December 1, 2010 With less than 4 weeks left before we leave for New Zealand, the preparation stage is in full swing. We have been acquiring the last pieces of equipment that we need, and have been doing the last bits of planning to make sure we're set to leave right after Christmas. This trip will be similar to the previous two I have taken to New Zealand, but this time we will be doing more of the difficult and remote treks than Eric and I have done in the past. Eric will not be joining me for this expedition, but his spot will be filled by my good friends Nick (read his blog here) and Andrew Arkis. With this being their first trip of this kind, I'll probably feel like a bit of a tour ... read more

December 25, 2009 It was our intent today to hitchhike from Mount Cook Village to Wanaka, three hours away, and I thought with it being Christmas that people would have some goodwill in their hearts and hitchhiking would be easy. WRONG! We waited outside the village for three hours as many people just drove past us. A surreal thing happened about an hour in to our waiting. A car drove by going into the village and I thought the driver looked strangely familiar. The car pulled over about 100 feet past us and two people came out running towards us. I immediately recognized them as Lidy and Jacob, who we met two years ago while in the country. They live in Dunedin, about a six hours drive from here, but were visiting the area with Jacob’s ... read more

December 16, 2009 This morning, after doing the things we had planned to do yesterday, but had blown off in favor of hot-tubbing instead, we set to work about figuring out how to get up the road into the Matukituki Valley to start the next track. Hitchhiking was our preference, but seemed unlikely since this was another 50km dead-end dirt road leading deep into the mountains. We settled on paying a German girl from the hostel two thirds of what it would have cost us to pay a tramper shuttle company. She agreed, so we packed up and left. The road was pretty rough, and when we weren’t waiting for cows and sheep to get out of the way, we were crashing through streams that crossed the road at a depth of at least a foot. ... read more

December 9, 2009 Our plans to do the Dusky Sound Track starting tomorrow were changed when we went to the DoC office today to leave our intentions with them. We were informed that currently at the third hut on the track, a few people were stuck there because of heavy flooding blocking either exit from the valley, and that they would most likely be stuck there for several more days still. A few DoC workers working on another hut on the same track were evacuated via a helicopter yesterday as well, so we were highly advised against going. Figuring that swimming swollen rivers with heavy backpacks was not our idea of fun, and seeing that more rain was forecast, we opted to change our plans and do something with more alpine walking rather than lowlands. So ... read more

November 25, 2009 We said goodbye to Geoff and Jilleane before we set out for Arthur’s Pass with Lynne. We’re fortunate she decided to come tramping with us over the next week for several reasons. First, her driving means that we’ll get exactly where we want to get today without the uncertainty of hitchhiking. And secondly, because she is very pleasant company. We drove all morning and part of the afternoon to get from St. Arnaud to Arthur’s Pass, stopping only to do grocery shopping for the next week. When we arrived in Arthur’s Pass, we figured out where to leave the car and took a shuttle the five miles to get to the trailhead at the Waimakariri River. It was late when we started hiking at 4:45pm, but we only had a four-hour section to ... read more