Windy and wet Wellington. It is blowing a 120km breeze here. Capital.

Us at the end of the 71 KM Queen Charlotte track

Chilling with a beer and funny face in Jugglers rest backpackers

Matt relaxing in Lochmara Resort on the QC track. It was so nice we spent an extra night here.

Matt sitting on a piece of modern art at Lochmara Lodge.

Various images from the Queen Charlotte track over a period of days, some sunny others not so.

Arriving at Ship Cove, start of the Queen Charlotte Track

Ship Cove Jetty

Leaving Bags at Mahana lodge for onward transportation to Punga Cove for the next night

Arriving at Endeavour Lodge, the rain had just started to come in

Vicki was keen to lead the way in terms of fashion on the Queen Charlotte track, Marlborough Sound

Firework night celebrations including display and free wine at the Villa, Picton

Us standing in front of the Franz Joseph Glacier

Franz Jospeh glacier. Only this one and one in South America exist below the tree line. Amazingly it travels about a metre downhill every year.

His and Her's spotting on the way to Franz Jospeh.

Lake Wanaka

This is Lake Wanaka, on our way north from Queenstown. There's lots of very nice lakes around here. And this is one of them.

From Dusk till Dawn

Vicki and Zebra, in a state of some relief, at the end of the tramp.
Only a couple of hours from the end of the tramp and still the mud was, as here, thigh deep. Fun.

1. Fabulous Loch Maree, at the end of day three of the Dusky. This is a flooded area, hence the tree stumps in the water. If you can see these it is apparently dry enough to walk on. 2. En route to Loch Maree, crossing the three wire 'bridge' over the Seaforth River. It had rained and rained all day long. 3. On the way down from the Pleasant Range to Loch Maree. This is an absurdly steep path, indeed climb at this point. 4. Inside the Hut at Loch Maree. Note Matt's World Cup Cross of St George Boxers drying by the fire.

More of the Dusky Track

View across Lake Horizon, on the brilliantly named Pleasant Range

The Lake Roe Hut
On day two of the dusky, on the way up to Lake Roe Hut, beside Lake Haffy.

Dusky Track Pictures

This shot is from the beginning of the tramp, just before we took a boat across, Lake Hauroko, which is shown. The weather was deceptively marvellous.
Very obviously the start of the tramp proper, after the hour or so boat ride. From this point it is at least a six day walk to the nearest civilisation.

Reflective moment across Lake Hauroko.

Dusky Track

We are presently in Wanaka, southish on New Zealand's South Island. We have just finished tramping the Dusky Track, which was something of an adventure. Having found our way down to a place called Te Anau, a couple of hours south of Milford Sound, we resolved to head off out into deepest Fiordland, the wilderness of forest, lakes and rivers that covers the south west corner of the south island. The Fiordland National Park is enormous and has lots of empty wilderness. It also, unsuprisingly, has lots of fiords or sounds, including the reasonably well known Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound. The Dusky Track runs through the heart of this region and we walked from the far arm of Lake Hauroko, the deepest lake in the country, to the West Arm of Lake Manapouri, perhaps the most beautiful lake in the country, over a week's trekking. And we discovered that this is no stroll in the park, however which way you come to look at it. Firstly, with an average rainfall of a staggeringly damp 8000mm per year it is one of the wettest places on earth. Secondly, gettting to and from the start is a bit of faff, invloving the chartering of boats and lots of patience. Thirdly and most importantly though secretive, the route is actually a military grade assault course. we have discovered why the Kiwi's call what we would know as walking or hiking 'tramping'. Because the amount of actual walking is fairly small. Most of the time one is engaged in clambering over treefall, wading through groin deep mud, fording rivers, climbing rock faces and stumbling along rooty routes.

The reason for this activity was at times lost in the mist, but the rewards are high for the effort with outstanding views, wonderful wilderness and a chance to really get a feel, very closely as it happened, with the incredible landscape that makes up this part of the world. It is a land of deep valleys and steep sided hulks of granite cloaked in dense forest, snow capped atop with gushing rivers and pockets of lochs and lakes. They run out to the Pacific Ocean, first into deep Sounds or Fiords from which the area is named, gashes eating their way into the coastline.

The tramping was of a different nature from that which we had so far experienced. Tough underfoot, we in fact got lucky with the weather. Although it rained on every day excpet the first, mostly heavily and persistently, the rivers did not raise too much which kept the way open for us to pass. It is a common occurance for trampers to have to swim across backwaters or be held up for days with flooded rivers. We contented ourselves with waist deep waters and lots and lots and lots of mud. Staying in backcountry huts all along the way negates the need to carry a tent, handily, and allows a drying, warm room to be established at the end of each day. Which usually came as something of a relief. The tramp is not a long one particularly, but when one averages covering less than one mile and hour given the tricky terrain, tea and soup and a blazing fire is much appreciated.

