The Cox Family New Zealand Adventures: Arthur's Pass National Park

We have been learning and observing so many things in NZ as we have traveled on our vacation around the southern part of NZ.

There are 14 National Parks in NZ. Around the South Island, it seems that you drive out of one National Park and straight into another. Ten of the 14 are on the South Island. With that being said, you can imagine the incredible natural surroundings on the South Island. We were anxious to get out and see all of these natural wonders.

New Zealand is a small country. Below is a picture of how it compares to the United States of America. It's narrow and long. New Zealand's population is around 4 million people. Only 1 million of those people live on the South Island while the rest live on the North Island.

The majority of New Zealand's population is of European descent (69 percent identify as "New Zealand European"), with the indigenous Māori being the largest minority (14.6 percent), followed by Asians (9.2 percent) and non-Māori Pacific Islanders (6.9 percent).

Because we love the outdoors so much, we wanted to take advantage of all the natural beauty and all the National Parks that we could on our 10 day tour of the southern tip of the South Island. Unlike in the US, there are no entrance fees to get in the NP. There is camping and campsites all over and it's amazing how clean everything is. Not only is New Zealand green in color, it is very green in spirit as well. Recycling is a norm here and there is no liter. They take very good care of their piece of earth and treat it with much respect. I was amazed at how clean and tidy everything was despite no money from park fees.

We left Christchurch on Wednesday, February 15, 2017 and headed west towards the opposite coastline.

Good thing the girls are seasoned travelers. They've experience long car rides to Utah

The beautiful mountains outside Christchurch

We couldn't believe the amount of cow on one piece of property. They packed a lot of cows into a small space. There is obviously plenty of food for them all. Look at all the green grass. They use a lot of trees lined up and cut a certain way as a fence-line and to distinguish between property. So pretty to see.

The first National Park we got to was Arthur's Pass National Park. It's summer here, but it is cooler here than in Texas in their winter. The temperature changes very quickly also. You can feel hot and warm and then only a few hours later feel freezing cold. We always needed our jacket.. or even 2 in the morning or evening.

We had to go looking for our first waterfall after visiting the park info center.

This being our first one of the trip we were very amazed. It was so beautiful and sounded so pristine, but we had no idea of what was to come on our trip.

Ava and Alyssa holding a rock they found. They collected so many rocks and shells on our trip. We will need to loose some clothes before we come home to compensate for the weight in our luggage.

Kayla loved taking pictures with her new camera. It was hard to get her to turn around for a picture on mine.

Savannah

We found a tree at the bottom of the trail that had blossom flowers all over the ground in front of it. We had to try for an action shot of throwing them up. Love how it turned out.