So abrupt is the descent that the transition is like the change in a theatre-scene.
Especially striking is the transformation in the passage over the fine pass which leads through the dividing range between pastoral Canterbury and Westland.

At the top of Arthur's Pass you are among the high Alps.

The road winds over huge boulders covered with lichen, or half hidden by koromiko, ferns, green moss, and stunted beeches, grey-bearded and wind-beaten.

Here and there among the stones are spread the large, smooth, oval leaves and white gold-bearing cups of the shepherd's lily.

The glaciers, snowfields, and cliffs of Mount Rolleston lie on the left.