" with a longdrop. As there was no radio, TV or Ph the bach was full of all these wonderful old books, magazines and games, lots of games. It was a great place to connect with each other.

The 'peice de resitance' though was the spa. This was made from a large copper Boiler, rescued from something big, which had been built into a deck and gazebo. The water for this spa was fed by a series of gutters and PVC pipes coming off a stream on the hill above us. You turned the water off by turning the pipe into the stream. The heat for the spa was from a fireplace that was built under it. This fire needed to be going for 12hrs. First you got it roaring, with coal and wood and then you kept it going at a simmer (if you could call it that) for the rest of the time. It tended to be a very smoky fire, so you could imagine, the antics that I went through each time I had to open the fire door and put more wood in:. Hold breath, scarf around nose and dive in quickly with the wood, as large amounts of smoke billowed out.

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