All of this involved high adventure, considerable soddeness and an enormous sense of satisfaction at the end. It also involved quite a few sandfly bites, the bain of anyone outside in the region. The little buggers bite like mozzies and descend on any uncovered flesh at the first opportunity. We have developed at hatrid for the little gits that is only satisfied by their intensive swatting whenever possible. The killing of Sandflies is an activity all of its own, and a worthy one at that.

We are presently in Wanaka, somewhat further north en route back up the West Coast. We will stop off at the Franz Joseph glacier for a bit to see some ice and then head up through Nelson to Picton in order to first walk the Queen Charlotte Track and then boat over to the North Island.

More pics will follow just as soon as the Blogger website sorts it's act out, which is frustratingly not right now.

We will now be staying in New Zealand until the 4th December, when we fly over to Cairns, Oz for some Queensland sun.









Crawling through the mud to negotiate obstacles became a daily

If i could work out how to put these pics upright then i would. But i can't. Please adjust head accordingly. These are all from the Greenstone-Caples track. Chronologically, Vicki walking up the Caples river came first. The following day, we set off for a longish climb, interrupted by Matt being in the river, en route up to the McKeller saddle on day two of the tramp. It rained and rained all day and spoilt the views from the top. Wading through rivers is an essential part it seems of Kiwi tramping. All of the tramps we have done have involved much boot soaking. in fact, it appears that no tramp can be so called unless one is knee deep fairly often. At the end of that day we had made our way to the Howden Hut for the night, which is actually on the Routeburn Track (the tramping season had not yet started so in fact this was not operating as a Great Walk Hut at this time. We were the only one's there and it was bloody freezing). In an effort to get warm an dry some wood chopping was the order of the day. Sadly, chopping wood does not dry it out. Walking on down the Greenstone River involves crossing a number of wire bridges, and Matt can be seen on this particular one.

More terribly disordered pictures.






The water's edge is taken from the shore of Lake Tekapo, which is a fabulous lake pretty near Mount Cook in the middle of the South Island. It's massive. The picture of Vicki in the snowy trees was taken from the walk up Mount John, which is a hill beside lake Tekapo. The overnight dump of snow made the entire place look lovely, but it was a tad chilly.

The mountain view is from back up on the Cass Lagoon track, being a view from the side of Mount Bruce looking out at the Southern Alps.

Then there's a snap of Matt at the commencement of the Greenstone-Caples track, a five day route near Queenstown, further south on the South Island in the brilliantly named Mount Aspiring National Park. We walked up the Caples Valley, over the McKeller pass in lots and lots of rain and back down the Greenstone Valley.

Some pictures at last. They are in a hopeless order, sadly, due to incompentence on my part. Still, what we have here is as follows:

At the top is Hamilton Hut on the Cass-Lagoon Saddle tramp in the Arthur's Pass region of New Zealand's South Island. This is an alpine region with lots of big mountains and bigger rivers. On the two day tramp we had lots of fun and stayed the night at the Hamilton Hut.


Below, self evidently, we can be seen setting off from Vicki's parents house near Bristol. Sunshine to start our trip, which was mostly more than we got having flown to Fiji.

Then we have Vicki in close up, on the Cass Lagoon Saddles trip. We walked up the creek seen behind for about four hours. Which means that we actually walked up the creek, rather than beside it as one have not unreasonably suspected.

By The Way

Still in New Zealand, now in Te Anau, beside Lake Te Anau, in Fiordland on the South Island. Having tramped around the Greenstone-Caples circuit for 5 days just near Queenstown we're now off to walk the Dusky Track, a 9 day wilderness stroll through the heart of Fiordland. Which should be wet and filled with Sandflies. They bite.

Technical difficulties have conspired against us to prevent, temporarily, the posting of any pictures on this blog. We will correct the situation shortly, although this may not be for a fortnight or so whilst we wade through rivers and lakes in search of dry land on the forthcoming tramp.

New Zealand has thus far proved a delight, with lots and lots of wide open space and groovy places to stay. The weather remains mixed, from snowing to sunshine and back again, with a fair breeze to boot. After mooching about here for a while we'll be heading back up the west cost to Nelson and Picton, and then up onto the north island for a while. We are likely to remain in New Zealand until the beginning of Decemeber, now, in order to fit in various schemes for getting tired and wet.

Play up Pompey.

Like a Rolling Stone

We are presently in Queenstown in New Zealand's South Island. Having arrived in Christchurch we headed over to the Arthur's Pass National Park for a few days tramping around, before heading down to Lake Tekapo. A few more days wandering about there brought us down to Queenstown. From here, we're heading off for more tramping in and around the Mount Aspiring National Park. We're a little hamstrung by the weather. Although it is lovely and fine and sunny, there has been quite a lot of snow abut recently which is making some of the tramping tracks impassable. The scenery and countryside is as remarkable as the postcards say it should be, with big snowy mountains looking down on lakes and forests and grassy hillocks. We're in the midst of Lord of the Rings territory now, so it's all pretty familiar. Photos and more to follow.