This was an awesome trip. I have never done cross country before, and in fact I've only been on skis (of the snow variety) one time years and years ago. But how hard can it be right? You get to go forwards, feet move independently of each other, little danger of crossing your skis (mostly because they don't have an edge so you can't direct them at all!), all in all much like walking. Sort of. Which I'm good at. Also having experience on water skis and even snowboard and wakeboard seemed to help a lot, just for intuition for how [View Full Entry]

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A beautiful, 3-day loop track with views of the ocean [View Full Entry]

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Well, to the most boot-ripping trip yet: the Five Passes [View Full Entry]

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This little weekend getaway is an excellent trip to... get away! Without going too far. Silverpeaks is a 40min drive from Dunedin central, so it definitely wins on the petrol/travel-time front. It also has some amazing views, and although from surprisingly much of the track you can see Mosgiel... and 4WD tracks... you still feel like you're in relative wilderness. Which is probably also helped by the fact that you're carrying your temporary home on your back. So Saturday morning dawned bright and shiny, and I drove down to Hitomi's to help her pack for her first tramp ever. She'd really [View Full Entry]

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Well, feeling a little nervous, jac and I embarked on this 'moderately demanding' 5 day tramp. Nervous because not only was it my longest and hardest tramp to date (average 6-8 hour days), it was also my first summer tramp, and me and heat and exercise dont normally have a particularly jolly time together. (Please note, there are three pages of photos, little blue boxes at bottom/top of page) Day 1 dawns: On a little trepidation So we set out, the shuttle drove us past the set of the new Xmen movie thats being filmed in Glenorchy at the moment, or [View Full Entry]

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So it was an uneventful drive to Te Anau, picked up jac from the airport, continued meandering south to te anau, gorgeous sunny weather, started at lunchtime so the ice on the roads was luckily all melted, awesome. We turned up at the walker bach (jac's husband's family's) with plenty of light to spare, walked the '500 Jenny-steps' down to the DOC office to check the weather, which was a little scary, and settled in for the night. The forecast for the next day was for a cloudy/showery cold day, with snow in the afternoon, and then lots of snow [View Full Entry]

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Visited Countries Map[/url] [View Full Entry]

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Well, settled back into old dunners again. Its not so bad as I thought actually. I found an awesome flat, with the most amaaaaazing view, which is only 5 minutes drive from town (plus park-finding time of course ugh! damn the bus for being so expensive I have to take my car!). Considering the places I've been, thats pretty darn close! Kinda funny though, in Dunedin its a bit in the wops, people ask me 'why are you living way out theeeeere?!' PhD is slowly getting momentum. For those of you who understand or care for the semi-specifics of what [View Full Entry]

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Well, china just goes to the head of my favourite countries visited, it is very much an experience here, something different, something great, something puzzling, something to try to adjust to, something to change how you live your life - it has everything! Shanghai is a massive city, i think about 30 million (hold, how many people in nz???), and answers the question 'what do you get when you make a gigantic sprawling mass of humanity and squeeze it into a relatively small space?' (relative to nz of course). Its this big, sprawling, spottily stinky, spottily very beautiful, spottily very [View Full Entry]

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Well, if its even possible I think Prague is more beautiful than Budapest. Its possibly even the most beautiful city I have ever been to. Its pretty touristy though, the old town is overrun by people and souvenir markets and food stalls. I think that has a lot to do with it being Easter though, and theres some kind of festival on, with music playing on a stage in the old town square. Kind of expensive after the places Ive been - the beer is only about the same as what I have been paying, which I was kinda surprised [View Full Entry]

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