A moving on day today across to the Southern Alps and Arthurs Pass. It took us a while to get out of town as Mrs D spotted “The Warehouse” a good retail outlet of everything. It was claimed that Mrs D needed a few things but for some reason I came out with more and didn’t need any!!
We eventually got underway and enjoyed a good run across to Arthurs pass, stunning views and sunshine. The tale of the legendary Otira Hotel I will now pass you over to Mrs D who intended to write a novel about the place but I managed to persuade her to keep it fairly brief for these meagre ramblings.
Now about the strange hotel we stayed in near Arthurs Pass.At first sight it looked simply old and from another era, as indeed it was having been built to house the first railroad workers back in the early 1900s. Well, we can do old. Four people and a large black labrador were sitting outside in the evening air and as we got out of our car the ‘lady’ of the group stood up to greet us and show us our room. The room was certainly full of character, which is a euphemism for shabby. Well we can do shabby. In fact the whole place needed so much money spending on it that it was probably past the point of no repair. Anyway we unpacked and decided to join the locals for a beer. They were all friendly and Mary (names have been changed to protect the innocent) was sat quietly sharing a joint with her equally laid back partner. It transpired that Mary was looking after the place while the owners were away for the day and she was one unusual looking lady but we can do body piercing and tattoos! We didn’t meet the owners until the following evening when we returned after our epic walk extremely tired, sunburnt and starving hungry but that’s a separate blogg. Our greeting was a grunt from a woman who looked like Mortitia without the glam – in fact probably wouldn’t look out of place in a witches coven with her waist length grey hair and frayed old floor-length skirt. Anyway we decided to risk it and ordered fish & chips (hell there was nowhere else to eat anyway!). Well we can do basic food. The meals were brought to us by a non-speaking Stan Ogden look-alike who slammed the plates down and man-handled the slices of bread, in fact he made Basil Fawlty look polite. As we took our leave the following morning ‘posh & becks’ were too busy tucking into their poached eggs to mumble more than ‘see you’ to us so away we went laughing all the way to the car ……… well we can do strange. I did remark as we drove away that I wouldn’t be in the least surprised to see Mulder & Scully on their way to investigate strange goings on and reported abductions.
We eventually got underway and enjoyed a good run across to Arthurs pass, stunning views and sunshine. The tale of the legendary Otira Hotel I will now pass you over to Mrs D who intended to write a novel about the place but I managed to persuade her to keep it fairly brief for these meagre ramblings.
Now about the strange hotel we stayed in near Arthurs Pass.At first sight it looked simply old and from another era, as indeed it was having been built to house the first railroad workers back in the early 1900s. Well, we can do old. Four people and a large black labrador were sitting outside in the evening air and as we got out of our car the ‘lady’ of the group stood up to greet us and show us our room. The room was certainly full of character, which is a euphemism for shabby. Well we can do shabby. In fact the whole place needed so much money spending on it that it was probably past the point of no repair. Anyway we unpacked and decided to join the locals for a beer. They were all friendly and Mary (names have been changed to protect the innocent) was sat quietly sharing a joint with her equally laid back partner. It transpired that Mary was looking after the place while the owners were away for the day and she was one unusual looking lady but we can do body piercing and tattoos! We didn’t meet the owners until the following evening when we returned after our epic walk extremely tired, sunburnt and starving hungry but that’s a separate blogg. Our greeting was a grunt from a woman who looked like Mortitia without the glam – in fact probably wouldn’t look out of place in a witches coven with her waist length grey hair and frayed old floor-length skirt. Anyway we decided to risk it and ordered fish & chips (hell there was nowhere else to eat anyway!). Well we can do basic food. The meals were brought to us by a non-speaking Stan Ogden look-alike who slammed the plates down and man-handled the slices of bread, in fact he made Basil Fawlty look polite. As we took our leave the following morning ‘posh & becks’ were too busy tucking into their poached eggs to mumble more than ‘see you’ to us so away we went laughing all the way to the car ……… well we can do strange. I did remark as we drove away that I wouldn’t be in the least surprised to see Mulder & Scully on their way to investigate strange goings on and reported abductions.
Pix are from top left down - view across towards Arthurs Pass (Arthur Dobson,) a cheeky Kea, Arthurs Pass viaduct, the Otira Hotel welcoming committee and the Otira hotel.
