Today's schedule is to drive across the width of South Island - from Christchurch on the east coast to Greymouth on the west coast. We leave the Country Glen Hotel at 8am and arrive at the Alpine Rose Motel in Greymouth at 6pm, after driving 313-kilometres. First stop is at Waimakariri Canyon, near Springfield

Initially following the shingle-lined Waimakariri River and the line of the TranzAlpine Railway, the road passes through the low-lying farms of the Canterbury Plain before ascending gently towards Springfield. Near here, we find (with some difficulty) the Waimak Alpine Jet, and the embarkation point for a thrilling, 40-minute jetboat ride

Travelling at speeds of up to 50mph, with a number of 360° spins, it's an exhilarating experience as the jetboat surges across the clear, shallow waters of the canyon. Occasionally, the boat slows for us to view features such as waterfalls, rock formations, and a viaduct of the TranzAlpine Express. We then return to Highway 73 to continue our journey westwards, soon reaching Porter's Pass (939-metres) and the Korowai/Torless Tussocklands Park. A further 20-kilometres brings us to Kura Tawhiti (Castle Hill Reserve) where we walk amongst the large, grey, amazingly-shaped, rocky limestone outcrops

Our next stop is at the Cave Stream Scenic Reserve's dirt car park. Here, information boards describe the opportunity to hike/wade through a limestone cave. The wading part is through a waist-deep pool at the entrance to the cave. After that the hazards are merely large harvestman spiders, eels wriggling along the cave's walls, a 1½-metre rockfall, and a 3-metre  waterfall negotiated by crawling along a narrow ledge and up a ladder. We confine our interest to examining the cave entrance before driving on through some lovely scenery to pass Lake Pearson

On the road to Arthur's Pass (924-metres), we have enjoyed good weather. The weather changes when we reach Arthur's Pass Village (which has over 5-metres of annual rainfall), and make a stop. After buying a walking leaflet in the information office, we have a poor meal of lasagne and salad at a cafe. Using our newly purchased leaflet we walk the lasagne off on the ascent to the base of the 131-metre high Devil's Punchbowl Falls. We don our wet weather gear, but although rain threatens, it remains dry

Heavy rain does appear when we continue westwards, but this is short-lived and is replaced with intermittent showers. Shortly after leaving the village we cross Arthur's Pass and then make stops to view the Otiri Gorge and its recently constructed viaduct, which has a total length of 440-metres and a maximum span of 134-metres