Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
are the split-level doubles with mezzanine bedroom, spa and pine timberwork aplenty.
The adjacent backpacker lodge (dorm/double $29/69) is spartan but clean and warm, and
hires mountain bikes. The in-house restaurant is snug, with mountain views and good
food (meals $10 to $29). Long may the Sunday-night barbecue continue.
Tophouse Historic
Guesthouse
HISTORIC HOTEL $$$
( 03-521 1848, 0800 544 545;
www.tophouse.co.nz
;
68 Tophouse Rd; s/d incl breakfast $115/
175)
Nine kilometres from St Arnaud, this 1887 hotel retells fireside tales, tall and true.
Refreshments inlude Devonshire teas, soup and sandwiches (lunch $10 to $18), and din-
ner by arrangement, plus there's NZ's smallest bar and a garden with mountain views.
Bed and breakfast is offered in old-fashioned rooms within the hotel, and chalets out the
back sleep up to four (doubles $110, per extra person $20).
St Arnaud Alpine
Village Store
SUPERMARKET, TAKEAWAY
( 8am-6pm, takeaways 4.30-7.30pm Fri & Sat, daily Dec-Feb)
The settlement's only general
store sells groceries, petrol, beer and possum-wool socks. Mountain-bike hire per half-/
full day is $20/40. It has tramping food, sandwiches and pies, with fish and chips crank-
ing up on weekends and daily in peak season ($6 to $10).
Information
DOC Visitor Centre
( 03-521 1806;
www.doc.govt.nz
; View Rd; 8am-4.30pm, to 5pm in
summer)
Happily proffers park information (weather, activities) and hut passes, plus dis-
plays on park ecology and history.
Getting There & Around
thrice-weekly scheduled services between Nelson and the national park from December
to April (Monday, Wednesday and Friday; $45), and on-demand the rest of the year. It
will also collect/drop off at Kawatiri Junction on SH63, to meet other bus services head-
ing between Nelson and the West Coast, and offer services from St Arnaud through to
Picton and Blenheim. Try also
Trek Express
( 027 222 1872, 0800 128 735;
www.trekexpress.co.nz
)
, which regularly plies this route.
and West Bay to Lakehead Jetty ($100, up to four people). Kayaks, canoes and rowboats
