Racing up the North Island

The last week has taken us across Cook Strait to Wellington and all the way up to Auckland. We only left just over a week to take in the sights of New Zealand's North Island as we leave for Australia shortly. We had intended to do a two day tramp up Mount Holdsworth which is a couple of hours north of Wellington. However,we suffered a car breakdown (Mike's friend Jen was driving us there) and hence had to re-think. We headed instead to Tongariro National Park, home of The Lord of the Rings' Mordor. The Tongariro Crossing is said to be New Zealand's finest one-day walk and it did not disappoint. We threw in an extra three hour side-trip to the summit of Mount Ngauruhoe (a.k.a. Mt Doom). I give serious respect to Frodo and Sam because it was quite a challenge- the 36 degree slopes were covered in volcanic rock, scree and dust. I was pretty exhausted by the time I reached the crater. The descent was much more enjoyable as we were able to slide and jump our way down. A huge bonus to our stay in Tongariro was the indoor climbing wall in our hostel which we put to full use. We are now spending some time in and around Auckland before flying across the Tasman.

Up da West Coast

After a couple of nights in Queenstown we hitched down to Te Anau, the starting point for the Kepler Track, another of New Zealand's Great Walks. This walk took us through forest for the first two days. I don't mean to be disrespectful, and it is great that NZ still has so much forest, but it was pretty boring to walk through. Our views consisted of tree, tree, tree, river, tree, tree. Anyway, the third day made it all worth while as we climbed 1000m and emerged onto a ridge, giving us panoramic views. The weather was wild, wet and windy so we felt right at home and had a great day. The last hut was very close to some caves which were fun to explore and went surprisingly deep.

From Te Anau, Matt and I hitched back to Queenstown while Mike headed towards Milford for another tramp. I was just singing a little song about us getting picked up and taken to Queenstown after 29 minutes of waiting when our perfect lift arrived (well he narrowly missed 29 minutes but it was a close call). We stopped in Queenstown for one night before heading up the West coast. We stopped in a place called Fox, home of an amazing glacier. This glacier is nothing like the smooth ones you see in the European Alps as it moves at a rate ten times faster- up to 5 metres a day!

Whilst in Fox we got up at 5am and cycled to the nearby Lake Matheson to watch the sunrise. We were rewarded with stunning views of Mounts Cook and Tasman reflected in the Lake and surrounded by pink clouds. We have since arrived in Nelson, at the north of the South Island. The sun is shining and there is a beach so all is well.

Walking the Walks

This week I have mostly been eating cereal bars. After last week's skydive (which was A-W-E-some and I absolutely loved it) we headed up Kinloch, a really small settlement on the north-west side of Lake Wakatipu. We used this as a base from which to go walking (or tramping, as they say here). We first headed up the Caples track for two days, breaking for the night in one of the many Backcountry huts. The end of the tramping season brings the start of the hunting season so we were joined in the hut by three deer hunters. They were nice guys (and evidently not that great at shooting deer) who generously shared their alcohol with us. All good. The second day of walking brought us to a road from where we hitched down to Milford Sound. Matt and I went on a boat tour of the Sound which was very beautiful. Due to the heavy overnight rain there were many waterfalls.

The three day trip back to Kinloch took us over the Routeburn track, one of New Zealand's Great Walks. We were amazingly lucky with the weather and got some stunning views. It seems like we have come at the perfect time of year to do these tramps as they are no longer charging high season prices, meaning we can stay in the huts for free with our hut passes. Unfortunately, the weather is less predicatble so we had to cancel our plans to do the Rees-Dart track as the heavy rain and snow has made it dangerous. Ah well, can't have it all.

We therefore hitched back to Queenstown yesterday and have found another walk to do. I have to say, when I woke up this morning and saw that a whole lot of snow had fallen in the mountains, I was glad not to be up there. Strange to think that as winter approaches here, the UK is looking forward to summer. Also, all this being upside down is seriously making the blood go to my head. Ok, now I'm writing rubbish. I am going to make an effort to upload some pics but I fear it may be more difficult than the video player at home and I am therefore in trouble. Time to recruit Mr Michael David Jones.