Mud, Bugs, and ze French

10 nights, 11 days, 125 km, one yellow-eyed penguin, one seal, three kiwis, knee-deep sticky mud, and Fred and Julie from France - not to mention beautiful beaches. That is the jist of our long, highly anticipated, Stewart Island Northwest Circuit trek. What a challenge! What an experience! At the end of a long day (18km) with super heavy packs we met Fred and Julie who were the only others in our first hut heading out for the NWCircuit. Today, after spending all our nights together (mostly just the four of us), we finished together. Without the 11 days of details to bore you here are our highlights: eating freshly caught paua (abalone), mussels, kina (sea urchin) roe, and blue cod (compliments of hunters we met), dehydrated dinners, rice, chocolate, salvaging tomato paste from dirty socks, Julie's animated story-telling, Fred's ability to roll off a joke with perfect timing, and lots of laughter and commiserating. Smokey Beach (where we lost the damn trail for 1.5 hours!) and our first kiwi near Long Harry Hut were also quite memorable. It was a long journey but we are safe and have two new friends and an open invite to France (where the trails are graded and dry). What a country. Pictures will come later this internet is $8/hr. Au revoir!

Mt. Cook to East Coast to Dunedin

This is a lite version of an entry; more pictures than words. Here's the rundown: clouds near Pukaki Lake, kea in flight (alpine parrot), Mueller Hut and Mt. Ollivier views of Mt. Cook, Fidel Castro, Moeraki Boulders sunrise (north of Dunedin), and yellow-eyed penguin - the world's rarest penguin - on the Otago coast. Cheers.

Arthur's Pass

We've had such a great time since our last post we are treating everyone to another! Fixing our lock was quick (in "Kiwi time") and cheap. We can now lock our doors without crawling over all our stuff through the hatch. We caught an amazing sunset at our sleeping spot with our first full panoramic view of Mt. Cook and the Southern Alps to the south, and nothing but the Tasman sea westward. A fire engine kept us awake a wee, while putting out some beach-side bonfires. On Waitangi Day (a monumental treaty signed between the Maori tribes and the British invaders), under a perfect sky, we headed east (hmmm, not west?, that sounds strange) to the mountains: Arthur's Pass. We have decided to tramp here on the way back north to give our knees a rest. With a week's worth of backcountry filth built up and the gorgeous weather, we decided a refreshing dip in the Waimakairiri River would be proper and fun. Imagine: snow-clad mountains, a one kilometer wide braided river valley with beautiful grey granite cobbles, patches of lupine in bloom, and bright blue, clear water. I think the passing motorists were impressed with our temperature tolerance. Innocently, we picked a lunch spot with great views of the Craigieburn Range and the seemingly endless supply of limestone boulders of Castle Hill. (A climber's heaven, I could barely contain myself. I quarter-jokingly told Aut we should buy rock shoes in Christchurch and come back... I'm still tempted. She rightly reminded me of the exorbitant price of gear here and I calmed down, slightly.) When we noticed heaps of people wearing wetsuits, we wondered where we stopped. It was bloody hot with a seemingly tiny stream down the hill. A Kiwi parked next to us and filled us in. A 600+ meter long stream-carved cave, easily walkable with proper water height and footwear. We strapped on our Chacos and headlamps and went for it. Loud, wet, blindingly black (we had to turn our headlamps off for a bit to freak ourselves), and totally awesome! Next, we made our way to Christchurch where we ate a boring pasta meal in a city park and watched a bit of cricket bowling practice. We noticed heaps of people parking and heading off into the park with chairs and picnics. Like good, curious tourists we followed (stalked) them and voila! free theatre in the park! All The Great Books (abridged) a comedy performed by three Kiwis covering from War and Peace to Harry Potter. A nice evening suprise to end our great day. Now in Christchurch we'll take in the city life for a few. Cheerio.

Tramping and Tramping

We have managed to pull ourselves away from the rows and rows of sweet blueberries and our wonderful hosts in Upper Moutere and have taken to the mountains. First we hiked in Kahurangi NP; a rather difficult hike to Granity Pass, where we stayed the night, and enjoyed great northern views of Mt. Owen, the nearby ranges, and Tasman Bay. Not having our fill of mountains, we raced down to Nelson Lakes NP for a two-night stay at Angelus Hut. We had beautiful weather for the approach, which is good because it was a 4-hour trek along Robert's Ridge; completely exposed. The views were awesome. You'll just have to imagine them for now. Unfortunatly, while our car rested at a trailhead, somebody broke a key in our door lock and now our only way into the car is by crawling through the back. It's rather amusing to watch, but a pain all the same. We've made our way into Greymouth today, after having a wonderful drive down the west coast. That's where we are. Cheers.